7 examples of inspiring corporate citizenship

It's that time of the year again when I share with you the publication of Caesars Entertainment's annual Citizenship Report. This time the selected theme is "Inspiring Citizenship." Inspiring because citizenship inspires Caesars employees to perform their roles in the business with citizenship in mind. Inspiring because as Caesars employees engage across a host of activities to advance society and preserve the environment, they inspire others. This is the sixth annual Citizenship Report by this leading gaming-entertainment company and the third that I have been proud to work on. It's the third G4 core report, and covers performance in 2014 with stories through part of 2015.

It's always hard to summarize a report that contains a wealth of information about so many aspects of the company's operations. At Caesars, whether it's about Responsible Gaming, employee engagement, charitable giving, sustainable sourcing, policy activism or another topic, the report covers the ground. I've had to work really hard to limit this post to just 7 examples of how Caesars creates and gains value through inspiring citizenship to give you a flavor of what you can learn from the Caesars report this year.

ONE: Contributing to economic development 
Each year, Caesars has loads to tell about the way its core business actively advances economic development wherever the company operates. This is more than just doing business; it's doing business in a way that's designed to make a positive impact. In Baltimore, for example, in a year of operation, Horseshoe Casino Baltimore supported tourism with a big welcome to more than 2 million guests, created almost 2,000 jobs, hired more than 66% of the workforce from the within city limits, and established an ongoing community program with support for more than 45 social organizations through donations and >800 hours of employee volunteering time. Through Horseshoe Baltimore, Caesars has provided opportunity for many small businesses who have set up shop in the casino’s food court and has partnered with celebrity chefs including John Besh and Aarón Sanchez to bring Johnny Sanchez to Baltimore for an upscale dining experience. In its inaugural year, Horseshoe Baltimore contributed to developing local prosperity for the citizens of Baltimore though paying more than $42 million in taxes (casino companies are one of the most highly taxed businesses in the U.S.). In fact, overall, Caesars generates $5.9 million of contributed value for its communities for every $10 million in revenue, triple the estimated average of U.S. corporations. 

 

    

TWO: Transforming resorts and tourist venues  

When Caesars invests in new facilities, it invests in a big way, making a difference to the value and appeal of cities and resorts that need a boost. This is the case in the Las Vegas where Caesars has invested nearly a billion dollars in the heart of The Strip with the addition of The LINQ and the High Roller, the world's tallest observation wheel.  In Atlantic City, Caesars has just opened up a new $126 million conference center project, the Waterfront Conference Center at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, that is already attracting big events and has bookings through 2019. 

 

THREE: Encouraging employees to be well 

Caesars has for years maintained one of the most extensive award-winning wellbeing packages for employees available in the market. Employees are incentivized to look after their own health and wellbeing by taking advantage of the benefits that Caesars provides through the Wellness Rewards program. Caesars employs 28 qualified WellNurses that are stationed at Caesars properties throughout the U.S. to help care for employees. Employees who participate in wellness activities earn two things: they feel better, get more out of life and are more productive at work AND they save money - up to $3,600 per year for themselves and their partners in tangible rewards through the program. This benefits Caesars who saves millions of dollars in medical plans and it benefits society as the healthcare burden of cost is significantly lower. The program has delivered tangible outcomes to date in terms of lowering health risks across Caesars employee base.

FOUR: Preserving the environment 

Caesars' CodeGreen strategy established in 2007 includes environmental targets as well as other social targets. On the environmental side, Caesars continued to make progress, achieving cumulative reductions in resource usage, exceeding several targets for 2014 and 2015.

In early 2014, in the light of strong performance, Caesars updated long-term targets and added new 2020 targets for energy, GHG emissions, water and waste diversion. This also includes a commitment to science-based climate change targets for 2020 and 2025 to reduce GHG emissions per 1,000 airconditioned sq. feet by 30% and 40% by 2025 respectively on a cumulative basis against a 2007 baseline. This is industry leading performance to date and industry-leading commitments for the future.

FIVE: Engaging employees in citizenship 

One of the things that Caesars does tremendously well - and having worked with Caesars now for a few years I experience this first-hand in the conversations I have with people from all around the company - is inspire employees to contribute to making the world a better place. Employees are invited to take part in a range of CodeGreen activities - far too numerous to mention here (you will have to read the report ;-)). However, one of the highlights I did want to mention is the recognition for employees who work so hard for their communities. In the 2014-2015 Citizenship Report, Caesars celebrates outstanding employee HEROs. HEROs is Caesars employee volunteer program that offers a host of opportunities to get involved in community causes, including those supported by the Caesars Foundation. In 2014, Caesars started a new peer and manager HERO Stars recognition program for HEROs and seven employees were selected and honored in the first cohort. Actually, in 2015, after the Citizenship Report was published, three of these HEROs were invited to Caesars Client Educational Experience Week in  Atlantic City to take part in one of Caesars Meeting and Events Team's week of meetings involving community volunteering with customers. A fabulous way to recognize and reward employees whose dedication and investment in local communities is unwavering. In the 2014-2015 Citizenship Report, Caesars celebrates these HERO Stars.

