What is your feedback worth ?

I was taking a look at Deutsche Post DHL recently published Sustainability Report called Living Responsibility Report 2010 and came across their way to encourage readers to give feedback.

I wonder why Deutsche Post placed a cap on the number of feedback forms that would qualify for the Euro 5 donation (up to a limit of Euro 1,000) ? Were they worried that more than 200 people would provide feedback requiring them to donate horrendously large amounts of Euros to Plant-for-the-Planet? If 1,000 people took the time to read the report and fully complete the questionnaire, this would amount to a donation of Euro 5,000. Believe me, if 1,000 people genuinely took the time to do this, I believe it would be worth far more than Euro 5,000 to Deutsche Post. What do people think when they see this offer? Does it incentivize them to respond? Would they wonder if it is worth bothering to fill in the form, because if they are feeder backer number 201, no cash is thrown in the pot? Is the donation any form of motivator?

Deutsche Post is not the first reporter to offer incentives for providing feedback. OneSteel offered a 16 MB iPad for filling the survey response form on their first standalone sustainability report for 2010 (a much sexier offer, if you ask me :))

Of course, the problem with providing feedback on sustainability reports is that they always seem to end up in some black hole and you never quite know whether anyone ever read the feedback or did anything with it. This is one of the big breakthroughs of the SAP and the Guardian online report execution - feedback is open and online and gets a reply.

Most companies make a plea to receive feedback but it is hard to tell if this is lip service or genuine interest in what people have to say. I tend to get about a half 'n half response from the companies I write to directly with feedback - half respond, half don't.  I never get a response to any of the specific feedback forms I submit.

I believe that the best incentive for encouraging stakeholders and report readers to give more feedback is not the promise of an iPad or even the possibility of a donation to a good cause. It would be the promise of ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. I believe people want to see their feedback acknowledged and responded to. People provide feedback because they want to make a difference. They are not just taking the time to generously provide free advice to companies for the greater good. They want to have influence and impact. So come on reporters, if you want people to respond to you, make an upfront commitment to valuing their feedback. Let people know you are serious.

I found a nice example from DiGi.com Berhad, a Malaysian mobile and internet service provider. In their Sustainability Report 2009, they offer us the possibility of getting a response to our feedback. (I haven't tested this out yet, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt for the time being :)).

Of course, reporting companies could always make a commitment to respond, a promise of a Euro 5 donation to a good cause AND an iPad for the winning feedback..... throwing in a pint of Chunky Monkey would make it really effective.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainabilty Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices  Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my business website www.b-yond.biz/en  (BeyondBusiness, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

GSB and a better future

I can't close this week without a mention of the newly relauched Guardian Sustainable Business website, which "marks a significant step in the Guardian's efforts to help build a better future", as Jo Confino says in a blog-post. "The free GSB website will act as a hub of the best information and debate on the subject available across social media ."

The website includes news on sustainable business topics, the sustainable business blog, a focus on the Global Cleantech 100, a useful series of sustainability (mainly envronment) profiles of leading companies and more. You can also register to join the Guardian community, complete surveys and win points to be redeemed at Amazon. Yeah! The site also contains a twitter stream including yours truly, humbled to be in company with other outstanding tweeps such as @fabianpattberg, @davidcoethica and @futerra. Fabian also blogs for the site - see his excellent inaugural post on the events which have changed corporate sustainability in the past 12 months. You can follow GBS on Twitter at @GuardianSustBiz.  

What I like most about the Guardian Sustainable Business site is not only the content, and that's pretty good!, but the fact that this is brought to us by a company that walks the talk. There are so many companies, vendors, actors, players in the sustainability space that preach but do not practice. They are more than happy to advise others, but do not engage in sustainability from within. The Guardian has demonstrated quite clearly that Sustainability means Business for them, as well as values, and they have embraced sustainability practice, including  excellent, transparent, sustainability reporting which is groundbreaking progress for a media company. Somehow, sustainable news is more interesting when it is delivered by a sustainable company.

GSB is one of my go-there-every-day-websites. I recommend that you make it one of yours too!

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainabilty Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices  Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my business website www.b-yond.biz/en  (BeyondBusiness,  CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

Jo's Gems - Confino in action!

