Why YOU HAVE to attend.......

..... the fourth annual Smarter Sustainability Reporting conference. It's on February 24th, 2015 in London.  It's THE annual conference all about sustainability reporting that I chair every year. No, it's not just for reporting geeks, though geeks are thoroughly welcome.

And the reason YOU HAVE to attend is that, for three years now, we have held these totally amazing, informative, content-rich, expertise-packed, opinion-forming, insight-generating, brain-cell-activating, networking-supporting conferences and we still do not have the answer to the question: What is Smarter Sustainability Reporting? We've debated, discussed, shared, chaired, talked, balked, asked, answered, thought, contemplated, ruminated, instigated, irritated, cajoled, encouraged, suggested, digested and just about everything else you do and don't do at conferences... and we still don't have a definitive answer. That's sad. We may have had an answer in the second conference, but then the world changed and we went back to the drawing board at conference three. At this, the fourth annual, we simply have to have an answer. Maybe YOU are the one who can help?

We have a great line-up of expert speakers and panelists - and still more to confirm.

• Nelmara Arbex, Chief Advisor on Innovation in Reporting, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 
• Sarah Grey, Markets Director, International Integrated Reporting Council, IIRC
• Steve Kenzie, UK Network Secretariat, Global Compact Network
• Simon Howard, Chief Executive Officer, UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF)
• Dr. Paul Toyne, Sustainability Director, Balfour Beatty Construction Services
• Louise Tyson, Head of Reporting, BP
• Katie Buchanan, Head of Sustainability and Reporting, Virgin Media
• Irene Jakobi, Sustainability Manager, Telekom Austria
• Mardi McBrien, Managing Director, Carbon Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB)
• Shaun Davis, Group Director of Safety, Health, Wellbeing &  Sustainability, Royal Mail
• Crystal Crawford, Corporate Responsibility Manager, Liberty Global
• Verity Lawson, Sustainability Reporting Manager, British American Tobacco
• Michaela Rose, Sustainability Advisor, Forum for the Future

You would think that these fantastic experts would have ALL the answers but I can promise YOU, they can't do it on their own. They need YOU.

How do YOU define Smarter Sustainability Reporting? What makes smart smarter? And what makes reporting reporting? From GRI G4 to integrated reports to carbon disclosures to investor interest to innovation to local/global to transparency, creativity and materiality and a whole lot more, we'll be looking to get at the answer that has been evading tens of speakers and hundreds of delegates since the start of our conference series. Do YOU know? Are YOU harboring a totally intelligent response that we are all waiting for? Are YOU willing to share? Will YOU come to the conference and enlighten all of us? 

If YOU decide to come and help us out, I can offer YOU a discount (being the chair has some privileges) and I can promise to be eternally grateful. And so will everybody else. YOUR presence and contribution is absolutely what will make the difference.

That's not to say that in three years of conferences we haven't answered other questions about reporting, the reporting landscape, trends, challenges, risks and opportunities. A mix of practitioner and subject-matter experts, we have always had rich debate and generated a host of action-oriented insights. The feedback from attendees has always been strong. Each conference has been remarkable. The desire to share and learn more about what's going on in reporting is obviously very much alive for both reporting geeks and reporting non-geeks. That's why we keep doing it. 

You may be wondering by now, what's the point of having a conference every year that can't answer its own question? I remember someone quoting some smart famous person who said: if you keep doing the same things, you keep getting the same results. Or something like that, probably more elegantly put. Which is exactly why we continue to shake things up every year. No two conferences are the same. We have a different agenda, different speakers, different round-table talk sessions, different panel discussions and different areas of focus. We don't keep doing the same things but we still don't have the answer to this really truly completely fully exceptionally elusive question: What is Smarter Sustainability Reporting? Obviously, we have been missing something. Yes. We have been missing YOU. So, please come. Please share. Please tell us YOUR answer. Please help make this conference even  more remarkable. 

So: Block out the date in your diary. Contact me for a 15% discount code. Register. Get prepared to share. And watch this space in the run-up to the conference for more posts in conversation with some of our speakers.

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.   

Consistent creative reporting - a cone-worthy example

Every so often, you come across a company whose Sustainability Reporting is inspiring because of the creativity with which they get the message through, and the consistent delivery of high quality information. It's not so often you see an engineering and construction company deliver cutting-edge reports, but in this case, I have to award Cone Trio to Larsen and Toubro.