SIX: A leading light  

Every company needs a leading light to drive corporate citizenship activities, in addition to a committed CEO, and at Caesars, passionate and unwavering inspiration for great citizenship comes from Jan Jones, Executive Vice President of Communications, Government Relations and Corporate Responsibility. A former Mayor of Las Vegas, Jan is very present in supporting Caesars' citizenship strategy and guiding the reporting process. She is outspoken on behalf of Caesars on important matters of public policy, including immigrant rights, LGBT rights and healthcare. Her delight was tangible when in mid-2015, the U.S. Supreme Court published a breakthrough ruling to make same-sex marriage a fundamental right across the country. Jan immediately published her support on behalf of Caesars Entertainment, emphasizing the relevance this ruling has for businesses and workforce diversity and inclusion. Perhaps it's no surprise that with Jan at the helm, the Caesars workforce includes 41% women managers as a total of all mangers, 57% employees from minority groups and 36% of employees over the age of 50 - a diversity record to be proud of.  

SEVEN: Gwen  

The final highlight of this report is mainly behind the scenes. Gwen Migita, Vice President, Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship, is the one who tirelessly makes it all happen, driving CodeGreen, community partnerships, employee awareness and engagement and reporting. Always with an eye on the big picture, Gwen works at a level of detail and precision to move corporate citizenship forward at Caesars with determination, skill and boundless passion. Want to know a little more about what makes Gwen tick? See these two recent interviews: the first from April 2015 in the Guardian Sustainable Business where Gwen talks about coming out at work and the second from Fortune Magazine from May 2014 with ten questions to Gwen on sustainability and social justice and more.  If you don't have someone like Gwen in your company, you need to. Every company needs a Gwen. 

Finally, as always, take a look at Caesars 2014-2015 Citizenship Report. Give feedback!



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  

Changing the game at Virgin Media

There are times that publishing a sustainability report in hard copy, or even PDF download format, as a single document, just won't cut it with your key stakeholders. This is especially true if your business is quintessentially digital. If everything you do is digital, for digital, by digital, more digital, digital for good, digital to improve lives, digital future, digital society... then digital sustainability has to be the right fit.

So it is with Virgin Media and digital sustainability reporting. Finding the best way to use digital for delivering sustainability messages to key stakeholders has been developed quite skillfully by Virgin Media over the years. I recall Katie Buchanan, Virgin Media's Head of Sustainability, presenting at a conference some years back, telling the story of how the folks in Virgin Media's logistics team created their own video to show the sustainable steps of a Virgin Media shipment to a customer. Here's the video - always worth another look. 

Recently, Katie and I chatted again following the release of Virgin Media's latest report, starring their "5 in 5" game-changing goals that set out Virgin Media's sustainability ambitions for the next five years to both help the company grow responsibly and sustainably while doing more good with digital. Each of the goals is sponsored by a Virgin Media Executive Committee member and they cover the following areas:

• People – Nurture an engaged workforce which represents the diversity of our customers and communities 
• Products - Improve the sustainability performance of every new customer product 
• Operations - Grow our business without increasing our carbon footprint 
• Boosting business - Create the opportunities for 100,000 small businesses to grow in the UK’s economy through digital 
• Transforming lives - Transform the lives of disadvantaged people in the UK through digital technology 

The great thing about these goals is that they have a roadmap. 

 

The roadmap defines each goal in more detail, explains its relevance and states short term objectives to 2015 and longer term actions through to 2020. In the People goal, for example, Virgin Media has three quantitative, measurable objectives:

1: Increase the percentage of female senior leaders from 30% to 40% by 2018
2: Continually improve engagement levels and exceed the UK Best Employer benchmark
3: Have 80% of our people voluntarily disclosing their ‘diversity information’ by 2017

Overall the presentation of the report is superbly digital, including different types of employee-made films and blogs.

Right from the home page, you can move to the strategy, the performance and a range of digital case studies that provide further insight. Performance-wise, Virgin Media's presentation includes evidence of positive achievement, such as zero waste in the supply chain and increasing the percentage of women in leadership roles, and areas for improvement, including energy and carbon efficiency. You don't have to have a doctorate in sustainability jargon to understand it. Every one of Virgin Media's 5 million UK customers can get it. 

Reporting digitally offers great opportunity for creativity, and the use of human infographics to help illustrate performance is a worldwide first. I don't recall seeing this anywhere else ever - it 's a great way to present complex information while involving and engaging employees - and above all - make reporting FUN! 

To bring it all together, there's a resources page where you can find performance data from 2008 and other relevant information as you navigate Virgin Media's 2014 report.

(I should add that Virgin Media is part of the Liberty Global group of companies, and Virgin Media's sustainability performance is included in the the annual group global corporate responsibility report as well, addressing corporate audiences.)