Today, I had the most wonderful of days hosting Jo Confino of the Guardian. Jo was interviewed by a leading daily business newspaper in Israel, The Marker, spent an hour talking to about 20 editors and journalists of The Marker in an open discussion about sustainability and the media, and  further two hours or so talking to a large group of CSR and sustainability professionals from the Israeli market. All in all, a fascinating day loaded with insights from the inspiring, multi-faceted, values-led and sustainability-minded Jo. Before I summarize the key insights, here are the fotos (especially for those who would scroll to the bottom first in any case):

Jo being interviewed for a front -page story in The Marker

Jo in full flight

Part of the audience enjoying Jo's insights

 

Ok, that's the easy bit over with. Now for some of Jo's Gems. Jo's talk was a fascinating mix of philospophy, the expression of values, the business case for sustainability, the difference sustainability can make to the Guardian and vice versa, and some practical tips and advice for companies. Below are just a few of the insights Jo shared.  

On Life and Zen

Everyone has to have meaning. Even someone who buys paperclips can have as much meaning as journalists.

A Zen Buddhist Master told me that "we are eating our children" (but neglected to say whether this is after they have been seasoned with organic herbs) (sorry, couldn't resist that last comment).

On values

Integrity is not just a physical thing. You must also have integrity on the indside.

There is a point at which you can hide from truth and change, and a point at which you cannot.

You have to have a sense of purpose.  

On Web 2.0 and a new approach to journalism

We are opening ourselves up, allowing others to see what we are doing and get involved. Once, a newspaper printed an article and put it out there, and that was that. Now, putting the story on the website is just the beginning. It's like saying: Here's the article, now let's have a conversation.

The web is about sharing and becoming a hub, and not being proprietorial.

On Sustainability Strategy
It all depends on how you frame things. Once we started thinking in terms of "How can sustainability help ensure the long term success of the Guardian?", a whole new world of possibilities opened up. This was a positive framing of the issue, rather than the negative framing we usually hear (stop doing this, don't do that, reduce this, change that etc.)

Businesses can now see that they can make money from sustainability and that it can be a core business benefit. 

CSR is like the American Cavalry Bugle for businesses. Years ago, the only thing that  businesses knew what to talk about was money, there just wasn't a vocabulary of sustainability.

It is hard to envision exactly what the future will be. We can't see beyond the current system. But you have to set goals, even if you dont know how you are going to achieve them.

On Sustainable Consumption
We are on a runaway train to hell .
We are using 5 planets.
Sustainable consumption may invite a lot of cynicsm, but all the major companies are now talking about this.

On Sustainability Reporting
Good reporting should be a force for change.
It is important to have an independent verifier. For the Guardian, this was critical because of the Guardian's independent voice in the media and the desire not to compromise that.

On the role of the media
Companies are very fearful of the media, but if you are open and honest, you gain more respect.

On the future of the printed press
We have to accept that eventually, the printed newspaper will become a niche product. The only thing that will keep newspapers going is the lack of technology to provide adequate alternatives.

On the Guardian's Prokect in Katine

We wanted to tell the real story about the way community development took place in a local community.. not just tell the good news .. but tell the truth. We wanted to focus on one project and "get under the skin" of what's happening and leverage this in a transparent way. The success of the project wasn't the success of the project. It was how successfully we managed to bring out the true story, day by day. Our commitment was demonstrated by having two Ugandan journalists, one actually living in Katine, covering the progress and events on a regualr basis.  

On Leadership:
The biggest Agent of Change is the leadership. The leaders have to "get it".
It is important to get the leaders on board, but then you have to create structures to make things happen.
One of the core challenges at the Guardian has been to ensure Directors set their own measurable targets in the areas they manage.

THANK YOU to Jo for giving of his time and thoughts so generously. Thanks to the local CSR organization, Maala, for working so hard to organize this event with us. Thanks to the local office of BBDO (Gitam) for hosting the event with Jo. Thanks to The Marker newspaper for their interest in what Jo has to say and for, we expect, great coverage of his visit in the local press. And thanks to all those who attended Jo's talk.

This was a great event and Jo was an inspiration to all, despite the fact that he didn't mention Chunky Monkey even ONCE in all the time he talked.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainabilty Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen   on Twitter or via my business website www.b-yond.biz/en  (BeyondBusiness, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

Is the Guardian Sustainable?

Not too many daily newspapers around the world report on sustainability. In fact I dont think any others do. In this respect the Guardian seems to me to be unique. It is also unique in that it has Jo Confino, the passionate and committed champion of the Guardian values. It's no coincidence that I decided to post about the Guardian's report(ing) at this time. You see, Jo Confino is coming to visit us in Israel this month, and we have organized, in partnership with Maala, the local BSR affiliate, a meeting of members, clients and the general public,  for Jo to share his insights, experience and achievements at the Guardian, and talk about the role of the media in supporting (or not) sustainable business practices. We are very proud to host a true Sustainability Celebrity. I am expecting he will teach the Israeli press a thing or two!