 

 

Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) is a technology, engineering, construction and manufacturing company. It is one of the largest companies in India, founded in Bombay (Mumbai) in 1938 by two Danish engineers, Henning Holck-Larsen and Soren Kristian Toubro. Both of them were strongly committed to developing India's engineering capabilities to meet the demands of industry. L&T is traded on the Indian Stock Exchange and employs over 50,000 full-time employees and over 300,000 contract workers, boasting a turnover of around $13 billion.

  

This was the first report in 2008

 

 

Leading with the theme of L&T's role in building Indian society, this GRI A+ Application Level Report is one of the best first reports you can find. Peppered with charmingly written short case studies, this Report shows the human face of engineering and construction.

This was the second report in 2009

The idea here, is, you guessed it, there are some conditions to our inhabitation of the planet and use of its resources. This is how they put it at L&T:

"This planet we call home is like no other in the galaxy. No other body in orbit has the cocoon of atmosphere that sustains life; nowhere else do waters flow from summit to sea, nourishing civilisations along the way. This unique, beautiful and bountiful world of ours has helped mankind flourish across time. It can certainly provide for us far into the future, but… conditions apply."

Each one of the company directors has their own space to make their own sustainability commitment and add perspective (this was also a feature of the first report). This is very good practice - it shows that all the leadership is committed, not just the CEO, and it makes their commitment public for both their employees and external stakeholders to see.

This report introduces a set of sustainability targets for a three year 2009-2012 period. Some are quantitative, others are more general, but the path is clear.

This was the third report in 2010

 

A more creative report, bolder in its messaging, bringing out the core elements of L&T's approach in the context of global changes and local challenges. Directors' messages, sustainability targets and clear, comprehensive  disclosures continue to characterize L&T's reporting, showing consistency in approach and in presentation of metrics.  

This is the latest report covering 2011.

 

This report blends continuity with another creative twist in the messaging, while remaining true to the core aspects of L&T's role in society and performance on improving impacts. Also, there is a certain maturity developing with this report, with use of case studies and visuals which are less stock and more about presenting company people and initiatives, all of which include a statement of outcome (though many of the outcomes presented are generally results - e.g. "Outcome: 200 women were provided with vocational training." This is not an outcome, this is an output, or result. The outcome is what happened to these women as a result of their having been vocationally trained.)

 

 

What's interesting is that L&T manages to achieve this performance with only 13% of female employees in 2011 - a rate which has more than doubled from the 6% in 2008, which shows progress albeit continuing underrepresentation of women. None of the executive team members are women. Think of what this company could do if it were to develop greater gender diversity :)

There are thoughts I would share with L&T for future reporting:

• It would be helpful to have a clearer picture of the "delta" - what has changed from one year to the next,  new initiatives, key areas of progress. It would be nice to see this quickly, upfront, without having to read the whole report, section by section.
• I would suggest tightening up the Sustainability Targets matrix. The targets have remained the same for the 2009 - 2012 plan, but the actual progress since 2009 in each area is not clear, as in each year, only partial responses are given. For example, progress against several targets is simply "ongoing".  Some of the targets themselves could be tightened up for the next 3 year period - for example, "conduct carbon footprint mapping" could be converted to a target which expresses an intent to improve footprint, not just count it. "Promote employee volunteering" could be more specific. 
• Supply chain impacts are under-reported by L&T. As a massive business with probably thousands of suppliers, many in the company's home country, it would be nice to see how L&T is expanding its influence right through the supply chain and encouraging its supply base to engage in sustainability initiatives and find their own form of accountability.
• I would suggest some inclusion of external and internal stakeholder commentaries. I think this always livens up reporting and adds credibility.
• I would love to know more about what L&T are doing to encourage the advancement of women in their business. Construction and engineering may not be the most obvious choice for most women, and there are only 940 females for every 1,000 males in India,  but with almost 600 million women to choose from, I am sure there must be some executive potential there somewhere which would be good for L&T's business and society in general. L&T glosses over this in their reporting, while declaring a commitment to diversity. If there's no commitment, why say there is ?
• Convert outputs to outcomes and report both. This is not as easy as it sounds, but it is a better measure of community investment effectiveness. Outputs tell you that the ladder is in place, outcomes tell you that it's standing against the right wall.

It is important for large companies to show leadership in sustainability performance and transparency. I think L&T do a good job... with some opportunity to sharpen up the impact of their reporting in future publications  :)

 

 elaine cohen, CSR consultant, winning (CRRA'12) 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  (Beyond Business Ltd, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

25 examples of Creativity in Sustainability Reports

25 Sustainability Reports are entered in the Creativity in Communications category in CRRA 12, the largest online annual Sustainability Reporting Awards. To enter this category, one assumes the reporters believe their report is meaningfully creative. What's creative in terms of Sustainability Reports? Well, according to CorporateRegister.com, it's this:

Which report is a real pleasure to read, because the authors have given thought to both the content and the reader? Do you find the report engaging and informative, or boring and unimaginative? This award is for the report which best succeeds in getting its message across, using creativity as a defining factor.

