Will you influence the future of sustainability reporting?

There are some that say that governments will influence the future of sustainability reporting with reporting regulation. There are some that say that consumers will define what they want to hear from companies. There are others that think that NGOs are driving sustainability transparency forward. And academics, producing research on sustainability reporting, think they have the key to making it all work differently. All this is fine and every stakeholder group has the power to make a difference. But there is one additional way in which we can all influence the future of sustainability reporting and that's by giving recognition to the reports that inspired us for different reasons and helping them gain exposure.

That's why, around this time of year, every year, voting in the CRRA online reporting awards has to be on the to-do list of everyone that has an interest in the future of sustainability reporting, which has proven itself to be a process which helps drive sustainability performance and yes, save the planet.

Looking at the line-up for CRRA 14, there are over 50 worthy (some more, some less!) report candidates that are just waiting for you to take a look and vote.

Here are some entirely random quotes from most of the reports in the CRRA 14 line-up which may inspire you. I selected lines that made me smile, or cringe, or nod, or agree, or raise my eyebrows....... but I won't say which is which :)

Note that these quotes are taken out of context, though I hope that this is not misleading in any way. However, perhaps this is why you may be intrigued to open up the report and take a look yourself.

(I didn't check out two reports which did not offer a PDF download. I like PDFs.)  

Ascendas Pte Ltd: "As a progressive organisation, Ascendas continues to be forward-looking and expeditious in adopting best practices."

Bloomberg LP: "Data is the life-blood of policy-making and the capital markets. Even with the most sophisticated assumptions, regulations and financial models formulated on unreliable information are liable to miss the mark and, worse still, compound the problem."

BMW AG: "For us, sustainability means: making decisions weighing up the environmental, economic and social aspects of our actions. But we also examine all decisions on sustainable activities with regard to their profitability. This pays off."

British American Tobacco plc : "If you think nicotine causes most smoking-related diseases then you are not alone. Even some doctors believe this."

China Southern Power Grid Co Ltd: "When most people have been enjoying modern convenience brought by electricity, there was a time when some people in the five provinces and region in South China did not have access to it but relied on kerosene lantern and pine tar for light. Modern civilization was far away from them."

Chocolats Halba: "It is not possible to manufacture chocolate sustainably without procuring sustainable raw materials."

Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc: "We have mapped our stakeholders into key groups and continually review this landscape to ensure we understand their views and are able to communicate effectively and respond to their concerns on issues of interest."

Colas Limited: "Road safety has been identified as a key focus for our social responsibility. This issue is closely related to our operations and presents an important opportunity to make a big difference."

Co-operative Group Limited: "With a history as long as ours it’s inevitable that we’ve experienced all manner of challenges, but throughout, we’ve always stuck resolutely to our Values and Principles and today is no different."

Doosan Infracore Co Ltd: "The VC 630 / 5AX from Doosan Infracore is a high-rigidity vertical machining center capable of controlling five axles simultaneously. Functionality, productivity and operator convenience are all outstanding."

Ernst & Young Americas: "While formal learning plays a crucial role in our people’s development, it is but one leg in the EYU “tripod.” Experiences and coaching form the other two legs and are equally important."

Fibria Celulose SA: "Fibria Cellulose's 2012 Sustainability Report is an education in the detail of sustainable forest management practices, and projects a deep-seated commitment to high standards of environmental stewardship and good citizenship." (haha, disclosure, I said that, in the review piece I wrote for Fibria in this report.)

Flughafen München GmbH: "Crises cannot be planned – but reactions to crises can be."

Fromageries Bel SA: "Beyond the purely commercial act of buying something, consumers are looking for products that resonate with their own awareness of societal issues and desire for commitment, and the societal commitment they perceive in brands which they want to continue to trust."

GSK Latvia: "Vaccination (immunization) is the most effective method of preventing widespread diseases – it prevents an estimated annual 2.5 million deaths in children worldwide." (Another disclosure: I helped write this report.)