Why is this so interesting? What's so riveting about great graphics and a clear website? The reasons I find this actually quite breakthrough are five-fold:

First, it's a seamless fit with the brand promise, style, tone and approach.

Second, it's totally accessible - eye-level - for consumers and not just CSR professionals.

Third, it's bold and brave, presenting a focused five year strategy commitment supported by defined actions.

Fourth, it's creative, engaging and energizing for employees, providing a platform for a step-change in action at all levels of the company.

Fifth, it's an example of how a brand can bring sustainability to the masses. The Digital for Good strategy is appealing and easy to understand. Sustainability technobabble of the kind you find in many GRI G4 reports simply wouldn't work for Virgin Media stakeholders. I wonder if this is not an approach that more companies couldn't learn from to simplify the technobabble into day-to-day messaging that we can all appreciate. 

I asked Katie Buchanan, Head of Sustainability, for her insights. She told me:

"At Virgin Media, we put the customer at the heart of everything we do. For our customers and our staff - our primary audience - a hard copy report just doesn’t work, we’ve tried! Our people are based in our call centers, retail shops, out on the road – we have to find a way to get our message out to all of them. Online is much more accessible - they can view the website anywhere, even at home. We take our content from our website – and play the films in our retail stores, in team breakout areas and so on - we try to take the message to where the audience is. We recognize that starting with our staff enables us to bring our strategy to life in a way that makes sense and is engaging to them.

"Perhaps the thing I am most proud of about our new strategy is its simplicity. It's clear, focused and aligned to our commercial strategy and brand purpose. This is the culmination of 12 months engagement with staff, 500 consumers and our Executive Committee. As part of the Liberty Global Group, we started with the group materiality exercise. This was valuable in helping us to determine which key issues to focus on.

"Our process culminated with taking 14 senior business leaders away from their desks for a full-day workshop to help bring it altogether. In creating our ambitious goals, we worked hard to make them meaningful and avoid jargon. Perhaps most importantly, the link to our commercial and business objectives is clear – for example,supporting small businesses is an important economic and social need but it's absolutely essential to our own growth as a business. This integration of business and sustainability is stronger than ever before and we expect it will be a major key to our success. 

"We have established clear governance – each goal is owned by an Executive Committee member who will drive performance and engagement. Engaging our staff through fun videos and human infographics is another way we bring sustainability to life at Virgin Media, while addressing the accountability and transparency needs of our stakeholders." 

Sounds like a game-changing approach to me. Definitely deserves ice cream.

Take a look. As usual, send feedback.


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   

What's reporting without culture?

Back in 2010, I published my first book, CSR for HR, a guide to the way Human Resources Managers can drive corporate responsibility, using their leverage at the center of organizations to encourage and empower an accountable culture. While the book was a great success ... by all accounts... and I continue to receive positive comments ... the HR profession has not really transformed itself into a champion of CSR... far from it. Of course, HR Managers may not see championing CSR as their remit. But that's only because they do not realize that CSR is actually a way to reinforce and strengthen the HR function in any organization. Since my book was published, the role of employees in driving CSR and the need to engage employees has moved higher up the agenda. In fact, almost every Sustainability Report you read today has some reference to employee engagement and many make the link between engagement and positive sustainability outcomes. 

That's as it should be. Sustainability reporting as a process should involve employees and inspire them. Rather than being the headache it often is, it can be a tool to create elevated levels of empowerment and engagement of employees. Some companies testify to this. Corus Entertainment in Canada regularly celebrates employees in annual sustainability reports and rewards them for their citizenship efforts. The Corus reports present a workplace where accountability is a value and employees are engaged and empowered to do their best for themselves and each other, the company, the community and the planet. 

A string of workplace awards tend to confirm this position.

3M's 2015 Sustainability Report covers how the company encourages and empowers employees to be creative  with sustainability in mind.

"During the 2014 Sustainability Week, we addressed global sustainability challenges we all face every day at home and at work. 3Mers were asked to think creatively, collaborate, and innovate with the shared goal of making life better... And we led a Shark Tank-inspired Power Pitch, which allowed teams of employees to suggest business ideas with a sustainability focus to compete for research and development funding with winners chosen through global text voting by their peers."

The culture of sustainability is reinforced in other ways, such as use of social media - an example below from Pinterest:

Anyway, also in 2010, I wrote on this blog about H&M and the crisis of the discarded garments in New York. The point was that, in an organization that had truly embedded CSR culture and practice, such an instance might not have happened. Employees would know how to connect their actions to potential issues on the CSR radar (more about the radar in an upcoming post. Hint: Datamaran). The BIC blip reminded me of that this week. How many marketeers just have no clue? How much insensitivity is an organization allowed to demonstrate at the same time as professing to support a CSR approach? At what point does an organization realize that CSR is a way of being, not just a project of doing?  And that even marketing folks need an invitation to the party.

Maybe you saw the BIC blip  example reported in the Guardian this past week ...

