The CSR Reporting Blog Rap

By now you will all have seen the Samsung report rap, as well as all the criticisms (facepalm). I guess we should give Samsung top marks for creativity and originality (any other report raps out there?) but pretty close to zero when it comes to intelligence and genius marketing. It defies understanding how the Samsung lyrics (Samsung, we 280,000 humans 40 percent 112,000 women You don’t have to worry after giving birth Sit back, relax, no need to work) got approved at any level of the organization. 

However, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, as they say. Maybe rapping reports is a good thing. With a little help from Wiki How to write a rap song, I thought it might be a good idea to offer some ideas to other companies that might want to move to the next stage in advanced and innovative reporting communications techniques. 

So here you have it: The CSR Blog Report Rap: CSR is cool

When I think of a business it makes me depressed
I don't know why they do things it's all just messed
Up when they go for the money instead of respect and
They ruin the planet everything's just wrecked we can't
Live like this we need some air it's the corporate machine rollin over us there
We gotta fight back make more CSR so the people can live and reach for a star
End poverty end war end corporate fraud make it fair make it share don't ever get bored

CHORUS: 
CSR is cool if you don't lose your cool
When you go with the flow the flow makes you go
If you wanna groove CSR is the move
Save the world save the planet we all approve

CSR makes things right it's for positive stuff
When it's CSR you can never do enough
It's long-term thinking that will win the day but we know
That investors will have their say and ask for money sooner not later
But we can't live our lives in the shadow of a dictator
We need to stand tall and show them all how
CSR can work in the here and the now and make our lives better in any weather

CHORUS:
CSR is cool if you don't lose your cool
When you go with the flow the flow makes you go
If you wanna groove CSR is the move
Save the world save the planet we all approve

Employees and staff should ensure that their leaders are
Right for the job and not chicken-breeders and know how to
Plan a CSR path with eco and green and employee motivation
To make a contribution and lift us out of desperation
CSR is the way to a better world ahead with 9 billion citizens needing to be fed
Globalization urbanization the digital divide it's all too much don't go along for the ride
Equality, humanity, end of poverty and hunger when we all pull together we can even get younger

CHORUS:
CSR is cool if you don't lose your cool
When you go with the flow the flow makes you go
If you wanna groove CSR is the move
Save the world save the planet we all approve


Feel free to use this rap in your report communications. No copyright :-)


elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of Understanding G4: the Concise guide to Next Generation Sustainability Reporting  AND  Sustainability Reporting for SMEs: Competitive Advantage Through Transparency AND CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices . Contact me via Twitter (@elainecohen)  or via my business website www.b-yond.biz   (Beyond Business Ltd, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm).  Check out our G4 Report Expert Analysis Service - for published G4 reports or pre-publication - write to Elaine at info@b-yond.biz to help make your G4 reporting  even better. 

Insights from the 2014 Humboldt Berlin CSR Conference

There's nothing like a good conference to add back a little buzz to those old brain-cells. Especially ones that have been somewhat numbed by non-stop sleep-depriving work on G4 reports for our clients. Ha Ha. Joking of course, we LOVE reporting. But we also love great conferences.

This last week I was honored to both speak at and attend the 6th International Conference on Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, organized by the incredible gentleman and scholar, Professor Dr. Joachim Schwalbach. The conference drew a massive crowd, many academics - teachers and students - from a range of impressive institutions, as well as corporate and other delegates. It was a refreshing two days, full of thought-provoking debate. 

I took part in three sessions. As a panelist in the a parallel session on Day One, moderated by Dr. Carol Adams, and as a moderator for a plenary and parallel session on Day Two. Of course, when you are involved, it is difficult to remember everything that went on. It's a bit like trying to recall what the food was like at your own wedding. However, here are a few insights:

Evolution of corporate reporting 

The role of Stock Exchanges in driving disclosure: We were treated to an opening presentation by Sonia Favaretto of the Brazilian BM&F BOVESPA Stock Exchange, who demonstrated that the "report or explain" approach for listed companies had boosted corporate disclosure in Brazil quite substantially. This enlightened Exchange has driven reporting reach for more than a couple of hundred of the larger Brazilian companies, in line with the Stock Exchange's mission "to promote sustainability and private social investment aligned with strategy". I believe this is a lead that many more Stock Exchanges will follow in the future, although at present, a study by Canadian Corporate Knights Capital found that only 128 (less than 3%) of the 4,609 largest companies listed on the world’s stock exchanges disclose data on basic sustainability indicators such as employee turnover, energy, greenhouse gas emissions, injury rate, pay equity, waste and water. In the meantime, BMFBOVESPA publishes a list of who has reported and who has not, and the reasons they gave for not doing so. 