What does Merriam Webster say about creativity?
The quality of being creative
The ability to create
Hmm, that didn't get us very far, did it ?

So what better way than to look at the reports entered in the Creativity in Communications category to see what we can find that make them elligible for a creativity award. Let's take 'em in alpha order.

(NB: All report links go to CorporateRegister.com Report Profiles - you need to be registered to view - but then - you need to be registered to vote :) And you are planning to vote, right?)

Aggregate Industries UK Ltd Sustainability Report 2010 (GRI A+)

This report is called the "Seven Ages of Aggregate Industries" and opens up with an introduction that starts like this: " Having been part of the sustainability reporting process for around 10 years, we know that a corporate sustainability report isn’t the sexiest of reads and yet here we are for another year. You have made it to the introduction and we would like you to keep reading. After all, we have so much that we want to share. Many a sleepless night has been spent devising a way of turning 34 pages of information into a story that we hope will both inform and entertain." Yep. That's original, for sure. The report is structured around a kind of storyline that goes from Birth to a further six stages: Growth and Leading, Youth, Starting Out, Middle Age, Old Age and Retirement. In the Birth section, for example, Aggregate Industries talk about the birth of a pre-cast modular rail platform solution. I guess that explains why reporting isn't sexy. Ha-ha. The report is an entertaining read, and certainly is more creative than the standard marketplace, workplace, community and environment approach.

Birth from Aggregate Industries

Banco Bradesco Sustainability Report 2010 (GRI A+)

Banco Bradesco's 61 page report is packed with charts and figures and tables, so that your eyes jump around from narrative to visuals rather frequently. The different thing about this report is the way it handles glossary and links. Throughout the report, whenever there is something Banco Bradesco wants to explain, it has a call-out box which contains the information or link.

Calling out for more information at Banco Bradesco

On page 19, there are almost more call-outs than narrative. That's pretty creative.

Bank Sarasin and Co Sustainability Report 2010 (GRI A+)

This report is spectacular and stands out from the crowd. You can probably sense that it's going to be a different sustainability report experience when you see the cover - Michael Leibundgut holding the violin of a close friend that passed away. Not your standard hands-holding-a-globe, babies smiling or green pastures graphics.

The first 30 pages of this report is a magazine - a kind of cultural and environmental immersion with a sustainability flavor. Interesting pieces on art in Duesseldorf, pollinating bees, Switzerland's role in sustainability and electric cars, and more. The second 30-page section is the GRI report.

British American Tobacco Sustainability Report 2010 (GRI Undeclared) 

BAT are by now seasoned reporters and aim to present another face of the tobacco industry than the one which gets all the hard hits. Some might say - that's creativity! However, one of the approaches in this 219 page report is Answering Challenging Stakeholder Questions, such as :

# Should a tobacco company aim to be sustainable?

# Do you engage with stakeholders who are most critical of the tobacco industry?

# Isn't this all "PR spin"?

# Do you concentrate on developing markets that have less tobacco regulation?

# Can you be responsible when you need to compete?

Maybe BAT's responses are also creative? However, sustainability reporting should be about responding to stakeholders and not just we-did-this-aren't-we-great brochures, so in that respect, BAT are doing what it takes. You can send them any question and they will consider responding to it in their next report.

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc The Bigger Picture Review 2011 (GRI C)

This is a 118 page report which follows a repeat sequence of priorities and progress and next steps in each section. The interesting thing about this report which breaks the mold is the two sections devoted to Sport and the Arts, and the way broadcasting can empower sports and a range of festivals, art events, ballet, books and more. Short case studies illustrate the narrative.  Arts has to be a creative thing, right ?

Capital Power Corporation Sustainability Report 2011 (GRI A+)

This has to be the most creative report for use of icons. Everything has an icon. A reindeer for wildlife monitoring. A windtower for wind farms. A syringe for free flu-shots. A briefcase for long term debt. A pylon for electricity. A hard-hatted person for employees. A coal cart for a coal project. And what seems like hundreds more. Icons = creativity? I am sure there is a connection somewhere. Overall, the report is has an attractive design with some nice info-graphics. It's an example of how great design can turn sustainability narrative into a creative report.