Who on earth in their right mind could think this would be encouraging or inspiring for women? You would have to be a total idiot to create something like this and an even greater idiot for authorizing it, and a double greater idiot for publishing it. Look like a girl? Think like a man? Come on....Even if the intention was positive, the gaping cavern between intent and result testifies to a lack of embedded culture of sensitivity to others. How can employees of a responsible business be so misguided? Does it really need an onslaught of criticism on social media to tell them they got it so wrong? 

BIC has a very clear Code of Ethics that employees are bound to uphold. It includes the company's approach to Human Rights and provides guidance for employees in the principles of communicating and engaging with each other.

The code does not specifically include reference to responsible marketing, though some indirect references can be found in  BIC's  2014 Sustainable Development Report. 

Generally BIC refers to the marketing teams's involvement in advancing the sustainable development program and marketing initiatives, such as:

"All of the professional functions involved (marketing, communication, sales) are equipped with the tools they need to explain BIC’s Sustainable Development Program."

Another reference to marketeers is an initiative to engage them through  a BIC recycling program in partnership with TerraCycle. This was the first initiative to collect and recycle writing instruments in France,  launched in 2011, and now expanded to several countries in Europe. BIC talks about this program as "inspiring marketeers to support the circular economy."

However, there's no reference to marketing communications and advertising as necessarily reflecting a respectful organization culture. BIC conducts a values survey among employees every 2 years to review "Values in Action" and also makes awards to employees who demonstrate core values of ethics and responsibility and more.  Results of the surveys are presented to employees. Therefore it seems that there are platforms to talk about culture, values, respectful communications and sustainable development. However, when it comes to the marketing department, there may be a need for some more work. 

It seems to me that BIC might be well served by developing and publishing a formal policy of responsible marketing and marketing communications. At the same time, BIC should undertake an intensive training program on diversity and inclusion for everyone involved in corporate and marketing communications. 

In the meantime, I don't plan to follow BIC's advice ... I'd rather :

LOOK like me

ACT like me

THINK like me

WORK like me 

I may not be perfect but at least  - hey - it's me. 

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   

5 ways to make sustainability reporting more sustainable

Is sustainability reporting sustainable? There are some that think it is. The practice is now more widespread than ever before and and legislation in different parts of the world is supporting increased non-financial disclosure. This would indicate that reporting is here to stay. On the other hand, there are some that think it isn't. There are those who subordinate sustainability reporting to the new financial reporting trend called Integrated Reporting, while others advocate online interactive disclosures instead of reports. As we move into 2015 and face another year of corporate efforts to improve impacts, manage risk and engage with the new opportunities that sustainability brings, amid a flurry of surveys and reports that support the case for or against sustainability reporting, what can companies do to embed reporting practice in a sustainable manner? In addition to the predictable list of things we already know - focus, clarity, materiality, relevance, balance, frameworks etc - here are some more creative approaches that companies might like to consider. 

Excite your Board of Directors about reporting 

Reporting has often been considered an add-on, a project for the CSR Manager, something that exists alongside the "real" reporting processes. Sustainability reporting has not really hooked the attention of the highest level of leadership and in most cases, does not find its way onto the Board agenda. In order to make reporting more sustainable, Directors must be excited about sustainability reporting. They must see it as an advantage, a benefit, a value-adding activity, and not something they tolerate. Let's be honest, how many company Directors actually read the sustainability reports of the companies they are engaged to be accountable for?  How many Directors are actually consulted in the process of preparing the report? As key stakeholders, company Directors surely deserve some acknowledgement, recognition and even voice in the annual Sustainability Report. In order to excite your Board of Directors, engage them in the reporting process and have them approve the output, here are some things you can do: 

• Empower your board members. This can be done, for example, through Board workshops to build awareness, knowledge and engagement around relevant issues for each company. In 2014, the UN Global Compact launched an interesting Board Program to help align the Board on sustainability matters and help Directors demonstrate leadership on Board adoption of sustainability principles. As Board members engage in deep consideration of sustainability issues, they become empowered to embrace leadership and guide the company along the sustainability journey. This program looks like a good start but it must result in something more than discussion in order to truly deliver change. Therefore, after education, comes action. 
• Engage company Directors in the reporting process. Help your Board of Directors own your Sustainability Report by asking them to contribute. Interview them individually or as a group and include their pictures and their commentaries in the Sustainability Report. Stakeholders will be gratified by evidence of greater Board commitment, and Board members will be energized by their own involvement and declaration of what is important to them. Involving them may also help reinforce their accountability for the Sustainability Report and its contents. This kind of involvement is positive but it is not enough. Involvement must be formalized.
• Establish and publish a formal Board policy for sustainability reporting. This should describe Board accountability for sustainability reporting. The policy should define Board actions prior to report publication including a Board discussion and concurrence of the report content and agreement to publish. Following the report publication, the policy could require the Board to conduct a review of whether the report has met its objectives and agree new objectives for the next reporting cycle.   