The legal implications of the newly adopted EU reporting directive: Dr. Birgit Speisshofer was the lawyer on the panel, and after the usual jokes about lawyers, she gave us a detailed legal-lens view of the implications of the EU Directive for disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large companies - expected to affect around 6,000 companies in Europe. Without going into all the details, it seems that this legislation is rather flexible, including some leeway for member states' adoption to meet local preferences, and has several fuzzy areas that can exempt certain reporting requirements for companies for whom reporting may not be the height of excitement. So, while the spirit of the law will drive reporting forward, I have no doubt, the pace, quality and consistency of reporting may well remain challenged in Europe. 

Reporting consistency and comparability: One of the key aspects of reporting that held the conversation for a while in this session was the notion of comparability. Do current reporting frameworks facilitate comparability and did they ever? My view on this is quite firm. There is no comparability (between companies) today, there never has been and there probably never will be. Take any small selection of reports and try to compare performance data either across sectors or within a sector and you come up with almost as many different versions of performance disclosure as you have reports. Even trying to compare one company against its own prior performance is often a challenge. Current reporting frameworks would have to be far more prescriptive in order to drive consistency and comparability. And it is precisely such prescriptiveness that companies fight to avoid. Why is comparability so important? Because we all want a sense of whether progress is being made, companies share a competitive spirit and investors look for relative assessments for their portfolio trade-offs. Saying there is no comparability when there are so many ratings and rankings out there that claim to have "the formula" for evaluating relative corporate sustainability performance may be tantamount to heresy. But, I say, there is no comparability. Burn me at the stake. Don't waste your time looking for comparability. Look instead for evidence of robust process, relevant disclosure around material impacts, consistency of targets and reported performance over time and stakeholder interactions that deliver confidence that change is being achieved.

Who is the audience and does it matter? As usual, the question of who reports are for, who the audience is and who "actually" reads them came up once again. Well, you know by now that I say reports are not meant to be read. They are meant to be written. And when they are written, they can be used by a wide range of stakeholders. Recall that stakeholders are often multi-hatted. An employee can be a shareholder can be an environmental activist can be a local community member can be a disabled person can be married to a local policy-maker can be mother or father to an investment analyst, blogger, journalist or other professional. The stakeholder concept is not what it used to be. Neat compartmentalization of stakeholder interests is now not an exact science. The boundaries are getting fuzzier. Information channels are getting re-wired. Targeted messaging for the purpose of dialogue and engagement is not the sole remit of a sustainability report. We would do well to recall that a report is designed to account for impacts. The impacts define the stakeholders and not the other way around. Although I will bet there are plenty who disagree with me.   

For an additional overview and perspective on this panel and others, see a post from Dr. Carol Adams, who moderated the session.

Reputation, CSR & Innovation

The Reputation Economy is alive and well: We opened this session with a presentation from sharp-thinker Leslie-Gaines-Ross, Chief Reputation Strategist at Weber Shandwick, who focused on the Reputation Economy and the role of the CEO, quoting a stat that 50% of reputation equity is created by the CEO. The value of reputation in today's complex info-dynamic world cannot be underestimated and the challenges of managing reputation in a way that is constructive (and not construed as manipulative) require new skills, and that means more than CEOs tweeting and sharing family photos. The CEO reputation is as important as ever, according to Leslie, and in a world where trust in business is not always so positive, the CEO can play a critical role. 

Reputation should work inside the company as well as outside the company: As reputation leaders, CEOs have the opportunity to drive corporate reputation internally as well. That may sound like a non-sequitur - isn't reputation external? - but it's true. Susanne Marell of Trust-Barometer-fame Edelman (Berlin)  says that employees want CEOs to speak up for them, they want CEOs to be their representatives, people of whom they can be proud. No wonder Glassdoor rates CEOs as well as companies. CEOs would do well to remember that their audience is not only those to whom they do not pay salaries. 

CEOs are not recruited with CSR in mind: Brigitte Lammers of Egon Zehnder astounded us all with her statement that, in the hiring process for CEOs, no requirement for the "new" CSR-type skills relating to engagement or stakeholder or reputation management are sought. Instead, CEOs are hired for traditional qualities such as decision-making, P&L orientation, experience, profit maximization etc. So you tell me, if business is going to change the world, how is it that CEOs are not changing? Next time you are in the market for a CEO, think about what kind of company she has to lead. Ha Ha. Subtle. More women CEOs may just be the best of all worlds.  

Thank you to Joachim Schwalbach for this photo

Reputation, CSR & Communications

We opened this panel up with a question to five experts.

Everyone in business today and in society in general faces a mass of information in all forms, via all channels 24/7/365. How do you get people to pay attention to your CSR message?

Simple question. Complex answer. Breaking through the noise is not such a POC. It's more than publishing a Sustainability Report and expecting people to find it. Five panelists offered great insights about how to help make your CSR message stand out from the crowd, increase trust and enhance the reputation of your company. 

