Dr Sustainability is back!

Dr. Sustainability has been rather busy of late, engaging with stakeholders, making materiality assessments, chairing conferences and generally enjoying life on the sustainability reporting circuit. She has once again agreed to share her perspectives in response to reader questions EXCLUSIVELY on the CSR Reporting blog. She knows that the CSR Reporting Blog is the longest running blog about reporting in the stratosphere and that it is always packed with quality insights. Good quality, bad quality, who cares, it's always quality.   

Dear Dr. Sustainability: After almost 20 years of reporting, we don't have too much left to say. We have already described our policies, approaches and initiatives. Of course, we can easily update the quantitative data, but all the rest is as it always has been. Should we now experiment with different topics to report? For example, the fact that we have organic ice cream in our dining room? Or that we have reversed our smoke-free policy in our corporate offices to ensure we get value for money from our fire detectors? Or should we simply republish our latest report with a different image on the front? 

Dear Reporter: It's true that a year happens very quickly and even if you really scrape the barrel, there is not always enough to say. However, simply republishing your last report is not a good idea. After all, you want to differentiate yourselves from your competitors, correct? (Think about it!). In my view, you could be proactive and create some content specially for your report. For example, you could rebuild your corporate head offices totally out of post-consumer recycled waste that you have collected from all your employees and local communities. This is actually a long-term win-win, because then, instead of throwing out your office waste, you can use it to construct another office.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I heard that GRI and SASB are to collaborate on reporting standards. All SASB sector standards are to be integrated into GRI Standards and then, eventually, there will no longer be a need for a two separate organizations. I heard they are going to merge and call themselves Global Sustainability Standards Reporting Accounting Board Initiative (GSSRABI) headquartered in Amsterdam. Do you think this will help improve the quality of reporting over the long term? 

Dear Optimist: I think that's just absolutely fantastic. It's true that we need more collaboration in the sustainability reporting space. Usually, when you hear the word "collaboration", it means endless dialogue that doesn't get anywhere. At least, in this case, bicycle sales in Europe will increase.  

Dear Dr. Sustainability: We are in the process of planning our next report and we have engaged two different consultants to help us prepare it. The problem is the consultants can't agree on anything and every time one of them advises us on something, the other gives the opposite advice. How can we resolve this?
Dear Moneybags: You have two options. Only pay the consultant whose advice you choose to accept. Or, better, hire a third consultant to mediate between the existing two and decide on your behalf what is most appropriate. You may end up with a consultant-speak techno-babble report, but at least you won't be caught in the middle of consultant-speak techno-babble arguments.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I hear GRI is collaborating with the UNGC and others to create a reporting platform for the SDGs. Do you like this approach? 

Dear Collaborator: Of course, this is a wonderful approach. Collaboration is a great thing. And another new reporting platform is exactly what everybody needs. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Now that GRI Standards are published, are you seeing sustainability reports of higher quality? 

Dear Auditor: Oh yes. In particular, I am seeing a lot of investment in the reporting principles. One day, there will be an investment in reporting practice. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: My boss told me that sustainability reporting is just a phase and that it will disappear within 3 years. Should I be looking for another job? 

Dear Pessimist: Well, as the office cleaner, I wouldn't have thought this change will affect you significantly.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I hear that GRI and IIRC are collaborating to make integrated reporting relevant to all stakeholders. Do you think this will be groundbreaking? 

Dear Stakeholder: Groundbreaking is probably not a word I would use. Backbreaking is probably closer to the truth.
  

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Why is it that sustainability reports are always about people, planet and profit? What about animals? I love animals. Why does no-one write sustainability reports that consider the needs of dogs, cats, elephants, lizards, snakes and hippos?  

Dear Zookeeper: The animal world is essential to sustainable development and many reports refer to the impact of corporations on biodiversity, wildlife, endangered species and other non-human life-forms. The problem is that pictures of wild boars and dead snakes on the cover of sustainability reports have been known to cause nightmares for the children of employees, and, in 2016, fourteen children were diagnosed with Sustainability Report Anxiety Disorder, a sickness usually only found to affect reporting managers. UNICEF has now banned animals from sustainability reports. In future, only nice photos of children and sunshine can be on the cover of reports.   

Dear Dr. Sustainability: For our last materiality assessment, it took absolutely ages to place the dots on the matrix. Every time I thought I had the right place for every dot, one of our executives or stakeholder groups decided that it should move up a little, down a little or to the left or the right. And when one dot moved, I had to move all the others. We decided on our most material topics ages ago, but it has taken 3 years just to agree where the dots should be, and now it's time for a new materiality assessment. How can I avoid the same problem in our new process?