Make your reporting process cool
I maintain that sustainability reporting as a process is incredibly cool. The right process empowers people, challenges people, gets people listening to one another, sometimes even talking to one another, occasionally even agreeing with one another. This applies to both employees as well as external partners, organizations, suppliers, local authorities and consumers. Rather than inviting people to a meeting about the Sustainability Report (yaaaaaaawn!), there are many ways you can involve people in activities that both interest and engage them, while at the same time, getting the information you need for your report. This includes competitions (send-us-a-video-of-how-your-job-contributes-to-improving-the-environment) or prizes (weekend for two for the first complete set of sustainability reporting information sent back to corporate) or Ice Cream Meetings (round table discussions with internal and/or external stakeholders on sustainability issues, where the meeting leader brings (lots of) ice cream for consumption during the meeting). There are a million ways to make the reporting process fun, even  if, at some point, there is a certain amount of  actual hard work to be done.

Engage your employees around the published report

So many reports go unnoticed by the very employees whose hard work made the report possible. That means all the employees in the company. The minute the report is published is the signal to start the work of engaging employees around the report. Rather than just broadcasting an email announcement - we published our report (yaaaaaaawn!), there are many ways to get your employees to sit up and take notice. This may include quizzes with prizes (Who is quoted on page 34 of our last report? By how much did our GHG emissions reduce last year?), games (How far can you throw our Sustainability Report?) and feedback (Cross-functional discussion groups  - can be web-meetings - each focusing on a single section of the report and analyzing the content together, with recommendations for the next report). You might even  involve your employees' children in preparing a poster about how your company makes a positive contribution to the world - requiring employees to explain the essence of the report messages to their kids. Prizes of course for the best contributions. Each company can find its own way to be creative in developing an engagement process which both informs and interests employees. You might find employees actually enjoy reading the report and discover things about the company - and their colleagues - that they didn't know. More importantly, they will be able to talk to stakeholders about the issues that matter in an informed way.

Drive your reporting throughout the supply chain
How many companies ask their suppliers to contribute to their reporting and engage suppliers once the report is published? More and more, the report of one company is both the start-point and the endpoint of the reports of other companies. I am not aware of anyone trying to track a product through all the sustainability reports of the companies involved in producing it from raw materials to end-of-life - that could be an interesting exercise. However, suppliers are big enablers of any business and their influence on the direct impacts of an organization may be quite significant. Perhaps suppliers should have a bigger place in sustainability reports - strategic suppliers can contribute data, case studies and specialist perspectives  - and may be grateful for the recognition their customers' reporting offers them, thereby reinforcing the relationship with them. Once the report is published, reverting to suppliers, emphasizing the key messages, acknowledging their role and encouraging them to adopt sustainable practices in their own businesses is a critical step in maintaining the reporting momentum.  

Celebrate reporters

It's so easy to criticize reports, it's so easy to say that reports are full of irrelevant information, it's so easy to dismiss reporting as some sort of activity that apparently everyone has been duped into doing for the wrong reasons and producing the wrong results. It's much harder to stand up for reporting and talk about what it really is: a business process that adds value, engages people and empowers employees. The folks that lead reporting in organizations have to address not only the hard work of reporting - and it is hard work - but also overcome these notions that are bandied around saying reporting is worthless. Reporting leaders in organizations should be celebrated. They have one of the hardest jobs around. Reporters play a critical role in helping organizations move forward sustainably and helping shape the future of business. I have often said that reporting is a catalyst for performance, and great reporters know how to use the reporting process to drive change.  Make sure the reporting leader in your organization gets the respect s/he deserves, has the resources s/he needs and gains the attention of management as and when needed. Ringfence your reporter and ensure s/he has enough ice cream to last through the entire reporting cycle.   

Good luck to all companies starting reporting cycles about now. Let me know how you got on with this list:)

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 Top Ten Report in 2015? Contact Elaine: info@b-yond.biz   

In Good Spirit: Smarter Reporting at Diageo

This second post in my series leading up to the Smarter Sustainability Reporting Conference in London on 5th February 2013 (read about Smarter Reporting at L'Oreal here) is all about Diageo, Smarter Reporting and Responsible Drinking. This is perhaps particularly relevant during the current season which usually sees a significant hike in drinking-related road accidents and fatalities.

 

 Recently, I took the opportunity to chat with Carolyn Panzer, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Diageo plc. Carolyn is responsible developing and overseeing the strategy for community investment, external reporting, and alcohol in society - including, responsible drinking initiatives, responsible marketing and innovation, and alcohol policy. Carolyn is also the Chairperson of the Distilled Spirits Council's Code Review Board and has nearly 30 years of experience in the beverage alcohol industry, working across industry sectors in both the US and UK.

Carolyn will be talking about: "Participating in indices and rankings - how does this contribute to reporting best practice?" at the February conference.

 

"The reporting process helps me enormously. It makes us think about our data more and understand our impacts. Smarter Reporting for me is embedding the reporting process in the business - making everybody accountable. Actually, our people really appreciate hearing our story and participating."