Berhnard Schwaeger of Robert Bosch GmbH suggested that, in addition to an annual Sustainability Report, maintaining consistent dialogue and sharing information, including talking about difficult or challenging topics, is the way to do it. The Bosch Sustainability Blog is an example of the way Bosch walks the talk. 

Leslie Gaines-Ross is acutely aware of the multiplicity of messaging and communication channels and says that breaking through the noise means (appropriately) using all available channels - social media, video and more traditional channels - in the optimum way. 

Gabi Faber-Wiener, a respected voice in business ethics and founder of the Centre for Responsible Management in Vienna says, perhaps not surprisingly, if you want to get your CSR message through, don't call it CSR! Who wouldn't agree? 

Mette Morsing of Copenhagen Business School reiterated that "communication is action" and engaging in partnerships with third parties and having them endorse you for your work and involvement is a way to ensure your message gets told. 

Finally, our second expert of the day from Edelman Berlin, Bernd Buschhausen, offered a little relief to corporate CEOs by saying that the CEO should not be the only one talking CSR - employees and external partners can also be fantastic ambassadors of your CSR message. 

Whatever ways you choose to get your CSR message through the sound barrier and bypass the tendency of the general media to report only shock and horror and avoid the good stories, all agreed that CSR communications should be relevant, engaging and inspirational. 

I couldn't help adding a word or two ten about reporting, being a reporting geek as I am known to be. Reporting may not be THE way to ensure that your message breaks through, but when people are looking for your message, it will ensure they find it. When people want to know about you, your Sustainability Report will make sure they get what you give. You can't make Mohammed come to the mountain, but when he gets there, you can make sure he drinks from the right well. Or whatever other mixed metaphor your prefer. Research has shown that reading a Sustainability Report increases the readers' trust in a company. A well-written, material-focused and forward-looking sustainability report is the story your stakeholders, internal and external are looking for. It's as indispensable having a website, a business card, a smartphone and ice-cream. It's part of the corporate package and its not in competition with any other company. It's the way you tell your unique corporate story and it's an essential element of Reputation, CSR and Communications. Now, why wouldn't everyone want a piece of that?

*************

All in all, the Berlin CSR Conference was two days well spent and I have only scratched the surface in this post. Many plenaries, parallel sessions, awards, books, discussions, good food, drinks, music and even dancing made this conference one of the must-attend events of 2014. Fortunately, we only have two years to wait for the next one! See you here in 2016.   

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of Understanding G4: the Concise guide to Next Generation Sustainability Reporting  AND  Sustainability Reporting for SMEs: Competitive Advantage Through Transparency AND CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices . Contact me via Twitter (@elainecohen)  or via my business website www.b-yond.biz   (Beyond Business Ltd, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm).  Check out our G4 Report Expert Analysis Service - for published G4 reports or pre-publication - write to Elaine at info@b-yond.biz to help make your G4 reporting  even better.   

21 ways to make your Sustainability Report stand out from the crowd

Inspired by this post on Geenbiz.com entitled  "I published my CSR Report. Where's my media coverage?", in which  Elin Nosewski offers some tips about how to get noticed by reporters and bloggers - mainly focusing on the report content, I thought I would offer some tips of my own on how to make your Sustainability Report stand out from the crowd. Here they are:

1. Call it iReport 4s. Everyone will queue for one.
2. Write it in Latin or Ancient Greek. You will easily capture all the very very very old people who read Sustainability Reports.
3. Include pornographic pictures. Porno is the most viewed content on the internet. Every second, 28,528 internet users are viewing pornography.
4. Have your CEO present it to Financial Analysts and Investors over breakfast in a London Hotel. They won't understand but they will enjoy the croissants.
5. Have your VP for Human Resources write the introduction. Now, that's original. That's how Lloyd's Bank did it in 2009.
6. Have the CSR Reporting Blog mention it in The Top Ten Reports of the year. (No-one one has been able to afford this, yet, but you could be the first.)
7. Print your report on virgin paper, destroying 347 Amazon Forest trees, and send it using the postal service to thousands of stakeholders. Greenpeace will make such a campaign about this that no-one will fail to notice your report.
8. Win a CSR Reporting award. That's how Vodafone does it.
9. Gamify it. That's how BT does it.
10. Write it in Braille. 39 million blind people will love you.
11. Turn it into multiple-choice test. It will be used in school syllabuses all around the world.
12. Offer an iPad to those who provide feedback. That's how OneSteel does it.
13. Offer a luxury weekend in Hawaii to all those who are prepared to use the weekend to read your report. Don't worry, only 4 people will respond. Your mom, your dad and your 2 kids.
14. Send out a Presss Release saying you have published a Sustainability Report. (OK, this is not a serious entry.)
15. Add disposal instructions on the back cover. Something like: Please dispose of this report in an environmentally responsible manner before you read it.
16. Fit it all into one webpage. This is how AHA! does it.
17. Use a sexy waitress to deliver it to male executives. See how Heinz does it with Ketchup.
18. Publish it on the web, then Digg it, Stumble Upon it, Slideshare it, Facebook it, Google+ it and Tweet it. Again. Once more. And again.
19. Employ a blogger relations specialist and create a bloggers corner blog. This is how SAP does it.
20. Make it all in videos. This is how Burt's Bees does it.
21. Accidentally on-purpose, call it your Annual Report. The entire financial world will love it! And financial journalists will rush to scrutinize it.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability 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  (Beyond Business, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