Dear Dotty: Fix your dots down with SuperGlue. If anyone complains, fix them down with SuperGlue as well.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I hear that GRI is looking for new organizations to collaborate with. They have exhausted collaboration possibilities with all the other organizations in the sustainability reporting space and are looking for new ways to enhance their reach. I have a small business that makes edible keyboards and I was wondering if GRI might be prepared to collaborate with me. Edible self-regenerating keyboards are a new sustainable tool for the future of work. They are organic, calorie-controlled, free of colorings, additives, added sugar and GMO ingredients and they are perfectly functioning keyboards until eaten, and regenerate themselves immediately after consumption. Using these keyboards, sustainability report writers can write, copy-paste, revise, copy-paste, send to legal and revise for days on end without ever having to leave their desk. This will have immense benefits for the speed of reporting, the productivity of reporting managers and the reputation of the firm. Do you think GRI will be open to promoting the edible self-regenerating keyboard as an essential sustainability reporting tool alongside GRI Standards?
Dear Businessperson: The edible self-regenerating keyboard certainly sounds like a worthy innovation. In fact, thank you for the samples. I gave them to a report-writer and she has already eaten 16 and she hasn't even finished the About this Report chapter. As for GRI, they may be interested. You just have to make sure that the keyboard has quick keys for standard reporting phrases. For example:

• CNTL+E: We are proud of all we have achieved but there is more to be done.
• SHIFT+K: Even in a challenging economy, we have still upheld all our CSR values and continued to contribute to the community. 
• SHIFT+P: As a customer-centric company, customers are at the center of all we do.
• CNTL+Y: Employees are our greatest asset.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: My CEO is committed to compliance but he says beyond compliance is totally an own-goal. He will not listen to reason. So all we have to report in our annual sustainability report is how compliant we are. Is it worth publishing a report? 

Dear Optimist: Compliance is a wonderful thing and your stakeholders will be comforted to know that you are compliant. You can write a great report about being compliant. You can tell compliance stories and case studies. You can take photos of your executives being compliant. You can include compliance videos. You can talk about the meaning of compliance and how it affects your organization. You can talk about the incidences of non-compliance and how you addressed them. You can reflect on the nature of compliance and the need to build a compliance culture. You can identify compliance targets and report your progress against them. In fact, there is so much to say about compliance that you will have to be careful not to make your report too long. Of course, a compliance-only report is not everybody's dream report, but you have to do what you can where you are with what you have. And you get to keep your CEO happy. He will probably be so happy that he will reward you (with ice cream) for being compliant. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: We finished our sustainability report ages ago, but it has taken so long for our legal counsel and senior managers to approve the report that I fear it is a little out of date. Is it worth publishing a report covering 2012 in 2017? 

Dear Optimist:  Ah yes, that is a big gap. Who can even remember where they were in 2012? However, as long as you have ticked all the boxes, nobody will mind. In fact, nobody will probably even notice.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: We have a new Human Resources Director who doesn't want to listen to anything to do with sustainability. She says the role of HR Is to keep management happy and employees productive and within budget. She is not interested in diversity and inclusion, employee wellness, community involvement, green teams, living wage, work-life balance, sustainability-based bonuses, flexible working and open communications. She just wants to hire, fire and arrange company parties.
Dear Frustrated: Yes, this can be a problem with Human Resources Managers. They often can't see beyond the end of their nose. This is especially problematic if they have a very short nose. The only thing you can do in this case is try to undermine HR. Do a workaround. Convince your business managers to apply enlightened people policies and to actually talk to employees about sustainability. Eventually you will see a momentum building and employees will want to engage on matters that matter, and HR will have no choice than to respond. In the meantime, in your Sustainability Report, include statements like "our employees are our greatest asset", "our employees are our most important resource", "we are very employee-centric", and say that HR is driving a culture of caring and sharing.  

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I want to get our company listed on DJSI, as I see that many companies who are listed gain additional financial value and access to capital and generally deliver a better return for shareholders. How can I improve our position on DJSI? 

Dear Optimist: The best way to get listed on DJSI is to actually improve your corporate sustainability performance over a period of several years and systematically build your disclosure to meet the needs of the DJSI analysts. Of course, this may seem like rather a long and challenging process and it may not be worth your effort. If so, the alternative is to use the resources you would have invested in gaining DJSI listing for other purposes that will improve access to capital, such as bribing the bank manager, bribing the analysts or providing severance pay for your Chief Sustainability Officer.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: We have had a lot of feedback from employees who have read our Sustainability Report but they say that it does not represent our company. In fact, they say it's nothing like our company. They don't recognize anything that's in there. How can we resolve this issue?
Dear Stranger: Tell them not to be so narrow-minded and to use their imagination. By definition, a Sustainability Report is full of dreams and wishes and an optimistic and rosy future. You employees should link to their higher selves, explore the realms of possibility, contemplate on a heavenly work-life and consider that the report is designed to create trust in the company. How can you create trust if you actually tell it like it is?

Dear Dr. Sustainability: We love all our stakeholders, but frankly, all this engagement stuff takes time. I would much rather gain stakeholder input without having to talk to them. What are the ways I can do this on a tight budget? 

Dear Introvert: Yes, I understand that stakeholders can be a big problem. Engaging with them is every reporter's nightmare. The best way to do this without getting involved in long and cumbersome processes is simply to attend as many conferences as you can and talk to as many people as you can. Networking is the new normal in stakeholder engagement. Record all your networking conversations and publish the highlights in your report. Not only will you have a wealth of insight, you will enjoy lots of free lunches.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: We want to engage with stakeholders by holding a stakeholder round table but we don't have a round table. What should we do?
Dear Carpenter: You have two options. Get a round table (easy) or or don't engage with stakeholders (easier).