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB: At H&M, we like to think of sustainability as a word of action, something we do rather than something we simply say."

Hess Corporation: "Tragically, we suffered two separate fatalities in 2012, our first since 2008. These fatalities serve to remind us that our work to keep our people safe can never stop as we continue to strive to eliminate all accidents from our business.

Hewlett-Packard Company: "We are committed to maintaining renewables as a part of our energy mix to make continued emissions reductions."

Hydro Québec: "Hydro-Québec takes steps to prevent or mitigate noise from facilities near sensitive environments, such as residential neighborhoods. To prevent noise pollution, the company installs quieter equipment."

IHS Inc: "Colleagues are passionate and understand that IHS is building a very unique company focused on providing tremendous value to customers, communities and stakeholders."

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc: "Vanilla has global appeal that crosses cultures and demographics, making it one of the world’s most popular flavors."

JSR Micro Inc.: "JSR Micro did not seek external assurance for this first report. However, to the best of our ability, we have confirmed that all information in the report is accurately disclosed and presented."

Koninklijke BAM Groep nv: "The earlier we get involved in a development the greater the opportunity we have to influence the sustainability of the development at a lower cost."

Korea Water Resources Corporation: "Communication with stakeholders is the best way for corporations to search for means to coexist with stakeholders."

Kuwait Petroleum International: "Sustainable growth is embedded in our commitment and we bring it to our workplace every day to make sure this company has a sustainable future."

La Trobe University: "To support the development of staff, the University invested over $2.5 million in staff training and conference participation in 2012, or $792 per full‑time equivalent on average."

LG U Plus Corporation: "The donation fund accumulated through the employee Quit Smoking Program is used for the U+ Study Room of Love, which is a project for building a study environment for the youths of low income families. The Regional Children Center in Sangam-dong is designated as the Study Room of Love and the fund was used to install IT devices, redo the wall paper, and to exchange the boiler."

Maynilad Water Services, Inc: "The Company is very strict to ensure that gender discrimination is not tolerated in any way. Employees’ salary and compensation are based on their performance and designations, but never on their gender."

Microsoft Corporation: "The people who power our innovations drive our success."

MillerCoors LLC: "Drunk driving fatalities are on the decline, and in 2011 were at record-low levels in the U.S."

MOL Group: "2013 could be just as challenging as 2012, taking into account slow economic growth in Europe or the tightening regulatory environment in many countries."

Monsanto Company: "We live in dynamic times."

Natura Cosmeticos SA: "A Natura consumer for 16 years, Geni Alves is a frequent buyer of perfumes from the Humor line. With a birthday party scheduled, she purchased the gift over a week in advance."

Nizhny Novgorod Engineering Company - Atomenergoproek: "We are committed to responsible designing and construction of nuclear and thermal power energy facilities and acknowledge that functioning of Company’s subdivisions and branches, as any other anthropogenic activity, may lead to a negative impact upon the environment." 

Novelis Inc: "Aluminum’s infinite recyclability is the other essential component of its sustainability footprint, and recycling aluminum uses dramatically less energy than manufacturing primary aluminum."

Novo Nordisk A/S: "Most annual reports these days talk about how the state of the global economy and the ensuing austerity measures put pressure on businesses. This report is no exception."

Pacific Hydro Pty Limited: "In relation to energy infrastructure of all types, we believe that the community needs confidence in the regulatory and planning authorities and the information provided by them about wind farms."

PanAust Limited: "We continue to be very impressed by the progress we observe in our Lao workforce."

Port Metro Vancouver: "Canada is a trading nation. From coast to coast to coast, people rely on the goods that move through ports."

Royal Dutch Shell plc: "The world is at the beginning of a transformation in energy use. Global population is rising, living standards are improving for many and more people are moving to cities. Demand for energy could rise by up to 80% by around 2050 as it powers rapid economic development."

SK Hynix Inc: "There is a saying that the future, despite being unpredictable, is the present to those who challenge and create."