Speeky Engleesh 2

Last year, I wrote a post about the English errors in translated Sustainability Reports. I know that the content counts, and errors in translation are not always easy to avoid.  I try not to judge a company's report on the quality of its English translation and I am appreciative of companies who make the effort to produce their report in English, enabling me to read it. Most reports which contain translation errors have a certain charm.  I can't help but chuckle.

Here is my pick of 2011:

The Xinguang Knitting Company Ltd from Guangdong, China
Sustainability Report 2010

• Our sustainability report publishes once a year.
• During the period of selecting indicators, Xinguang mainly thought about the relevance, materiality and availability of different concrete indicators.
• When enterprise performs its role of corporate social responsibility, it focus on the responsibility to employees, environment and society,
• Certainly, our performance of social responsibility has a wide range of contents. We make donation, obey the law and help low income groups. And we also try our best to make more contribution in different respects. All in all, figuring out our minds, we put the work into practice and create a system characterized by corporate social responsibility.
• Nowadays, because of the shortage of cotton, the instability of petroleum byproducts and labor shortage, the cost of raw materials has been rising at the rate of 10% to 15% per year. Within 5 years, this trend will not change. And here comes a question---how to cope with these unbeneficial factors?
• For the company, staff is the most important stakeholder.
• In 2010, Xinguang added plenty of fitness facilities and entertainment equipment, such as Bing-bong ball and Billiard equipments, so that employees can increase the range of leisure activities
• In order to eliminate discrimination and race conflicts, Xinguang has developed some employment policies.
• From the charts above that picture the proportion of female and male, we can discover that there is not much difference between the number of female and male employees. Consequently there wasn't any case of discrimination reported in 2010.
• The consumption of domestic water forms the lion's share of Xinguang's total consumption.
• We promise to keep doing improvement and with this we crate a workplace which helps our staff to play to their respective strengths.

Bing-bong ball? Crate a workplace ? Chuckle away..... Seriously, though, I commend Xinguang, a privately-owned 400 people garment manufacturer in China for producing a report and taking CSR seriously. If ever I visit Guangdong, I will buy them all ice-cream!

And while we are on the subject, here is another one:

Ambuja Cements Ltd Corporate Sustainable Development Report 2010

• We were facing a lot of problem in maintaining the day to day quality and in turn our whole operational efficiency was getting affected be it blasting efficiency, loading efficiency or hauling efficiency.
• While these activities are carried out, the impact could be upbeat as well as downbeat.
• At Ambuja, we recognize community as one of our prime stakeholders and we endeavor to reach out to it to accomplish our social responsibilities. The surrounding communities are our partners in our march to progress.
• Those involved in successful micro enterprises are able to generate income that has given them a degree of power hitherto unheard of.
• The cultivation of wadis or orchards has been beneficial to several economically backward families, especially tribals.
• These efforts strive to improve the quality of education and make schools child-friendly.
• The Company has adopted structured benefit schemes to ensure wellbeing of employees in case of both post-retiral life and similar eventualities.

In fairness, Ambuja Cements have produced a great report and demonstrate some very interesting and impressive sustainable practices. The company is a publicly traded company in India, employing over 5,700 people. A few chuckles here and there do not detract from the positive reporting of this company. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. Almost as much as ice-cream.

 

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability 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)

Tweet Release

Do you think of #Twitter as a #lens or a #megaphone? Are you a #Twitter #wallflower? Do you see #Twitter as helping you to become a better #communicator? 

Ok, enough of the #hashtags. #youcangetalittlecarriedaway....

I just wanted to update you on the new "Short and Sweet" Twitter Guide for communications professionals published by Fenton Communications.  I may not formally be called a communications professional but I try to communicate professionally and professional communications form a large part of my work in the sustainability arena. Whilst I have not yet written a Sustainability Report in tweets (yet) (hmmm, that's an idea) (has anyone?), Twitter has fast become an indispensible platform for communicating in business in general and in sustainability in particular. I have been quoted as saying that “Twitter has done as much for corporate responsibility as the great thought leaders through sheer accessibility" and I stand by that. I also posted about the role of Twitter in sustainability communications some time ago in a post called "What Twitter does for CSR".