The Guardian has been producing Sustainability Reports called "Living our Values"  since 2003 but I am going to fast-forward and stay present with the 2010 Living Our Values report. I guess it's not easy to be a print newspaper in this digital on-line-everything age when the world has become one big citizen-journalist and headlines reach Twitter before most have even realised they are headlines.  A report in the Media Guardian in June 2010 talks of  overall decline in newspaper circulation in 20 out of 30 OECD countries, with a 30% decline in the USA and a 25% decline in the UK between 2007 and 2009. Sales of the Guardian fell by 10.5% in the year ending May 2010. So the first question that springs to mind whilst reading a newspaper sustainability report is whether this is actually an unsustainability report, for a business which is slowly becoming an anachronism. If that's not a material issue, I don't know what is. (OK, I do, but I'm not telling).

The Guardian, or GNM at they like to be called (Guardian News and Media) deals with this. They say "The current business model does not work for newspapers any more. So we will have to build a new one that does" Pretty straight-up, I guess. This is how the Guardian plans to do it:

** A new revenue stream through  the creation of the Digital Agency which is producing websites for clients, rather than just selling them advertising.
** The creation of Guardian Sustainable Business, a venture aimed at supporting companies in acting on their social, environmental and economic impacts.
** Investing in new software to enable optimisation of  online advertising revenues
** Recruiting like-minded web businesses to Guardian ad Networks, which take advantage of scale and special skills in selling to big advertising agencies
**Opening up new licensing models and new platforms, such as subscriptions on Kindle and the Sony eReader. Both the iPhone app, which is paid for, and the iPad photography app, which is free because it is sponsored by Canon, are making a positive financial contribution. The iPhone app sold 121,000 in its first 16 weeks on sale.
**Significantly expand international operations, given that the overseas audience represents more than half of  total audience, but only 7% of  revenues .

But what about he fact that everyone is now a journalist? The answer appears to be "collaborate or dry up!" The Guardian recognises that "preaching to 21st century stakeholders is no longer the answer". Engagement with stakeholders is the name of the game and the Guardian does this well.

The core theme of the report is well in line with its concept and title - living the values. Perhaps this is best demonstrated in the section relating to the engagement of employees and the commentary about the employee survey. This is a fine example of good disclosure relating to empolyee practices and includes some self-criticism. Other aspects, such as fair and free journalism are discussed at length, including the position of values related to earning from advertising which is in conflict with editorial principles.

I must confess that for a simple soul like me, the online format of the Guardian Living our Values report is a little confusing. It all looks like the Guardian newspaper-on-line and untill the penny (sheqel) (cent) dropped, that all the Sustainability Report content pieces are dated 6th Juy, it took me some time. The Sustainability Report even has an Editorial, which is not run-of-the-mill CSR report lingo. Alongside the actual report bits, there are also actual archived news bits. I like a simple life. I like to see reports in a clearly defined location, distinct from the rest of the corporate communications.  However, I cannot deny the advantages of this format, which facilitates buzz-up of every page, and invites comments from the general public on each individual article which makes up this report. It's a bit like how to eat an elephant. You can digest the Guardian Report one bite (byte?) at a time. A nice touch is for those who really can't stomach an elephant, no matter how many bites, is a save-the-elephant  15-minute digested read providing the basics of the report in an Executive Summary.

I also struggled with navigating this report. There is no content index, and finding specific information requires some digging. Side-navigation bars disappear when you go to read specific articles. I think that, whilst the concept of a newspaper making a Sustainability Report look like a newspaper is quite neat, in practice, I think I would prefer it to look like a report. However, for the general Guardian readership, this may well be the best way to get the report noticed.

This being said, the pioneering Guardian is serious about sustainability as their fine set of targets and reporting against those targets shows. There is well considered thought about materiality  and stakeholder engagement is covered off nicely. The journalist-Guardian-article style format has broad readership appeal and is less dry than some of the report doing the rounds today. And the report is assured.  There is no doubt that  values are alive at The Guardian and intgrated into the core business model.. Oh, and if you don't know what mutualisation means (guilty!), here is your chance to find out.

PS: The Guardian Media Group is owned by the Scott Trust. That's an interesting story. Check it out here.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainabilty Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict, author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices. Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my business website www.b-yond.biz/en  (BeyondBusiness, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

Don't ditch CSR reports

Quick Quiz: Reporting and Communicating. What's the difference ?