Dear Dr. Sustainability: How do you see the future of reporting?
Dear Futurist: If I could see the future, I would not be working in sustainability. I would be selling underground bunkers and oxygen masks.



elaine cohen, CSR Consultant, Sustainability Reporter, former HR Professional, Trust Across America 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award honoree, Ice Cream Addict, Author of three totally groundbreaking books on sustainability (see About Me page). 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). Need help writing your first / next Sustainability Report? Contact elaine: info@b-yond.biz 

Elaine will be chairing  the edie Conference on Smarter Sustainability Reporting  in London on 27th February 2018

Dr. Sustainability is back!

Dr. Sustainability is now a movie star. Since featuring in the Beyond Business video, she has been overrun with offers to star in major sustainability feature movies that help make the world a better place. Here are just a few of the movies she has worked on over the past few months. Watch your local box office for news of these movies coming to your cinema soon.

The Silence of the Engineers: Jodie Foster stars with Dr. Sustainability in this movie about a conspiracy of silence at a major German car manufacturer who has been cheating regulators about the level of air emissions from its manufactured vehicles. Dr. Sustainability is cast in the role of Clarice Sparkling, who uncovers the scam and saves the world from the duplicity of corporate car makers.

Almost Back to the Future: Dr. Sustainability stars alongside Michael J. Fox in this gripping tale of 45,000 attendees at a Climate Conference in a major European city who valiantly try to alter the course of global climate change, one of the most complex problems the world has ever faced. Dr. Sustainability plays the heroine who, towards the later stages of three days of deadlock among nations, manages to bring the parties to consensus about how we are all going to save the world.

Forrest Rump: Together with co-star, Tom Hanks, Dr. Sustainability goes on a world tour to explain to populations across the globe that reducing consumption of processed meat would be a good idea if they don't want to get colorectal cancer. Eventually Dr. Sustainability gets the message through and converts everyone to eating to ice cream instead. 

The Hunger Shames: Dr. Sustainability stars as Katnip Evergreen who brings together an army against President Slush to challenge the increasing inequality in global food production and distribution, enabling all the world's hungry people to receive government rations of three balanced and nutritious meals a day. The result is that people get so much to eat that they get fatter and fatter. The sequel to this movie will be called The Obesity Games. 

Muriel's Wedding: Dr. Sustainability doesn't star in this movie, actually. But I included it because it's one of the best movies ever and if you haven't seen it, you really should.

As usual, CSR Blog readers had a chance to ask Dr. Sustainability some questions.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Now that you are a movie star, will you be advancing sustainability principles in Hollywood? 

Dear Star-Struck: Of course. Hollywood has a great sustainability record. The amount of recycling of old movies is the highest in the world. Also, I have suggested a Hollywood Green Month. We will start by recycling The Boy with Green Hair. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I have heard that by 2030, the world will be OK and there will be no hunger, poverty or  abuses of human rights and there will be world peace, all due to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals? Can you confirm this?

Dear Boundless Optimist: Of course I can confirm this. But remember, if by 2030 we fail to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we can always make some new ones like we did last time. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Of all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that have been ratified, which one do you think is the most likely to be achieved? 

Dear Intellectual: Number 18.  

Dear Dr. Sustainability: But there is no number 18.

Dear Intellectual: Exactly. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: We are a small business and our impacts are modest. How can we contribute to advancing the SDGs ? 

Dear Contributor: Every action is worth something. Whatever your actions are worth, please calculate the value and put that on a money order addressed to Dr. Sustainability, Hollywood.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: We are thinking of developing a  new sustainability initiative at our privately-owned printing company. The initiative is designed to alleviate poverty by creating new wealth through the manufacture of money. We plan to provide 3D printers to small impoverished communities in the Niger Delta. They will be able to print notes and coins and even new wallets for the adult population. Could this be a solution to many of the social problems caused by poverty? 

Dear Creative: This is a wonderful initiative. I am all for distribution of wealth. The only problem I foresee here is that, as ApplePay takes over, they wont have a need for money as they will pay for everything using their iPhones. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Do you believe in karma? My boss says that sustainability is simply an issue of karma. If you screw the planet, it will screw you.

Dear Spiritualist: I think your boss is quite wise. Karma is a bit like the chicken and the egg.  The chain had to start somewhere. You have to undo all the unkarma things you did before you can start becoming karma positive. You can start by making a karma offset through the Dr. Sustainability Dekarmazation Fund that rights the world's wrongs as Dr. Sustainability gets rich. Money orders to Dr. Sustainability, Hollywood.  

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Now that everyone is using the G4 guidelines, do you  feel confident that we can overcome climate change? 

Dear G4-user: That depends if climate change is material. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I plan to be at the 5th global GRI Conference on May 18-19 in Amsterdam next year. Can we fix a time to meet? I would love to shake your hand. 

Dear Hand-Shaker: Of course, I will be at the conference. Who won't? But I don't do handshakes unless your palm is greased with Euros.  

Dear Dr. Sustainability: We recently did a materiality assessment and came up with more than 3,000 material topics that we screened down to one after a process of stakeholder engagement and management analysis.  The one issue that we identified as being most material was the time wasted on packing lines at our factories through people taking bathroom breaks. Our process was very robust. We used an accounting firm.  

Dear Materiality: What's your question? 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I have no question.

Dear Materiality: If your main issue is bathroom breaks , you should have lots of questions. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I am so worried about our next Sustainability Report that I can't sleep at nights. I have the feeling that we will never get to publish our report. We have made so many revisions, legal keep wanting to review it, senior management keep changing words, the designer keeps making mistakes and we have to correct it all over again and again and again. I am worried that we won't complete the report on time to publish this year - it's already November.