Fenton believes in the power of Twitter for professional communications and with this publication they urge you to make Twitter your lens and to immerse yourself in Twitter as a media tool. The Guide provides information about what Twitter is and how it works for you, how to use twitter and aha! a Tweet Cheat Sheet to make you lives easier when while you are immersing yourself. Go on, twimmerse yourself.

This is not just a standard layman's guide to what to include in your Tweets. It's an important education on the way information flows. This is essential to understanding how to leverage information flows to help spread your message more effectively. Fenton's description of  "Twitter as the new press release" is no exaggeration. Learning how to deploy Twitter for improved positioning of your company or organization is an essential communicators' skill in this, the twitteronic century. Doing your daily 30 minute Twitter workout is probably habit for Twitter veterans but for those who haven't got there yet, the Fenton guide gives you the heads-up. The Tweet Cheat Sheet may sound pretty basic for the more tweetified among us, but for those who have not yet mastered tweet-art, it may be just what you need.

Fenton are not just preaching about Twitter. They do it. Susan McPherson, SVP at Fenton, is the mind behind the bi-weekly Twitter chats on CSR (#CSRchat) which draw tens of professionals in each session to share views on a range of issues in an intensive hour of fast-moving, high-quality, content-rich, informative and insightful 140 character blasts. And a few jokes too. To see summaries of #CSRchats to date and get updates of forthcoming #CSRchat topics, check out the Fenton CSR blog or search the #CSRchat hashtag on Twitter. (If you don't know how to do that, check out the Fenton Twiter Guide :)).

So, the only thing that isn't mentioned in the Fenton Twitter Guide is that, for CSR and sustainability, you just have to follow @Fentonprogress and @susanmpc1. Oh, and the fact that Tweeting and Ice Cream go very well together.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability 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  (Beyond Business, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

A very tasty CSR conference

This time last week I was engrossed in fascinating conversations at the Justmeans  Redefining Value: Integrated Reporting and Measuring Sustainability Conference in London on 25th March 2011. But before I talk about content, I can't help but mention that the conference was held at the best conference venue I can ever recall in having visited in London - the Brewery - complete with a sustainability policy and gourmet food worthy of so many sustainability people, hungry for change and hungry for the best conference lunch in London. (OK, no ice cream, but what the heck!). The conference itself was serious, thought-provoking, no ribbons and bells, just 5 intensive sessions with lots of talking, many insights and a few challenges to the status quo. Some sessions were more valuable than others, as inevitably happens, but all were interesting. Lunch provided a welcome break for ribbons and bells, with the announcement of the Social Innovation Awards winners in a tastefully done ceremony where every winner got to say a few words about their accomplishments.

The conference started out with a powerful panel session moderated by Justmeans CEO, Martin Smith, intended to be a catch-up with what's happening in the world of non-financial reporting, with leading players in the form of the GRI (Nelmara Arbex), A4S project (Jessica Fries) and the CDP (Paul Dickinson) .There is a consensus that sustainability reporting is not mainstream, despite the daily Sustainability Report announcements that fill our RSS feeds. The GRI, as my regular readers will know, is moving towards G4 which should address some of the current shortfalls of the GRI framework while A4S is planning a pilot program to enhance non-financial reporting without increasing complexity and length, among other things. The CDP has now completed 9 reporting cycles, demonstrating that "repetitious normalization" is gaining the attention of 551 investor groups who represent $71 trillion in funds, more than the GDP of the world. 3,000 companies reported to the CDP, rather less than the number who issued sustainability reports, last year. The single biggest challenge for reporting is mainstreaming sustainability reporting in a harmonized way (GRI), providing data to shareholders (CDP) and getting the right systems in place (A4S). The point was made that reporting should not only be about the past but how a company intends to create its sustainable future. It is true that this often gets lost in backward looking reports and even companies who express targets do not often explain how they expect to achieve the targets in their reporting .

"What is driving the growth of international standards?"  was the question that led the next panel session , led by Judy Kuszewski whom it was nice to meet in person after our twitterous acquaintance to date. The fascinating takeout of this panel was the collection of perspectives from Carsten Ingerslev, the Director of the Danish Government Center for CSR, who said that "if we leave things up to the market, they won't happen quickly enough". It is certainly a good thing to see a government body taking initiative to drive CSR, and of the 91% (I think) of the top 1,100 companies in Denmark who chose to report following the law which came into effect in FY2009, 43% were reporting for the first time. (The Danish law, which was an amendment to the Financial Statements Act, requires companies to report on non-financial matters or give a reason why not. Of course, not too many companies are happy to say they don't give a hoot about sustainability, even if they are not sharing sustainability prime-time, so reporting becomes the only viable alternative.). Carsten said that the companies who did report confirmed that they gained benefit and were able to understand risks and opportunities for their businesses in a way they had not before. The Danish motto: you can't fly below the radar. Sustainability reporting is the radar. The "comply or explain" model is surely one which will be emulated, I suspect. Wim Bartels made the point that building the systems required for good non-financial reporting needs accountants. But who would have expected less from a partner in sustainability services at KPMG. He has a point, but some pushback was felt from the audience who suggested that sustainability reporting needs anything BUT accountants. This, when you consider that the IIRC is comprised of almost exclusively accountants and financial specialists, may already be a lost cause.