Apparently there are quite a few people around who don't know that there is a difference between reporting and communicating. Apparently these people believe that a CSR report is a failure because it fails to attract a readership worthy of Jackie Collins, Agatha Christie and William Thackeray Shakespeare all rolled into one. Apparently, the fact that droves of consumers don't rush to seek out every single PDF sustainability report download on a company website indicates that the entire reporting movement is a total failure. Apparently, reporting has BECOME communications and it has FAILED. Why do I say this ? Well, this week, we saw two more "down with CSR reports" posts from two people whose knowledge, writings and experience I respect tremendously, but, nontheless, have fallen into the trap of, wrongly IMHO,  pointing an accusing finger at CSR reports as inadequate failings of the sustainability process. 

The first was Mallen Baker in his post entitled Why CSR Reporting is still ugly. Mallen writes that "CSR reports have become the equivalent of avant garde art. Experts queue up to declare it beautiful, whilst ordinary people stand in front of it slightly baffled wondering just what it is meant to be." In other words, he says that " reports don't work for ordinary stakeholders". He doesn't define what an "ordinary stakeholder" is .... an investor ? an employee ? a supplier ? a community activist ? an environmentalist? a human rights specialist ? a consumer ? a socially conscious consumer ? a professional CSR person? a manager? a Chairman of a Board ? a regulator ? Who on earth is an "ordinary" stakeholder ? And for whom exactly don't reports work ? Only 4,000 reports are issued every year  around the globe. The annual double digit growth of CSR reporting numbers is much stronger that the growth of any of the reporting Companies over the past 15 years. 20% of all reports issued each year are first reports from Companies getting transparency for the first time. More and more companies are following, as reported by Jennifer Hicks on Triple Pundit in which she claims that CSR Reporitng is gaining steam.  So much steam about something no one knows what it is meant to be ? Come on.

The second was Olivia Khalili in her post entited : Want consumers attention? Ditch the CSR report.  No doubt this sensationalist headline will attract many readers and retweeters, and maybe, many will look at it and think : "Yes, absolutely!". Apparently, these are also people who don't know the difference between reporting and communications. How does Olivia explain this attention-grabbing headline ?  "The contents of a CSR report almost never reach consumers’ eyes because they’re not visible on the company’s website and they aren’t relatable or engaging. Companies write CSR reports for their stakeholders, but few take the critical steps to engage consumers in their accomplishments (and shortcomings!). And so they leave tremendous value on the table........ Don’t write a report. Reports are read in the boardroom and the classroom, not by consumers and employees. Create something that celebrates what your company has done and gets stakeholders excited about the future challenges you’re set to tackle."   I suspect that not many Sustainability Reports are actually read in the Boardroom, frankly. Despite good governance practices which everyone talks about, Directors are still way off being fully engaged in sustainability dialogue. And why can't you issue a report AND get stakeholders excited about future challenges?

These posts are sensationalism and attention grabbing but they lack substance and, I believe, an understanding of the difference between reporting and reports and communications. Let's put this into perspective:

First, a report is the summary of all the material information about a company's sustainability information in one place. There is no other document in any business which serves this same purpose. If it's not complete, its not a report. If it's partly on a consumer label, partly on a website, partly in a round table discussion with employees, partly in a cause marketing campaign, partly on a supplier order form, it's not a report. It's  pieces of communication. A report is a document, whether printed, PDF'd or online, it's an integrative document which shows at a given point in time, where a  Company is on the sustainability journey. Not every stakeholder will be interested in every part of the report, but because it's a report, it must contain the complete scope of the content. If it does not, it is  impossible to gain a balanced view of the Company's performance - it may be abusing human rights in one part of the world, whist communicating happily on green innovations to consumers somewhere else. This is the point of reporting versus specific communications. Anyone who has an interest can see all aspects of a Company's impacts. It seems obvious that if the report is online, rather than just an Acrobat icon for download, it stands to attract more attention. However, not everyone has round the clock internet access (HP report in their 2009 Global Citizenship Report that only 20% of the world's population is currently online), and the ability to download to hard-disc and read a report during a flight to the GRI conference in Amsterdam, or whenever the connection is down, is big advantage.

Second, a report is the cumulation of a reporting process which is the thing that drives change in the business. The very need to report, the very need to publicly commit to targets, to transparency, to explaining the context and the impact of the Company's actions is a real tangible driver of decision making in the businesss. Talk to any SERIOUS reporter and you will find this to be true. Of course, if you talk to the PR-style reporters, the ones who fuel the blog posts such as those mentioned above, you will find that nothing happens between one report and the next, and that performance remains static. This is because they are not serious about sustainability, which is the first premise of reporting. You must have sustainability performance in the business before you can report about it. If you do, the reporting process, which involves many internal and external players, focuses the business and the decisions that need to be  made. My experience is that this works. Categorically and unequivocally.