Dear Sleepless: No Sustainability Report is worth losing sleep over. Once the report is out, people will look at the content and not when it was published. Publishing a report at the end of 2015 for 2014 performance is rather late, but it's not the end of the world.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: The report covers 2013. 

Dear Sleepless: In that case, just change all the dates from 2013 to 2015, publish in 2016 and no-one will be any the wiser. Oh, and don't tell the legal folks. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I hear that GRI guidelines are becoming GRI standards. What do you say about that? 

Dear Standard-Setter:  That's nice for GRI. SASB has standards. IIRC has standards. Even ISO 26000 is a standard. Who's anyone without a standard? Now GRI will be just like everyone else.   

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Do you plan to be at the Paris climate summit? 
Dear Paris-watcher: It seems that the trend these days is that everyone is explaining why they will be in Paris or why they won't be in Paris. I have never been one to go with the trend so I will remain silent on whether I will attend and why or why not. Of course, remaining silent is one of my great life challenges, so watch this space, just in case.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: What advice would you give to our company? We have published 13 annual Sustainability Reports to date, but now we have no budget to develop content for a next report as times are hard.
Dear Hard-Up: My advice would be to publish  a Best of Sustainability Reports, as a compilation of all the best bits from all 13 reports to date. If you're lucky, no-one will even notice.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: How many Sustainability Reports have you enjoyed reading in your lifetime?
Dear Report-Reader: All of them. But please wait a second while I uncross my fingers.



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).  Need help writing your first / next Sustainability Report? Contact elaine: info@b-yond.biz  

Dr. Sustainability is BACK!

Dr. Sustainability is back in town, and as always, she is delighted to answer CSR Reporting Blog reader questions.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: How can you tell if a materiality analysis is genuine or if it was written on the back of an envelope over a beer in the pub?

Dear Alcoholic: If it was written on the back of an envelope over a beer in the pub, it's probably more genuine than most of the ones that weren't.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: What sustainability conferences have you attended recently and what conferences do you recommend?

Dear Curious: I have almost been attending loads of fantastic conferences. A couple of months ago, I was at the Climate Change Deniers Annual Conference. I denied that you can deny climate change and they kicked me out. Then I was at the We Love Reporting Annual Conference. The attendees were all wackos and weirdos so I left early. I mean, you have to be a wacko or a weirdo to love reporting. Last month I was at the Sustainability is an Imperative or We Will Perish Annual Conference. That was so depressing I am still taking valium. The best conference I almost attended was the Sustainable Ice Cream Conference in Vermont, where I was hoping that Ben and Jerry's would be distributing free fair-trade organic ice cream. When I realized that ice cream was not on the menu, I decided to stay home.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: A funny thing happened to me last month. I was finishing up our sustainability report and just as I was about to complete the GRI Content Index, I got an incredible pain that started in my head and traveled all the way down to my feet. Do you think there is any connection between the pain and the GRI Index?

Dear Painful: Yes, I have recommended for years now that GRI Reporting should come with a health-warning. You are apparently one of the lucky ones. Many of my friends and colleagues are now gazing mournfully out of a sanatorium window, unable to recognize their mothers and throwing objects at passing nurses. When you say hello to them, all they can respond is "DMA.... DMA... DMA... page... DMA... G4-21... Page...." and they carry on like that for hours. I think it has gotten a little worse with G4. Now they are mumbling "material Aspects ...... material Aspects ...... material Aspects ...... material Aspects...... material Aspects...."

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I have been reporting for years and now my company has decided to do G4 and wants a materiality matrix. Where on earth can I get a matrix?

Dear Experienced Reporter: The best matrix I have found is The Matrix. You can get it on iTunes. Called "The Most Eye-Popping and Imaginative Movie of the Year", the Matrix will be much more fun than the boring squares and arches of most of the materiality matrices you find in regular reports.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Can you please advise how I should deal with our chief legal officer who insists on reading our Sustainability Report before it is published. That's never happened before. What should I do?

Dear Backache: The fact that your chief legal officer wants to read the report before it is published is a real disaster. Typically, legal folks see a court case in anything. They can't read a sustainability report without a big pair of scissors and an extra-extra-large delete button. After your chief legal officer has done his thing, you will be left with a cover page, a back-cover, a few nice photos and about two pages of narrative describing improvements in your environmental performance and increases in community donations. Hmmm. I guess that will make your report look quite consistent with most of the reports that have been published in the last ten years. Maybe it's not such a disaster after all.   

Dear Dr. Sustainability: We have heard that stakeholder engagement is all the rage these days and at our company we have decided to get some, although we don't really want to. What's the best way to engage hundreds of stakeholders at lowest cost without them really having an influence on what we do? We want to be able to say we have engaged without really engaging.

Dear Engagement: That's such an easy question. I have the perfect solution. SurveyMonkey. Just send out your questionnaire to thousands of anonymous people (you can call them stakeholders if you like, most people don't know the difference). Even better, you can send out your survey to loads of consultants and ask them for their professional opinion for free. If you really want people to engage, promise them that you will donate $0.05 to a charity of their choice for every completed questionnaire. While the quality of feedback you will receive from 437 completed questionnaires will be totally irrelevant to your sustainability strategy and will not be useful in defining material issues, you will be able to tick the stakeholder engagement box with a REALLY BIG TICK. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I have been reading loads of G4 reports and before I go totally cross-eyed, I was wondering if i am missing something. They all look like G3 reports.