The next session showcased reporting leaders from Novo Nordisk, Novozymes and the data collection systems company Enablon. The best quote from this session was "you can't internally manage unless you externally report" (Dan Vogel of Enablon) . The question of how far you can monetize sustainability in integrated reporting was one of the interesting aspects raised, as the drive to fit sustainability into financial reporting frameworks may just create pressure in this direction. All agreed that better models to measure impact and the cost-benefits of sustainability impacts are required.

Toby Heaps of Corporate Knights and the 100 Best Corporate Citizens posed the question: Will social change happen through capital markets? and then proceeded to answer it by explaining that radical transparency is the key. Wow. Sounds so easy. The 100 Best Corporate Citizens has honed in on 10 core indicators which are the clue to radical transparency. Caution. This is a buzzword. Use it sparingly. Considering that only 2% of UNPRI signatories, according to Toby, disclose non-financial information, transparency has apparently not reached radical levels quite just yet. Bloomberg, in the form of Curtis Ravenel, align with Denmark in the belief that regulation is the only way forward.

Finally, a large lunch, a few exquisite muffins and some delightful pastries later, (N.B. Don't diet at Justmeans conferences), BP (Nicholas Robinson) took center stage and explained what it's like not to sleep at night when you need to produce a sustainability report when everyone is accusing you of being about as sustainable as a rabbi at the Vatican. After being slapped with the largest class action law suit in history, trying to produce sustainability report sounds like something only Merlin the wizard might attempt. However, without Merlin's assistance, apparently, but with a strong dose of Triazolam, BP has done it (see here - more on that in a later post). The complexities of reporting for companies who are dual listed (US and UK) were interesting to hear about from BP, who took four years to combine their different submissions into one report that meets both requirements. Hmmm. And that's only financial reporting. At that rate, integrated reporting should be with us by the time my great-great-grandchildren will wonder whether separate reporting was ever an option. Another interesting discussion in this panel was about what happens when Greenpeace decide you are the bad guys and viralize a gory video about endangered orang-utans, attacking one of your iconic brands. Invite them to the table, was the answer from Niels Cristiansen, the Public Affairs guy at Nestle. I just hope the conference room refreshments did not include Kit Kat. Greenpeace asked Nestle to develop an auditing plan for their rainforest impacts and Nestle agreed. Not only this, but the Head of Operations at Nestle is reported to have said "I am glad they did because it made us a better company." Who needs McKinsey when Greenpeace can help you improve your bottom line?

By this time, my head was reeling with  many old and new concepts, and my waistline was begging for relief, so it was probably a good thing that Justmeans didn't cram any more into this day. I will certainly be happy to attend another Justmeans conference, but only if they hold it at the Brewery.

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)

The new Global Compact DIfferentiation Framework.

The Global Compact goes  GRI. Kind of. As of October 2010, the UNGC will stop recognizing Communications on Progress as "NOTABLE" (for adherence to the COP policy and representing illustrative and inspirational examples of communicating progress) and will introduce a three month trial period for the new Differentiation Framework.  

"The Global Compact Differentiation Framework seeks to give recognition to the unique contributions of companies of different sizes and experience and to facilitate better assessment of sustainability performance and transparency. The Framework provides companies at all stages of Global Compact implementation the opportunity to begin a process of continuous improvement and receive recognition for progress made. The Framework also aims to mainstream sustainability reporting and improve transparency and disclosure among the thousands of companies in the Global Compact." The Framework is designed to encourage compaines to improve performance and for the UNGC to evaluate progress along two axes: implementation of the Global Compact principles and transparency and disclosure including standard reporting guidelines (such as the GRI). There are three levels in the Framework:

Basic : This comes together with its own fill-in-the-blanks and tick-the-boxes template , remeniscent of the GRI "Let's Report C Level template"  and is targeted at "smaller and inexperienced" companies. It covers the four disclosure areas and asks for policies, implementation and outcomes against each area.

Intermediate: At this level, companies should use the standard COP process, cover all Global Compact principles, and communicate directly with stakeholders on progress made using accepted standards of disclosure and transparency such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). In other words, a dedicated COP, reporting against all the principles, or a GRI Sustainability Report, as now.