SK Telecom Co Ltd: "When people and companies explore new possibilities for a better world, SK Telecom always stands by and works with them to be "happy together."

Smithfield Foods Inc: "As a food company, we believe we have a responsibility to help feed families who are struggling to afford the food they need."

STMicroelectronics NV: "Energy-efficiency and eco-design are now key consumer requirements for products."

The British Land Company plc: "Our strong reputation for community engagement makes us more likely to become the partner of choice for local authorities and others."

The Crown Estate: "We are privileged to own and manage some of the most diverse assets in the UK."

Tieto Corporation: "Based on the employee survey, people feel that their competences are well matched to role expectations. We also rate our leaders higher than ever before."

Toronto-Dominion Bank: "I have long held the view that a bank’s primary purpose is to create wealth in the real economy."

Vancouver City Savings Credit Union (Vancity): "Where we allocate capital today determines our society's future health."

Wilderness Holdings Limited: "Thirty years ago the founders of Wilderness fell in love with remote and wild places in Africa. They realised that many of these places were not getting the attention they deserved."

Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc: "We also accepted smaller broccoli, leeks and swedes in our standard vegetable range and courgettes that were lightly marked by wind and rain."

Got inspired?

Smiled?

Cringed?

Nodded?

Learned something new?

Go VOTE! Influence the future of sustainability reporting NOW! This is your chance! Do something to save the planet! Ok... I am getting carried away... but I do think it's important to give recognition to great reporters...so I think it would be great if you could include your voice.

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

When is CSR Reporting honest?

What makes you read a sustainability report and come away thinking: "This company is really honest?" How many times has that happened to you in recent years? (assuming you have read a few sustainability reports). The Openness and Honesty Category in the annual CRRA online reporting awards is always an interesting one for me, as, let's face it, if we are not convinced of the honesty of the reporting company, then pretty much everything else is a waste of time. Am I right or am I right? 

CorporateRegister.com, the CRRA host, says this about the Openness and Honesty Category: "It’s sometimes difficult to tell the whole truth. It’s easy to highlight the good news and ignore the bad. Whether performance is poor or excellent is less relevant for this award. This award is for the report which ‘comes clean’, tells both the good and the bad news, and which convinces us that this is a balanced picture."

Indeed, bad news was cited as one of the most significant credibility-builders in reporting, according to research the CorporateRegister.com published in 2013. But there is bad news and there is bad news. Sometimes, bad news is so wrapped up in sugar that you don't even realize it's bad news. Sometimes, bad news is so insignificant that it's not even news, let alone bad. Sometimes bad news is also old news, and not worth wasting time on. Sometimes, bad news is simply a number in a chart which shows a target was not achieved, with no explanation or acknowledgment. Bad news is rarely that people screwed up, people made mistakes, people got it wrong, people failed. Bad news is rarely personalized (unless you are Tony Hayward), though it's usually quite personal. Maybe reports should include a section entitled: Who screwed up this year, why, and what we did about it. That would shoot any report right to the top of the Sustainability Reporting Honesty Leaderboard Rating of All Time.

But it's not just bad news that builds credibility. A report containing only bad news would never get past legal counsel. It's the combination of both good and bad news and the consistency with which the company's overall performance impacts are reported that creates a credible report and the feeling that we are reading an honest account of performance. The result is that you believe the company has made an effort to tell it like it is, even though you always know, deep down, that the company has pre-deselected a range of things that it will not disclose.

I took a look at the ten reports shortlisted for the Openness and Honesty Category to see if I could identify a good news - bad news combination. Previous winners in the Openness and Honesty category include Novo Nordisk Annual Report 2009 (CRRA '11), Marks and Spencer How We Do Business Report 2011 (CRRA '12) and Pacific Hydro Pty Annual Review & Sustainability Report 2012 (CRRA '13).

This time, the shortlisted lineup includes prior winner Pacific Hydro and nine other hopefuls. You can find all these reports and read them at CRRA '14 Best Openness and Honesty Category.