Dear Puzzled: I can recommend you start with Elaine Cohen's G4 Game Changer Series. In this series, expert GRI report-writer and commentator, Elaine Cohen, analyses the differences between G3 and G4 reports of different companies. This cutting-edge analysis will lead you to the same conclusion. G4 reports, so far, are looking pretty much the same as G3 reports. Now you don't need to go totally cross-eyed. Unless you want to.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: How can I make more people read our Sustainability Report?

Dear PeoplePerson: Give your report a new title. Call it: The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: We are having a real problem with gender balance in our company. As much as we try to recruit and promote women, it never works.They all have children that get sick, and they can never work overtime. They decorate their offices with pretty pictures of their kids and family pets, instead of our company values posters, and they are so OTT about multi-tasking that everything gets done without anyone noticing. Our CEO wants to show at least 30% women in management in our Sustainability Report (currently the actual is 0.43%). What can we do? 
Dear GenderBender: Look, there appears to be no hope in your company. There are two options. Kick out all the women and make it a male-only company. While this is illegal and immoral, your company will soon go down the tubes before you have a chance to face the court cases and pay the fines. The second option is to make your workplace more women-friendly. Offer all males over the age of 27 free sex-change operations and fire those who don't take up the offer.  

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I hear that there is a new trend in sustainability reporting called unsustainability unreporting. What do you think about that?

Dear PeoplePerson:   I have always been in favor of telling it like it is.

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 www.twitter.com/elainecohen   or via my business website www.b-yond.biz   (Beyond Business Ltd, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

Dr Sustainability and The M Factor

It's been a long while since Dr. Sustainability came to visit. She has been sooooooooooo busy. All these conversations about G4 have completely caught her up in a whirlwind of activity. In fact, Dr Sustainability told me that she is considering calling herself Dr. G4, but that doesn't quite roll off the tongue in the same way that Dr. Sustainability does. And of course, when G5 comes out, she would have to change her name again. However, Dr. Sustainability is definitely thinking that G4 has the M Factor. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I have heard you talk about the M Factor. What does M stand for? Magnificent? Mammoth? Mega? Misguided? Myopic? Monstrous? Minimalist? 

Dear Curious: You have certainly come up with some options I hadn't thought of. But in the context of G4 reporting, The M Factor is of course Materiality. Delivering a sustainability report without The M Factor is going to get harder and harder. In fact, it's The M Factor that makes it a sustainability report. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I have written a G4 report. How do I know if it has the M Factor? 

Dear Stupid: Check out the Content Index. If there is no "omission" next to the disclosure that asks for the list of Material Aspects (G4-19), that's a good start. The next thing is to check whether you have described your process for defining Material Aspects. After that, you should check if stakeholders have provided input and if the frequency of engagement has been noted. Then you can look to see if your Specific Standard Disclosures and Disclosures on Management Approach are in line with the Material Aspects. Of course, don't forget to check whether your Aspect Boundaries are internal or external to the organization. Then, you can make a quick scan of the Principles for Defining Report Content and the Principles for Defining Report Quality. Then check if you have responded to all the General Standard Disclosures. You can also take a quick look at the CEO statement to see if it includes a description of strategic priorities for the short and medium term, including respect for internationally recognized standards and a reference to macroeconomical and political trends. After that, if you don't know whether your report has The M Factor, it probably won't matter. You will be in an institution.

Dear Dr Sustainability: Thanks for your reply. Next time, please reply in English. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Did you call it The M Factor just to cash in on a little free publicity? Is it a way to associate sustainability reporting with the incredibly popular mega-rating fabulously universal TV show The X Factor? Perhaps you think that The X Factor may lend a little spotlight to sustainability reporting and help it go viral? 

Dear Simon Cowell: The X Factor seeks out talented people by selecting a small number from the hundreds that start out claiming they have The X Factor. Almost all of them fall by the wayside. It's the same with sustainability reporting. Thousands of reports claim they have The M Factor, but eventually you come to realize that The M Factor is rather elusive and only a few reports are privileged to make this claim genuinely. By the way, isn't it time The X Factor produced a Sustainability Report? You could call it The XM Factor.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Are there any other TV shows that you think are similar to Sustainability Reporting? 

Dear TV Addict: Actually, I don't watch much TV, but since you ask, Grey's Anatomy could be an interesting analogy. The skills required of the docs that run the ER are very similar to those required of today's Sustainability Officers. You have to be quick-thinking, know how to lead a team, make intuitive connections and improvise if you have to, think on your feet, act decisively and be prepared to amputate if you need to. That's just like publishing a Sustainability Report. Especially the amputate bit. In some cases, you might need to amputate the entire report. In other cases, just the CEO. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Is The M Factor an absolute thing? I mean can a report have The M Factor partially? Or does it have to be completely in full comprehensive M Factor? 