Advanced: This level aims to create a "gold standard" for corporate sustainability performance and disclosure. It includes a set of  self-assessment questions covering strategy, governance, implementation of the UNGC Principles, value chain responsibility, stakeholder engagement, context, transparency and disclosure. "When submitting their annual COP, companies will have the option of participating in the programme by completing a self-assessment questionnaire covering the content of their COP and assessing their implementation of the Global Compact principles against global best practices. Results of the self-assessment will be made available to the public to encourage stakeholder engagement and protect the Global Compact’s integrity."   This is designed as a first step in the implementation of the Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability Leadership launched in June 2010.

So, as I understand it, preparation of COP's remains as now, with the addition of the lightweight template, and apportioning recognition for achieving the  (formerly "notable") "gold standard" is delegated to the communicating companies themselves, by way of the self-assessment. Pretty much like the GRI Reporting Application Levels which can be self-declared.

Another thing worthy of note on the UNGC website is the mention of Financial Markets: "The Global Compact is working closely with Bloomberg LP to make COPs available to the mainstream financial community in order to their use, mainstream the use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) information in financial analysis. It is expected that this will generate further incentives for companies to increase transparency and disclosure."

What do I think of all this?

Personally, I find it baffling. A large number of COP business communicators are bigger companies that produce their own Sustainability Reports (GRI-aligned or not) and submit this to the UNGC as their COP. More often than not, this is simply a cross-referenced table of GRI Indicators to UNGC Principles. The GRI has positioned itself as the gold standard of corporate sustainability disclosure and by and large has achieved this. I wonder how the UNGC, with a requirement for a COP ( which covers Human Rights, Labor Standards, Environment and Anti-Corruption, way below disclosure levels for the GRI) plus a self-assessment questionnaire of yes/no responses, can aspire to replace the GRI A Level with a new gold standard?  

Secondly, the beauty of the UNGC framework so far has been its equality and accessibility. All organizations were free to commit, join and communicate in their own way, with some very basic guidelines for COP submission. The really good ones got a pat on the back with a "notable" recognition awarded by the UNGC COP evaluators. This provided a great opportunity for everyone, large, small and sustainability-fledgling organizations to declare support and get their transparency toes wet. I know, of course, of all the criticisms of the UNGC as being wishy-washy, toothless, not focused on driving action etc, but I have tended to believe that the advantage of this loose framework offers precisely the entry catalyst for companies to develop their sustainability and transparency muscles in an easy and non-prescriptive way. The GRI is there for those who are able to do more. So now, instead of everyone being equal and commended for participating in the prestigious UNGC, companies will be assigned a basic, intermediate or advanced tag. For a company who is not ready to communicate at GRI level, but has made significant progress in CSR and delivered a first COP, instead of being commended, they are now labelled "Basic". I think that's going backwards. 

Thirdly, the self-assessment questionnaire is not really any great shakes. By responding "yes" to all the questions, companies can now  elevated themselves to "advanced" status. But all yes's were not created equal. And in responding to this self-assessment, I suspect there will be a temptation to expand the scope of what constitutes a "yes" in order to gain the coveted "advanced" tag. In the same way as a GRI "self-declared" reporting level is often found to be deficient, I suspect this self-assessment questionnaire may  not be a true reflection of performance accross the board.

Fourthly, the self-assessment will not be policed, apparently. However, the self-assessment does include a yes-no as to whether the COP has been externally assured or verified. Of course, the GRI doesn't do such a good job of this either, as I have pointed out several times in the past. Perhaps this paves the way for the next UNGC refinement which is Basic +, Intermediate + and Advanced +. Aarrggh!

Finally, I truly thought we were in the era of convergence. With the announcement of  UNGC and GRI closer collaboration in Amsterdam in May this year, I thought we would see a merge of the COP into the Sustainability Report, or at least, a full recognition that sustainability reporting meets the COP criteria. The diffrentiation framework does formalize the GRI-UNGC alliance a little, with Intermediate Level ultimately becoming the Sustainability Report, as is current practice for many companies. But why did the UNGC not go the whole way and align COP's to the GRI A,B,C,+,+,+ ? The self assessment provides, in theory, a way for the UNGC to see what companies are reporting on what, but so does the GRI Index. At Reporting Level A, companies are required to respond to all indicators. For the UNGC, completing the self-assessment questionnaire seems to be enough - I cannot tell that the quality of the responses makes any difference. As far as I understand it then, with the new UNGC Differentiation Framework, a company can produce an A+ GRI report and be tagged Intermediate. Similarly, a company can produce a C level report, respond to the self-assessment, and suddenly become Advanced. 

As I said, baffling.  What have I missed ? Perhaps someone  can enlighten me ?  