• British American Tobacco plc Sustainability Summary 2012.  
• Co-operative Group Limited Sustainability Report 2012.  
• Fromageries Bel SA Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2012.  
• Hydro Québec Sustainability Report 2012
• La Trobe University 2012 Sustainability Report.  
• Microsoft Corporation Citizenship Report 2013
• Pacific Hydro Pty Limited Annual Review and Sustainability Report 2013
• Royal BAM Group nv Sustainability report 2012
• Smithfield Foods Inc 2012 Integrated Report.  
• STMicroelectronics NV Sustainability Report 2012

BAT supplied 180 markets with over 694 billion cigarettes in 2012.  Is that bad news or good news?  You pick. But here's some really bad news. In 2012, there were 12 fatalities among BAT employees and contractors. In 2011, there were 7 fatalities. And no, these were not due to second-hand smoking but to injuries occurring during the course of work. BAT explains that a large factor causing these fatalities is assaults on sales and marketing people. I wonder what's more dangerous - smoking cigarettes or selling them? I checked back to an earlier BAT report (couldn't resist) and in 2010 there were four fatalities and in 2009, three. What's BAT doing about this four-fold increase in fatalities in three years? It's doing a lot of investigation and putting in place "focused support and action plans" and a global awareness campaign.  

Aside from these 19 people dying during the past two years, the rest of the BAT report is really quite good news. BAT faces the question of smoking-is-bad-for-everyone's-health head-on with wonderful news of nicotine alternatives which are safer than toxicants in tobacco, great stories of environmental added-value and support for a strict sector regulation.

The title of The Co-operative Group report - Building a Better Society - gives a hint that this report might be good-news oriented. However, the Co-op confirms that this is a balanced report. Chair Len Wardle says: "Good or bad, we report our impacts on everything from the environment to animal welfare, from people’s diet and health to diversity." Jonathon Porritt's "expert commentary" is only good news. Some of the superlatives in his short commentary include: remarkable, an inspiration, good story, impressive, pioneer, extraordinary". Perhaps the bad news is that there are few incredibly exceptionally admirably wonderfully astoundingly positive phrases he didn't manage to cram in.

True to its assertion, The Co-op reports the good and bad of target achievement.

The good news is that most companies have a hard time setting targets, let alone reporting performance against targets, so well done to the Co-op.  

Fromageries Bel's report - Sharing Smiles - is a first report. That's the good news. It's also the bad news, because it's a shame that this company did not deliver a report before now. It's a really well done report. The bad news is that there are zero women on the management committee at Bel, despite women making up 37% of all managers.

I had a hard time finding anything that looked like bad news in Hydro Quebec's report. That didn't make it less credible for me, but just to be on the safe side, I did a quick web search to see it I could come up with any major bloops about Hydro Quebec and I couldn't. The report, Hydro's 11th, is clear, readable and materially focused. The materiality process on the Hydro Quebec's website is impressively documented. So, no bad news. But don't let that fool you.

La Trobe University's report is another serious affair, but there is a little bit of bad news wrapped up in a little bit of good news. "While we have only achieved one of the three targets for women in senior roles, we are committed to gender equality and our Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Strategic Plan 2012–2015 will provide guidance to move the University’s gender equality forward." The target was 42% and the achievement was 37%, so that's only almost bad. The other piece of good news in the La Trobe report is that target actions in all different performance areas throughout the report clearly state who is responsible for delivering (by job title). Now we know. And so do they.

Microsoft's 105 page report is rather a good news report. There is some really good news: For the first time ever, we’ve integrated carbon use into the financial decision making of the company. Our internal carbon fee builds a more responsible corporate culture while giving us a new perspective on the external costs of our emissions." That sounds like great news.  There's also good news from stakeholders. For example, Yutaio Wang from China: “ I can’t tell you how happy I was to find out I could get Microsoft training for free. I’ve always wanted to learn IT skills, but thought it was out of my reach.” There's good news about technology education, supporting NGOs, environmental performance, life-cycle impacts, human rights, online safety, data privacy, conflict minerals. In fact, it's all really really good. Why spoil it?