Dear Nitpicker:  There is only one M. Either you have it or you don't. Watch out for fakes. And watch out for companies who claim they have The M Factor when in reality they have one of any number of other factors:

• The D Factor: D stands for Drivel. No explanation needed.
• The Y Factor: Y stands for Why on earth did this company publish a sustainability report when they have nothing to report?
• The OMG Factor: OMG stands for WOW, the CEO actually read this report he signed off on. 
• The PR Factor: PR stands for Press Release. This is a report that looks great in a Press Release but not in a report.
• The COTW Factor: This stands for Completely Off The Wall. Reports which are so out of sync with the issues that matter that they were probably written by PR firms. Or politicians.  
• The JK Factor: JK stands for Just Kidding. You must have seen reports like this. As you read them, all you can say to yourself is: Are you kidding me? Sometimes this is called the S Factor. S stands for: Seriously? 
• The A Factor: A stands for Awesome. Not many reports have this factor. It's when the report is fabulously designed, incredibly creative, pyrotechnically sophisticated and sleekly presented online, but the content is anything but material.  

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I hear that GRI is starting out with a new G4 Application Level Check, to see if G4 reports have The M Factor. What do you think of that? 

Dear Checker: It's a brilliant move on the part of GRI. According to the initial information GRI has provided, they are charging the same price as the G3 Application Level check while promising to check the presence of just 11 disclosures out of a possible 58 general disclosures, with no reference to all the DMAs and performance indicators that support material disclosures. In other words, half the check, half the report, same money. I definitely think that GRI has The M factor. M for Mastermind.  

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Did you manage to work out what the material Aspect Boundary in G4 is all about? GRI G4 says it's about where the impact occurs. But all of my impacts seem to occur in lots of places. How can I define my material Aspect Boundaries? 

Dear Boundary-challenged: Look, it's very simple. Think of it this way. You like ice-cream. You want to eat an ice-cream, but first you have to buy it. When you buy an ice-cream, the impact is external because you have contributed to creating economic value, enabling the ice-cream seller to earn a livelihood, pay back her small-business loan and send her kids to university. Buying an ice-cream has a fabulous impact on the world and therefore the Aspect Boundary is external. On the other hand, now that you have bought the ice-cream, you eat it. Here is impact is internal. Tomorrow morning, when you step on the scales for your daily weigh-in, you will find that the needle has moved a little more to the right, and when you get dressed you will notice a certain tightness around your waist. This is because the ice-cream is now stored in your body as superfluous calories, may contribute to your becoming seriously obese, preventing you from being a productive human being. This impact is most definitely internal, but it also has an external consequence as your obesity presents a worrisome drag on the healthcare system and society at large and your lack of productivity means that you are a burden on the state and ultimately people will have to pay more taxes.  Therefore, buying and eating an ice-cream has predominantly external material Aspect Boundaries, and if anyone tries to tell me otherwise, I will show them the G4 Implementation Manual. That should definitely clear things up.

Dear Dr Sustainability: You mentioned Aspects. I really don't understand this in G4. What if my material issues don't fit into the Aspects? Can I just create my own Aspects? And if so, what's stopping me from using only my own Aspects? Why do I need to force-fit my Aspects into the G4 template? 

Dear Rebel: Look, son, sometimes you just have to conform. GRI has spent hundreds of thousands of Euros developing G4 and creating a universal table of material Aspects. What sort of business are you in that makes it so different that none of the Aspects fit at all?   

Dear Dr Sustainability: My company makes Smoked Haddock Scented Air Fresheners

Dear Smelly Rebel: Enough said. 

Dear Dr Sustainability: What other parts of G4 are hard to understand?

Dear Easylife: The hardest part of G4 to understand is why everyone thinks G4 is so hard. It's not. It's just extremely difficult. Unless you have a great consultant. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: There are some that say G4 is just a stepping stone to Integrated Reporting, and that when Integrated Reporting takes over, G4 will die. What do you think? 

Dear Pessimist: When Integrated Reporting takes over, I will die. Haha. Joke. Integrated Reporting has some merits when it is done well. The new Westpac Report, for example, can teach companies a thing or two about Integrated Reporting. However, we are far from the day when Integrated Reporting will become an effective reality for most companies. G4 can be a useful stepping stone to a more integrated approach. Before Integrated Reporting can take over, G4 must take over. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: What's the best G4 report you have seen so far? 

Dear Optimistic: The one that hasn't been published yet. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: What advice would you give a company wanting to publish its first Sustainability Report?

Dear Beginner: Stock up on ice-cream. 

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, winning (CRRA'12) 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 www.twitter.com/elainecohen   or via my business website www.b-yond.biz   (Beyond Business Ltd, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm

Dr Sustainability is at Rio+20!

Dr Sustainability is enjoying the sunshine in Rio, where the Big Event of the sustainability calendar is taking place - the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. She just gave me a call, offering to answer readers' questions about what's going on at this important event. Here are the questions that Dr. Sustainability received and, of course, her frank and unflappable answers:

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Do I need a visa to attend the Rio+ conference?

Dear Traveler: Not unless you plan on spending a lot of money. (think about it)

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Do you expect Rio+20 to result in concrete outcomes ?

Dear Construction Worker: The concrete outcomes have already been achieved. Four new hotels were built to house the Heads of State, Heads of Companies and Head Waiters at the Rio+20 event. That's a heckuvalotta concrete.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Will the world become more sustainable after Rio+20?

Dear Naive: Yes. Of course. Why else would they go to all this trouble?

Dear Dr Sustainability: I hear that the sustainability reporting agenda is a key negotiating point at Rio+20. Will there be a commitment by governments to mandatory reporting by all companies everywhere, as Teresa Fogelberg hopes to see?