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)

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

What Twitter does for CSR

 I was recently wasquoted in a post by the brilliant Sherie Winston as saying that “Twitter has done as much for corporate responsibility as the great thought leaders through sheer accessibility,”. And in a linkedin conversation about CSR reporting, Cindy Mehallow, who has done wonderful work with PSEG on reporting,  asked me why I think Twitter has done so much for CSR communications. So here's what I think Twitter's contribution to CSR and to CSR communications is all about:

Twitter makes CSR info accessible to more people more of the time. With hundreds of CSR and Sustainability and Green tweeps tweeting their CSR news items or other CSR interest items, the world cannot fail to be more aware of many new aspects of CSR and how it is evolving as we speak blog tweet. Awareness in itself doesn't make all that much of a  difference. But awareness is a precursor to action. Just by making people aware, you change their paradigms, and new paradigms bring new motivations and new activities. I have no data, but I would bet any amount of chunky monkeys that CSR tweets have driven CSR actions to a great degree in these last few years.

Twitter IS CSR conversations. Of course, Facebook, LinkedIn, Justmeans, DevelopmentCrossing and many more networks offer conversation possibilities. But Twitter does it quicker, faster and more directly. Limiting to 140 characters forces you to choose what you want to say very carefully. Just look at some of the dialogues happening on Twitter around COP15, or human rights, or employee engagement. They may not have the richness of a Linkedin thread, but people are getting their points of view across. I believe this is changing the way people are talking and  thinking about CSR.

Twitter brings CSR leaders closer . The wealth of twittering CSR celebs such as Ray Anderson of Interface  (@RayCAnderson) , Jeff Swartz of Timberland ( @Timberland_Jeff) , Jeff Hollender of Seventh Generation ( @JeffHollender) , Kevin Moss of BT ( @KevinIMoss) , Richard Branson of , well, Richard Branson ( @richardbranson) ,  Fadi  Ghandour of Aramex ( @fadig) Dave Stangis of Campbell Soup ( @dstangis) , and CSR thought leaders such as Noreena Hertz ( @NoreenaHertz) , Christine Arena ( @christinearena ) , Rosabeth Kanter ( @RosabethKanter )  Adam Werbach ( @adamwerbach ) , Joel Makower ( @makower) , and CSR organizations such as CERES ( @ceresnews), the GRI ( @GRI_Secretariat), make the possibility of conversing with these leading lights, understanding what's important to them, hearing their insights and following their example. This is what  future CSR leaders aspire to and are inspired by. Equally, I am sure that the CSR-tweeting leaders are thereby exposed to quesions, feedback and reactions that that are uniquely twitterous, i.e. that they would otherwise have no access to. And this helps them build their own thoughts and positions and leadership.  

Twitter stages CSR connections. People are meeting each other, creating partnerships, making deals, doing new things in the CSR space. Connections and actions that would never have been possible on slow networks such as Facebook or Linked in. Twitter is fast and furious, creating fast and furious changes in the way people are working together across country borders.

Twitter is just one big CSR conference. It is probably true to say that someone is tweeting from every single CSR conference or event, wherever it is happening in the world. So what would normally have been a closed meeting for the privilege of the privileged few is now an open newstream of insights from inspiring CSR folks for the accessibility-challenged many. This is helping to create greater interest in the CSR body of knowledge which is evolving as we blog.

Twitter is the absolute best source of CSR news. In addition to all the CSR news sites that tweet away such as @CSRWire, @GreenEconPost   @2Sustain and more, i suspect that there is no news item anywhere on CSR that doesnt get tweeted, that is, noticed by a far greater community. Whether it be a latest video from a CSR conference, or a new social flavor from Ben and Jerry's, or a donation of $375,000 by Unilever to Feeding America, or human rights abuse in someone's supply chain, or a way to make your holiday gift benefit the world ( @iGiveTwice) ...it's tweeted. Now don't tell me that's not influencing the way Companies  think and talk about CSR . Here are a few i just jinged:

Twitter is now core in CSR comms strategies. HP, Fedex, Microsoft , Intel and many more are tweeting their CSR updates. This is a tool to engage both internal and external audiences (us CSR folks call them stakeholders). Think back to a couple of years ago. What comms routes did companies have to spread their positive news and engage in conversation about it, with just about anyone? 

Twitter is a CSR jobs recruitment platform. At least once a day a CSR job is posted on Twitter. Or should i say once an hour. Because it seems like that.

And, I saved the best for the last:

Twitter announces CSR reports. Every CSR report published is announced by someone somewhere on Twitter (oops, its me, more often than not) (haha)  Often, highlights from the report such as ghg emissions reduction, or community invesment, or a CEO statement are tweeted as well. I think Twitter has become a platform for creating awareness of CSR reporting in a way which has never been achieved through press releases, websites, email, or RSS. 

Note that I havent mentioned the way Twitter is used to promote brands, or the way it is used for customer service, or to announce new products and services. All these link to CSR as well, in one way or another. 

All in all, Twitter is a CSR communications tool , more than anything we have ever had at our disposal  in the past. So now, Cindy, you know what I meant. But I am glad you asked me to spell it out.

Anyway, I'm off now to send a few CSR tweets before my signal-to-noise ratio takes a nose-dive....

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm . Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en