Creative presentation at Capital Power

Coca Cola Enterprises Inc. Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report (GRI B+)

This report is Creativity in Red. No points for guessing why red is the dominant color for Coca Cola reporting. The report is peppered with colored balloons with interesting data and facts.

Coca Cola Ent. balloons

Of course, as far as I know, Coca Cola Enterprises is the only company to call CSR "CRS". Perhaps that should count for a creativity award.

Danisco Sustainability Report 2010/2011 (GRI A+)

Following Danisco's acquisition by Du Pont last year, this is the last sustainability report to be published independently by Danisco. It's nice to see the company went ahead and published this report entitled "Ingredients for a Changing World" after the acquisition was announced. They could have taken the easy option to skip it. Danisco has a materiality matrix which takes up a whole page. Now, there's something creative!

Danisco's full page materiality matrix

Dell Corporate Responsibility and Report 2011 (GRI A)

Over 55 team members throughout 12 departments within the Dell organization were engaged in the collaborative creation of this 60 page report. This report was created in-house, for the first time. Hmm, personally, I recommend consultants :)  However, engaging staff in the writing of the report requires great process which I am sure involves a lot of creativity along the way. The conversation at Dell doesn't stay in house. They invite everyone to join the conversation.

Join Dell's sustainability conversation

Deloitte LLP Fiscal 2010 Corporate Responsibility Report (GRI B)

This is the third Deloitte report . It closes with a section called "Want to know more?" which pulls together all the relevant links to further information about issues highlighted in the report. This is the first time Deloitte uses the GRI framework and they cautiously claim to be the first among the “Big Four” organizations to issue a GRI report in the United States. They comment: "As might be anticipated for a private organization whose customary approach to sharing information is on a “need-to-know” basis, the road toward transparency is not always comfortable. As we move forward, we expect our GRI reporting to be more robust and comprehensive." That's a good disclosure and a differentiating aspect of Deloitte's reporting.

Gas Natural SDG SA 2010 Corporate Responsibility Report (GRI A+)
This is a serious 212 page report with plenty of detail . Some of the charts are so detailed that they take a while to digest.

Digesting data at Gas Natural

This 212 page report contains a special chapter entitled "How to Read the Corporate Responsibility Report" which serves as a reader guide. This is a nice touch, even though it appears only on page 40, by which time you have either worked it out or given up. The GRI Index is also cross linked with both the UNGC Principles and the Millennium Development Goals.

Hewlett-Packard Company  A connected world. The impact of HP global citizenship in 2010-and beyond (GRI B)

HP's 244 page report is not called a report at all. That's creative. It's also includes 17 pages of product descriptions - a kind of mini-product brochure inside the report. That's even more creative. However, no-one can fault HP on its comprehensive, intensive reporting for yet another year. It is clear that the company invests many resources into producing its sustainability report and my pick for the most creative innovation in this one is a 16-photo Day in the Life of a Factory Auditor, showing the process of an experienced environmental health and safety auditor and how she goes about her two-day audit. Great creativity for a Sustainability Report. 

HP auditors at work in China

Kuoni Travel Holding Limited Corporate Responsibiltiy Report 2010 (GRI Undeclared)

This report will not fail to impress you with its creative design which contains illustrations from the Atlas des îles perdues, an artwork by Marie Velardi. "The Atlas depicts islands that could one day sink into the ocean due to rising sea levels caused by climate change. It is a clear illustration of the vital role of mitigating the negative impacts of Kuoni’s operations on the environment while at the same time enhancing the benefits of its actions at the destinations for now and the future. "

One of the lost islands from Kuoni's report

Created entirely in black and while, with pencil illustrations - aha! no photos at all in this report- and large white spaces and full page section introductions with quotable quotes, this report is certainly a uniquely styled presentation and well worth a look.



Quotable section heads from Kuoni Travel Holdings



The report also contains "webcodes". By inserting the webcode on the company's website, you can navigate directly to points of specific interest. A thoughtful report focusing on serious aspects of sustainability in the tourism industry in a striking way.

La Trobe University. Sustainability Report 2010. Responsible Futures (GRI B+)

Universities have a major role to play in sustainability and La Trobe University’s inaugural sustainability report is one of only a few universities worldwide that have reported in accordance with the GRI framework and, La Trobe claims, is the world’s first university sustainability report to be externally assured to AA1000 standards. This is one of the few reports I have seen that has responded adequately to GRI LA14 indicator by providing a ratio for male: female pay and confirming a gender gap. We all know that women are paid less than men for same work in almost every industry but somehow, thousands of sustainability reports don't disclose on this issue or simply spurt equality policy. La Trobe's approach  is very creative - they admit they have an issue.