Dear Reporter: Yes, there will. It will probably be worded something like this: "We, the governments of the enlightened world, believe that sustainability reporting has value and we would like to require incentivize recommend promote encourage suggest beg plead with companies around the globe to include think about including sustainability disclosures in their annual corporate reporting to all stakeholders."

Dear Dr Sustainability: There are some that say it would be much easier if we gave up on cooperation and watched the planet burn. I read that in a post on Treehugger. What's your view on that? Have you heard anyone suggesting we should give up on Rio+20?

Dear Firecracker: Well, everyone that I have met here believes this is a very important conference and that the momentum is building to have a coherent discussion on the future of our planet. Of course, we have been having coherent discussions for quite some time now. Momentum is a great thing, but sooner or later, it has to result in something. Otherwise, instead of sustainability, we just get momentum.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I understand the theme of Rio+20 is called "The Future we Want". Is it all about the future? What about the present?

Dear Nitpicker: Yes, Rio+20 is focused on commitments to future action. The future starts in the present. The problem is, the future was yesterday and there are some who are getting impatient. By the time it's tomorrow, the future will already be the past and then it will be too late for collaboration. In the meantime, which I think is the present, it is probably fair to say that the future is at least as important as the past and Rio+20 needs to deliver a decisive commitment so that the past of our future will be more sustainable than the future of our past, which is now. It makes a lot of sense when you stop to think about it. Now. In the present. Before the future.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: How many people are there at Rio+20? Are they all tweeting?

Dear Tweet: There are about 50,000 people here. About 25 are tweeting at #Rio20. A few more are live-blogging. About 49,800 are networking. The rest are walking out of the negotiations.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I have heard that the developing nations want the developed nations to pay them to be sustainable. Do you think that will work?

Dear Money-Grabber: This is technically not correct. The Developing Economies want the Developed Economies to invest money to help them do their part in creating the Future the Developed Economies Want. The Developed Economies want a future in which the Developing Economies will not interfere. In other words, they want the Developing Economies to stay Developing. But it's more complex than that. The Developing Economies want to become Developed. They want to add to the mess that the Developed Economies got us all into. They want the Developed Economies to invest in them not making a bigger mess. The Developed Economies say: He who createth the bigger mess must footeth the bigger bill. In classical literature, this is called a lose-lose situation. In business, it's called unsustainable development.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I read that a recent poll by Globescan showed that nearly eight in ten (78%) sustainability experts believe the current economic system must be substantially overhauled and a similar percentage (77%) say that major catastrophes will need to occur before governments will act on sustainability. Are you one of the 78% of sustainability experts?

Dear Wiseguy: I did not participate in the poll. It must have gone into my spam. However, I concur with the fact that the current economic system must be overhauled. Where I am undecided is exactly what it must be hauled over. Over the heads of Prime Ministers and Presidents, I suppose. I agree about major catastrophes. A good catastrophe is always a catalyst for action. Hurray for catastrophes. What would we do without them? Apart from save on Xanax expenses. 

Dear Dr. Sustainability: After Rio+20, will I be able to sleep any easier at night ?

Dear Insomniac: Oh sure. If you destroy your neighbors' kids BoomBox. But more importantly, your great-great grandchildren will be able to sleep a  lot too. In fact, the planet will be so sustainable, they'll be bored out of their minds.

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)

Dr Sustainability is back again again!

What an exciting event it is when Dr. Sustainability comes to town! Her last visit was a resounding success, and many sustainability practitioners, academics, consultants and worldwide opinion leaders can now be found quoting Dr. Sustainability's insights in keynotes, books, journal articles and PhD research papers. Dr. Sustainability enjoys having a positive impact and, once again, graced us with her presence and agreed to respond to more questions from CSR-Reporting Blog readers. Here are some of the questions you asked Dr. Sustainability, and her responses:

Dear Dr. Sustainability: How do I know when my company is sustainable?

Dear Clueless: When investment analysts tell you so, of course.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: We did an employee engagement survey this year. It showed that most of our employees are not engaged. What should we do?

Dear Awful Employer: Ask them to lie. It will look better in your Sustainability Report.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I received feedback that our Sustainability Report was excellent this year. The feedback was from my mother. Is it ethical to post this to Facebook?

Dear Mommy's Boy: Yes, of course. If you don't, your mother will.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I hear talk that new regulation will raise the bar for all public and private sector companies to develop strategies to advance a low-carbon economy. Should I include our strategy in our Sustainability Report?

Dear Strategist: Only if there is a GRI Indicator for that. Otherwise, wait for G4.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I read somewhere that Sustainability Reports are full of data that people don't want to read. How do I know which data to include?

Dear Data-Based: Ask your stakeholders what they don't want to know, and leave it out.

Dear Dr. Sustainability:  Sustainability Reporting is driving me nuts. Every time I think I have a final draft, someone else in the company objects and we have to remove another section. The report is now reduced to 14 pages. I started with a draft of 132 pages. What should I do?

Dear Verbose: Next time, start with a draft report of 5 pages, and then everyone will want to add sections. You will soon be back to 132 pages.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: How is it that you know so much about sustainability?

Dear Skeptic: I have Google+.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: Where can I find cheaper paper to print my Sustainability Report?  Everyone keeps telling me that our report isn't worth the paper it is printed on. I think that is because of the high price of FSC Certified 99% post and pre-consumer waste paper. What do you suggest? 