 

"For me, one of the most challenging things about my role is that Diageo is a big company and keeping on top of everything that is going on in the business, keeping up-to-date with internal and external developments and having the headspace to keep on track, is a major exercise in time-management. This can occasionally make me feel vulnerable, I feel I should know everything about everything, but obviously that's not possible. My secret for keeping on top is to encourage others to know more detail. Not only does this help me, it empowers the organization to own sustainability. I don't make it easy for the business. I help them take accountability and own their role in advancing our sustainability and responsible drinking programs. This is now paying huge dividends."

Diageo is the world's leading premium drinks business with beverage alcohol brands across spirits, beer and wine including Johnnie Walker  and Bushmills whiskies, Smirnoff  Vodka, Baileys, Captain Morgan, Guinness and more. Headquartered in the UK, Diageo trades in 180 countries and employs around 24,000 people with net sales of almost GBP10 billion. Diageo manufactures and supplies its brands its brands in 43 distilleries, 16 breweries, 13 wineries, 19 packaging and blending operations, 9 warehouses and 8 other sites.

 

Diageo 2012 Report

Diageo has a long history of CSR Reporting and the company's latest report was published earlier this year: Diageo Sustainability and Responsibility Report 2012, Celebrating life, today and tomorrow. This is a GRI Application Level B+ Report, with a UN Global cross-reference. This year saw a shift in Diageo's reporting. Carolyn explains:

 

"This year's report has a lot more engagement - we pushed people to align more closely with GRI indicators. We also we did better on the materiality piece. We conducted a market pilot study and now we plan to take that forward and expand it. We ran three workshops on materiality. Also, we tried to use more everyday language and less "corporate-speak", and, in the presentation of the report, we tried to make it layered. We recognize that not one size fits all and that different stakeholders look for different things, so we opted for a five-minute-read approach as a short summary option for people who don't want to get into all the details. You can you go in and read different sections at a general level or dig deeper for more detail." 

This can be seen from the Diageo business case for sustainability rationale, which is readable and comprehensible for all lay readers.

The Diageo report this year demonstrated good performance achievements against a range of key metrics against several multi-year quantitative targets within the context of a well-laid out strategy. For example, water efficiency improved by 7.2% in 2012, on track to meet a 30% objective by 2015 against a 2007 baseline. Average packaging weight has reduced by 1.6%, on track to meet a 10% target over the same period, bringing the cumulative total to 4.8% reduction. Lost-time accident frequency rate reduced by 43% in 2012, overachieving a 40% target for 2010-2012 by 17%, showing good progress in embedding a safe working culture.  However, by far the most material issue for Diageo relates to the role of alcohol in society and Diageo's responsibilities to address alcohol misuse. Diageo's report states: "In all [stakeholder] workshops, addressing alcohol abuse and promoting responsible drinking was consistently the most important issue for stakeholders as well to us as a company."

 

A couple of months ago, Carolyn Panzer addressed a groundbreaking meeting of the International Center for Alcohol Policies in which the CEOs of 13 of the world’s leading beer, wine, and spirits producers announced a collective commitment to 10 targeted actions in five areas over the next five years, in order to reduce harmful use of alcohol.  

 

I asked Carolyn Panzer about how Diageo assesses the impact of its multiple activities in this area:

"Alcohol problems are not new and there have been many initiatives to address these. You can count thousands of initiatives by the alcohol industry, but the real question is what is effective? Where do you focus your resources to achieve the biggest impact? We want to tackle the issue of problem drinkers. Raising taxes on alcohol, for example, is not necessarily effective for problem users as there will always be a way around this."

A case in point is the situation in Keyna where it was estimated that about 50% of alcohol consumed was in the illicit sector. This was problematic, as such products were often made with harmful ingredients which caused illness or even death. Diageo redesigned its entire supply chain to create a new product made from locally sourced ingredients using innovative technology representing a first in the industry and significantly reducing costs for local supply of a safe, quality beer beverage called Senator Keg, costing one fifth the price of Diageo's mainstream beer. Since its launch, the brand has gained 40% of the Kenyan beer market. It's well worth reading this case study in Business Today about the Senator Keg story. This is a fabulous example of how Diageo can support changes in consumer behavior around alcohol. This is the true value of how an alcohol company can work with consumers and local organizations to understand specific issues and behavior patterns and help create breakthrough change which adds value to society and, of course, to the business.


In the area of problem drinking, Carolyn continues: "There are some things that we know work. First, screening and brief intervention demonstrates proven efficacy with problem drinkers. Screening individuals through a set of ten questions and engaging them in a conversation about risks helps people reduce problem drinking. We have provided grants to support this kind of activity. Second, high visibility enforcement of the law on drink-driving is effective. Not every country, for example, has a maximum drink-driving limit. We work to support introduction of legislation in this area in countries where this is not present. However, even where there is a legal limit, highly visible enforcement is key. For example, in Mexico City, we ran a campaign in support of the local law enforcement authorities, in which we contributed 50,000 breathalyzer kits. Drink-driving reduced by 30%. There is an important continuum that you need to follow to achieve change. We need to ensure the right regulations  as well as build general awareness. In the U.S., we spend 20% of our broadcasting spending on responsible drinking messages. We always try to work in partnership with other organizations and groups to ensure we have the best understanding of the issues and the best expertise on board to move forward."