Third, a report is a PLATFORM for communication, it is not the communcation process itself, and it is not the end of the process. It is the beginning of the process of stakeholder engagement. What do you engage stakeholders around ? Around your sustainability impacts and performance. How do stakeholders know what your sustainability performance looks like. They have a report they can read. But just hanging a report on your website and hoping that enlightened and enthusiastic consumers will race to download it at the earliest opportunity is like hoping that the Queen of England will start eating Chunky Monkey for breakfast.(Oops, maybe she does!) Aside from a few reporting freaks like me, NO-ONE will download your report unless you incentivise them to do so, by engaging their interest in what makes them tick. This means using the report as a PLATFORM for creating a conversation with different stakeholders. It means talioring your communications process by working with different stakeholder groups on parts of the report content that are relevant to them, in different ways and via different channels. Marcus Chung wrote a post about how he read a United Airlines CSR report as he was  on a flight and it was in the seat pocket. A banking client of mine puts copies of their report in their branches for people who are waiting in queues to read. Another client of mine who runs a cafe has a pamphlet on the tables next to the menu advising of the report and key messages. Everyone who orders a coffee gets Coffee and Report. How many Companies are bringing their reporting to their stakeholders ? CSR Reports is getting the message OUT. Communications is getting the message THROUGH. To get people interested in your reporting, you have to take the message to where they are, and do it in a compelling way. This may be as simple as putting your report in a place where your stakeholders will find it and will have time to read it, or it may require a little more effort, such as producing special product labels for consumer goods, sending out teazers, running a competition, setting up an Earthkeepers dialogue as the innovative Timberland does, polling your readers as Adidas does,  getting people to make a pledge as Marks and Spencer, Starbucks and others do. Establishing a presence for your report on Social Media. How many Companies have a CSR Report page on Facebook ?  This is engagement and communcation. You have to go where your stakeholders are. For more ideas, see my post called 27 ways to make your CSR report buzz. This kind of engagement can happen when a Company has got its sustainability story sorted out, which is significantly helped by the reporting process and the report.

My point is that reports, in and of themselves, are worthless. Like your new hybrid Mercedes if you never drive anywhere in it.  But, the fact that  companies are not doing what it takes to create the communications and the dialogue around the reports  is not a reason to say ditch reports. That's throwing the baby out with the bathwater, as my mom says. Instead of indulging in yellow journalism, and blasting the internet with headlines like reports are ugly and ditch them, I would like to see headlines that say "CSR reports are a basis for engagement", "CSR reporting should be more fully exploited by Companies" "We are not yet seeing the full potential of CSR Reporting" or even "CSR reports are fascinating". Why don't we see more conversation about what needs to be done to ensure that the investment in CSR reporting actually delivers? What are the naysayers doing to feed back their specific comments to Companies about how they could improve their reporting and what they, as ordinary stakeholders, are looking to see? Sigh. No answers. Apparently it is easier to moan and groan, rather than take a responsible approach to helping Companies report more accurately, more transparently, more succinctly, more engagingly. As I write, I notice a post by the Guardian on their blog, in which they ask readers "for help" in determining what  the Guardian should be reporting about this year. Nice.  Yes, I agree, reports need to get better. Yes, I agree that many are too long. Yes, I agree that following the GRI framwork in a mindless way delivers boring and stilted reports. Yes, I agree, that reporting must be more interactive, more real-time, more contextual, less self-flattering, more connected to the business reality.  But no, I do not agree that reporting is ugly, or that we should ditch reports or the reporting process. 

Rant over. Mallen thinks I take this too personally. Well, what's not personal in this world ? Of course, I have a vested interest as I make a  living (of sorts) from , in part, reporting. However,  I write based on  an absolute conviction that sustainability reporting serves an important purpose in driving sustainability and a positive contribution to business results.I have seen it. I hear reporting companies  confirm it. I believe my work in reporting  serves a valuable purpose, not just because of the reports themselves, but because of the transformation I witness in Companies that report.  

Finally, as I complete this post, I notice that the SAP 2009 sustainability Report is now online. The one referred to in the Ditch Reports post. Certainly looks interesting. An example of how more accessible reporting is evolving. More on that another time! But, where can I download it ? Hahaha.

elaine cohen is co-founder and co-CEO of Beyond Business, a leading social and environmental consulting and reporting firm. Visit our website at www.b-yond.biz/en