Dear Paper-Waster: I suggest you replace your Procurement Manager and negotiate a discount.

Dear Dr. Sustainability: I have been a Chief Sustainability Officer for some years now, but I am getting disillusioned because, despite the fact that we are acting to solve all the world's problems, the world keeps having problems. Should I resign or add more members to my team?

Dear Problem-Solver: My advice is to think positive. Take the half-filled glass approach.  At least the world is now half-sustainable. 

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)

Dr Sustainability is back. Again.

Every so often, Dr Sustainability pays me a visit. Her last visit was many months ago, which is not surprising as she is a real globetrotter, flitting from C-suite to C-Suite, educating and inspiring executives about all aspects of sustainability. Once again, Dr Sustainability answers the CSR Reporting Blog's readers' questions in her inimitable way, sharing pearls of wisdom that will benefit our grandchildren's grandchildren and their great-grandchildren's great-grandchildren. Here goes: 

Dear Dr Sustainability: Would you say that sustainability is a trend or is it here to stay?

Dear Trendy: I would say that it is a trend that is here to stay.

Dear Dr Sustainability: I really can't decide what to call my next Sustainability Report. My reporting team says it should be called "Sustainability Report" but I think that's too drab. I would rather call it: "Enhancing our Reputation while Reducing our Marketing Budget". What do you think?

Dear Reporter: In my experience, the name of your sustainability report is crucial. First impressions are important. Saving money on marketing is certainly an attractive proposition but why give your competition the heads up? Call it "Sustainability Report". That will fool everyone!

Dear Dr Sustainability: I was trying to complete the G4 survey for the revision of the GRI Reporting Framework but the questionnaire is very long. I found myself wondering that, by the time I complete the G4 survey, they will already be on to G5. Do you think that's a risk?

Dear Survey-freak: I understand this could be a problem but if you try to type with two fingers instead of one, it might just go a little faster. And look on the bright side. When G5 comes around, you won't have to add your input all over again.

Dear Dr Sustainability: I really wanted to attend the BSR conference this year but, due to budget limitations, I had to content myself with reading the session summaries and following tweets. The problem is that all the tweets seemed to be about Ofra Strauss. Do you think it's fair that one person should dominate a whole conference ?

Dear Jealous: Honey, if you think life is fair, it's not the BSR conference you should be attending. I suggest you try the 2nd Bergen Conference on the treatment of psychopathy.

Dear Dr Sustainability: Can you please help? What does IIRC stand for?

Dear Puzzled: Utopia

Dear Dr Sustainability: My company is starting a new sustainability program to reduce energy consumption while travelling to work. It is now prohibited to turn on the air conditioning in the car while driving. I think I will just stop taking my car to work and use my bicycle instead. Do you think this would be a problem?

Dear Air-conditioned: Of course this would be a problem. Do you want to clog up our cities with bike congestion? Do you want to have car manufacturers go out of business? Do you want to injure your knees while cycling and cause our medical insurance to sky-rocket? Cycling to work is an idea whose time has not come. My advice would be to buy a Nano car - they have Nano air-conditioning. It's the next best thing to cycling.

Dear Dr Sustainability: My boss says that sustainability reports are going out of fashion and the latest fad is to produce quarterly disclosures and post them on our website. Do you agree?

Dear Follower-of-fashion: A fad is a fashion that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief period of time. I hardly think quarterly disclosures could yet be termed a fad. It's the great enthusiasm part that gives it away. Tell your boss that if he is looking to be fashionable, I hear Burberry is making a comeback. 

Dear Dr Sustainability: My 9 year old son has threatened to sue me if I don't use recycled washing powder to do the household laundry. I have checked at all the supermarkets in our town and I can't find biodegradable washing powder. Can you please advise?

Dear Parent: Tell you son to get a group of friends together and turn it into a class action. That way you can form a parents' support group and you won't feel so alone as you stand trial. 

Dear Dr Sustainablility: My cousin works as a Chief Executive on Wall Street and all the people campaigning in OccupyWallStreet are giving him one big headache. He told me that he won't get a bonus next year and he and his family have cancelled their vacation (Luxury Safari in Tanzania). I think it is right to campaign for greater economic equality, but why affect the lives of innocent people? Isn't there a way to reform Wall Street without affecting my cousin's bonus?

Dear Cousin: This is a very interesting point. Just think of the poor people in Tanzania whose tourist trade has plummeted due to cancelled vacations. How fair is that ? Perhaps you could use some sidewalk chalk to voice your opinion. Sidewalk chalk is the new Twitter. Perhaps you could invent a new hashtag: #owsbutleavebonusesalone. In any event, it's probably time to tell your cousin that his bonus is probably not the only thing that is going to be affected. It about time he started thinking of selling his yacht.

Dear Dr Sustainability: People are always making jokes about sustainability. It's as though sustainability weren't the most serious challenge mankind has ever had to face. It's as though we wouldn't all perish due to reckless consumption, raging poverty, mindless abuse of human rights, chronic water scarcity and lack of women in Boardrooms. How can I convince people that sustainability IS a serious issue?
Dear Joker: Put more women in Boardrooms. 

Thanks, Dr Sustainability for your awesome insights. Come back again soon. And bring 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)