Finally, all Diageo employees have a role to play in advancing responsible drinking behavior. Carolyn says: "We are always trying to connect our people with our CSR story, and we ensure they are involved and informed of our initiatives in this area. For example, over the Holiday Season, we campaign our employees with the need for extra vigilance and their role as responsible drinking ambassadors."

As it is still the Holiday Season, this is great advice for all the CSR Reporting Blog Readers. I am not much of a drinker myself, actually. Personally, I am more concerned with ice-cream rather than alcohol. If ever there are laws which limit ice-cream consumption prior to driving, I may have a bit of a problem.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Looking forward to seeing you at the Smarter Sustainability Reporting Conference in February 2013. Don't forget to drop me a line for your registration discount code!
 

 

 

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)

Sustainability: What the Numbers Tell You

Sustainability is not only about numbers. When all is said and done, sustainability is about people, community, society, collective responsibility and action, stories and interventions. But, sometimes, the numbers form a picture, and pictures can help us develop new insights and change our paradigms. And this can lead to new action. So,  when the The Conference Board, a non-profit organization which creates and disseminates knowledge about management and the marketplace to help executives make the right strategic decisions,  published a deep-dive study - perhaps the most comprehensive study available - of Sustainability Practices of thousands of companies around the world, containing more numbers about Sustainability Practices than I suspect you have ever seen in one place, you have to sit up and take notice. Ready?

The study is called Sustainability Practices 2012 Edition and is a 176 page epic, containing more data than anyone can absorb in one sitting and a wealth of relevant information for anyone interested in sustainability numbers, trends, areas of focus by sector and by subject, and opportunities to make a difference. The report was prepared in collaboration with Bloomberg, who runs one of the most extensive real-time financial and non-financial information networks to hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and with the GRI - no introduction necessary.

Sustainability Practices 2012 Edition is based on a global sample of 3000 business organizations tracked by Bloomberg's Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) database and covers 72 environmental and social practices including: atmospheric emissions, water consumption, biodiversity policies, labor standards, human rights practices, and charitable and political contributions. For benchmarking purposes, Bloomberg ESG data is compared with the S&P 500 (large capitalization U.S. companies) and the Russell 1000 (market cap-weighted index of U.S. companies), and further analyzed across 11 business sectors, using the CIGS code, and four revenue groups (under $1 billion, $10 billion, $100 billion and over $100 billion). The findings of the report are split into three broad areas: Disclosure Practices, Environment Practices and Social Practices.

Now for the numbers. Sitting up and taking notice?

19%

This is the overall social and environmental disclosure rate for companies in the global Bloomberg ESG 3000 Index, which is made up of largely non-U.S. companies. Does that surprise you? Only 574 companies out of a total 3,000 disclose on the full spectrum of 72 sustainability practices analyzed. This compares with 15% in the S&P 500 and 10% in the Russell 1000, showing that U.S. companies are lagging when it comes to overall sustainability disclosure. Match this with the next number:

25%

This is the number of companies in the Bloomberg ESG 3000 Index which released Sustainability Reports - 747 companies. More companies are reporting than disclosing. What does that tell us? That Sustainability Reporting is not delivering full transparency. In other words, just because it's called a Sustainability Report doesn't mean that it's transparent. By comparison, in the U.S., 45%  of the S&P 500 and 24% of the Russell 1000 publish reports. However, these indices are smaller and include large-cap, often global, companies, headquartered in the U.S., versus the Bloomberg Index which includes only 510 U.S. companies, 17% of the total 3000 sample. Overall the Bloomberg 3000 is weighted towards Japanese companies who have 27% of the sample, and with strong representation from India, China and the UK, and a host of other countries.  So Sustainability Reporting is more widespread globally than it is in the U.S. But that's not news. Match this with this next number:

80%

This is the rate of Sustainability Reporting for companies with more than $100 billion in annual revenues. Not surprising, perhaps, that this is a high figure. The larger the company, the greater its impacts, the more extensive its resources, the greater its risk exposure, the higher the expectations from stakeholders. However, 20% of these mega-corps are still resisting the reporting opportunity. The rate of Sustainability Reporting drops to 63% for companies over $10 billion, 25% for companies below $10 billion and only 4% for companies below $1 billion. $1 billion is still a heck of a company size and has potential for some serious impact. Who is chasing the other 96%? Match this with this next number:

46%

This is the rate of companies in the telecommunications services sector which publish Sustainability Reports. This is the highest reporting sector in the Bloomberg 3000. Contrary to the long-held view (and data) that financial services companies and energy companies have been leading the fray in sustainability reporting, only 20% and 25% respectively in these two sectors are publishing reports at a global level.