LA Trobe- it's so honest, it's creative

Loyalty One Inc. Accountability Report 2011 (GRI C)

This is the only company in this category to call their report an Accountability Report. The creative difference in this report is the link to the corporate brand - at Loyalty One everything is one. One responsibility, one environment, one community, one culture. You get the picture. The report is called One Step Further.

Microsoft 2011 Citizenship Report (GRI undeclared)

Microsoft's report (81 pages) is creativity in its simplicity. The report is structured section by section in four parts: Challenges, Opportunities, What we're doing, What's next. This is supplemented by "Spotlights" on specific issues and "Viewpoints" from external stakeholders. Pleasant visuals. Clean. Neat. Get's the job done. That's creative.

National Grid plc Social Purpose Report 2010 (GRI Undeclared)

This 38 page report is made up of full page images representing 26% of the report content, plus other visuals throughout the narrative pages. Someone at the National Grid is obviously very camera-happy. It's a first report so that's always something special. Focusing on social purpose (Our job is to connect people to the energy they use, safely and reliably) is a good way to express the sustainability motivations of this company. This is how it looks without words:

Creativity in connecting energy to people from the National Grid

Newalta Corp. Sustainability 2011 (Not GRI)
This is a 29 page report, the Company's second. But you don't have to take my word for it. You can take advantage of this company's creative innovation by checking it out via their QR code.

QR straight to Newalta

Qualcomm 2010 Social Responsibility Report (GRI B+)

This 103 page download is an export of the online report website and is called Sending a Strong Signal: Stepping up, reaching out and making responsibility quintessentially Qualcomm. Any Sustainability Report which has a 16-letter word in the report title has to be a candidate for a creativity award. 

Royal Dutch Shell plc Sustainability Report 2010 (GRI A+)
Not many companies have 10 years of sustainability data to boast of. Shell does. They present this data in a fascinating chart. Getting 30 different metrics year by year for 10 years onto one page is creative. And impressive.

10 years of sustainability data at Shell

Teck Resources Ltd Sustainability Report 2011 (GRI A+)
Some companies go totally overboard with photos and design in sustainability reporting. Teck doesn't. This 96 page report has three photos, and one is the cover page. The rest is mainly narrative with some charts, with the exception of a nice visual showing the cycle of mineral use in a sustainable society.

Camping out after mine closure at Teck

Teck Resources' report is very detailed and includes fascinating case studies. One of my favorites is how Sphinx Creek watershed was turned into a thriving habitat for rainbow and bull trout follwing reclamation of a mined pit.

The Coca-Cola Company 2009/2010 Sustainability Review (GRI undeclared)
Coca Cola contains a lot of water, but you knew that. This report includes the water footprint of beet sugar as part of Coca-Cola's sustainable agriculture initiative. We have come a long way when downstream companies are disclosing such detail about upstream impacts. I haven't seen too many companies disclosing water footprints of single raw materials to date. I am sure we will see more. This is a differentiating factor in the Coca-Cola Company's report.

Coca-Cola's sustainable agriculture initiative

The Walt Disney Company Corporate Citizenship Report 2010 (GRI undeclared)

The Disney report is a journey into the wondrous and magical world of wholesome and fun entertainment. The report contains many case studies about ways in which Disney uses the power of entertainment to advance sustainable lifestyles and improve environmental impacts. The World of Color, for example, is a water-conserving nighttime attraction. Looks pretty creative to me!

A sustainable water attraction from The Walt Disney Company

Waggener Edstrom Worldwide Inc: Corporate Citizenship Report 2010 (GRI B+)

This 81 page report has a great design and invites the reader to get stuck in. Use of infographics to introduce sections help to focus reader interest. But by far the biggest aspect of creativity has to be:


Women get to high places at Waggener Edstrom

Any company with over 60% of VP level-and-above execs who are women just has to be great at creativity.

And one more

So these are 24 examples of creativity in Sustainability Reporting. But I promised 25. Ah, well, you see, the remaining report in the Creativity in Communications category is my very own company's report - Beyond Business Sustainability Report 2010 - How a little consulting firm makes a BIG impact (GRI A). So, now that you know that my report is a contender, in competition with all these other creative reports, you can judge my comments accordingly. But I also invite you to take a look at my report and check out how mindbogglingly creative we have been. And if you would like to vote for the Beyond Business Sustainability Report, it would make me as happy as a very large helping of my favorite ice cream.

In any event, I urge you to reward this bunch of great reporters and use your five votes in this category to acknowledge those you think lead the pack in creativity. Vote NOW (or until 21st January) here.

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)