 Great work by telcos. What's driving this industry's reporting prowess? Match that with this number:

48%

This is the rate of telcos which use the GRI guidelines to report. Again, this is the highest rate of all sectors, with an overall average being 30%, generally lower than the hype would suggest. Consumer Discretionary and Information Technology companies have the lowest uptake rate of the GRI guidelines, at 27%.  Again, we find that the highest revenue companies are more likely to use GRI guidelines (66% - 23 companies) versus the lowest revenue companies (10% - 109 companies). The picture in the telecommunications sector is both of high disclosure and high use of the GRI guidelines. Telcos also have the highest rate of report verification and assurance at 26% (versus an overall average of 13%).  Match that with this number:

24%

telcos. No wonder it's so expensive to connect.  But take a look at these numbers:

54% - 43%

The numbers of women employed in the workforce and the numbers of women in management in the telco sector. Hah! One of my favorite indicators.  Not so rosy in the IT sector, where women make up 13% of the workforce and only 9% of management. Across all sectors, the lowest revenue group of companies has the highest proportion of women in management - 24%. Telcos stand out for positive diversity in other respects too - with 26% disabled employees, and 7% of minorities in management. Apparently, if you are a disabled woman from a minority group,  you stand the best chances of advancing your career in a telco. If you are a man, the materials sector is for you. A median 86% of managers are male, and 85% of the total workforce. Match that with this number:

7%

This is the proportion of companies reporting employee fatalities in the Bloomberg 3000. Only 197 companies out of 3000 disclose this figure (even less in the U.S. large company Russell 1000, where only 36 companies disclose). The average rate of fatalities across all those companies reporting is 2, but the Information Technology Sector inflates this average with a total of 6 fatalities. Conclusion: don't go into IT if you value your life. Match that with this number:

59%

This is the proportion of companies that disclose their Health and Safety Policy. This includes 58% of Information Technology companies where six people died. Just think how things might improve if 100% of companies had a Health and Safety Policy. Would things get worse, or better? Match that with this number:

1,367

This is the average number of workforce accidents reported by the 12% (364) companies who disclose this information. I calculate this to be a total of  almost half a million accidents in this small sample. Only 5% of companies report how many lost workhours result from these accidents, reporting an average 56,111 lost hours across only 137 companies, but this is much higher than the average in large U.S. companies, which report an average of 36,121 hours (13 companies) in the Russell 1000. This might indicate that it is safer to work in the U.S.  Or that you have your accident, and get back to work pronto. Even so, the Russell 1000 indicates the lost-time equivalent of 18 employees per year per company that do not come to work as a result of an accident. Rather shocking, don't you think? The impact on families and communities of such safety issues can be quite significant. Match that with this number:

36%

This is the proportion of companies which disclose their charitable giving. I would have expected this number to be higher. Companies like to tell their good news. Match that with this number:

$161,522,597

This is the average community spending reported in the energy sector in the Bloomberg 3000. This is by far the highest rate of charitable giving, comparing with an average across all companies which disclosed of almost $28 million. The healthcare sector is the second largest giver with an average of $98 million reported by 47 companies. Industrial sector companies have not been bitten by the bug to this extent, apparently, with the giving average at a mere $10 million reported by 232 companies. Match that with this number:

$66,800,000

This is the median total corporate giving reported for 21 companies with in the highest revenue group - over $100 billion. If ya got it, share it. Seems to work for them. Companies with under $1 billion revenues give a median of $88,552. Yes, that's thousands, not millions. Match that with this number:

$1,000,353

This is the average utilities sector spend on political lobbying, more than double that of any other sector in this study. Overall, in the Bloomberg 3000, the average amount spent on lobbying is $226,065 per company (though only 14% of companies disclose this information). Interestingly, in the U.S. alone, the amount spent is three times that much. The politicization of business in the U.S. is quite some investment, it seems, if you are a utilities company. Wonder if it's worth it?

I am going to stop here for now, while I continue to study this report. You can read a great review of key findings and  broader conclusions of this report  in the Conference Board's Press Release. Or you can wait for my next post, as I will definitely have more to say about this in the coming week, after getting to the rest of the numbers that I have not looked at yet in detail. 

In the meantime, you might now like a little light relief, by watching the Sustainability Practices 2012 Edition authors, Matteo Tonello, Director of Corporate Leadership at the Conference Board and  Thomas Singer, Conference Board Research Associate, talk about the importance and relevance of this study and what this means. It's short and to the point and contains no numbers.

Thomas Singer rounds off with this perspective: "To a large extent, sustainability is about long-term risk management. It's about making sure that, if you are a company that is dependent on finite resources, you make sure that those resources are available, that they are clean and that you have access to them in the long haul. However there is a very important second part to sustainability which is ensuring innovation and new products, new markets. It is those companies that actually go beyond seeing sustainability as a risk strategy and more of an innovation strategy, those are the companies that really become sustainability leaders in the long term"

Final Tip: ice cream is a great remedy, if your eyes are getting a little fatigued from figures and percentages. Any flavor will do.

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)