Pacific Hydro, on the other hand, piques our interest right on the very first page. The report gives a legend for understanding targets. Take a look at this:

Now, doesn't that make you sit up and race to try and find some little x's ? Fast forward to page 14. Oy! What a disappointment. Loads and loads of ticks and only one little x. "Did not achieve required returns due to overall reduction in forecast bundled (green and black) prices and delay in La Higuera tunnel rectification works." I thought that that might be our bad news over and done with in this report but then I came across a good bad report about the noise from wind farms and families who complained. Apparently wind farms create noise - but did you know that they create inaudible noise? Isn't that an oxymoron? "While complaints differ across the three families, they include concerns about audible and inaudible noise, vibration, and health."  Well done to Pacific Hydro for reporting this sort-of bad news.

Royal BAM Group's report leaves nothing to chance. It includes a section entitled: "Where we can improve". It cites safety, carbon emissions and waste as key areas of focus, and these are all top-right quadrant material issues. Detail about how Royal BAM plans to improve are included in the relevant report sections. That's great. Now we don't have to read the entire report looking for bad news. All the credibility has been established up front in a very clear way. Way to go, BAM.

Smithfield Foods' report starts with bad news. A "forward-looking information" statement, half a page long, which I suppose only lawyers understand. My point is, if I don't understand it, and it's full of legalese, then it must be bad news. However, this is probably due to the report's integrated approach. Pages 1 - 54 are the Integrated-Sustainability Report, pages 55 to 191 are the company's Form 10K. I didn't look at the latter but the former is a sound and informative read, well-written, using the Integrated Reporting value creation framework rather than the G4 material-impact approach. Every section has a good-news piece about how much value Smithfield is creating for different stakeholders. The bad news in all of this is the recall of 216,238 lbs of portobello mushroom-flavored pork loins that may have contained an undeclared allergen. Fairly mild bad news, I guess. Unless you're allergic.

STMicroelectonics uses the by now familiar little x approach to tell us their bad news. There are actually quite a lot of little x's. Is that good news or bad news? Fortunately a new set of objectives has been established for 2013-2015, so that probably turns this into good news. The degree of data transparency is very high in this report, covering all levels of performance over a 5 year period, and that's good news even if it contains bad news.  

This post leaves me contemplating why people focus on bad news as a credibility builder? I don't find that this is the only thing, or even the main thing, that makes a report credible. Let's be realistic. A sustainability report is not a confessional where companies request to be absolved of their sins. It's not something companies put out there so that you can hang them with it. However, as no company is perfect, I guess it's somewhat of an affront to our intelligence to present us with a report that gives us only the perfect picture. And that's why bad news is so important in sustainability reporting. It respects our intelligence. In return, we appreciate the honesty. 

I haven't deliberately tried to influence the outcome of the voting in CRRA '14 Openness and Honesty Category - none of the above reporters are my clients (yet, haha), so any influence you picked up is entirely your responsibility. However, I would like to influence you to vote. Voting in CRRA '14 is open through to end January and prizes are offered for voting. Here's your chance to both win a prize and vote for the best bad news. Go for it!

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

How to say Sustainability in a Poster

Having spent a lot of time on this blog talking about the new generation of the GRI Guidelines and the G4 Exposure Draft, and speculating about what it will look like when it is actually launched, it is now time for the talking to stop and the action to begin, as we enter the countdown phase for the G4 launch. It's time for everyone to start placing bets as the exact format for the G4 launch is being kept well under wraps. If you are not in Amsterdam on May 22-24, to hear the first exposure of the G4 draft, and engage with 1,500 or more sustainability professionals, consultants, commentators, academics, regulators, activists and optimists at the Innovation, Information, Integration GRI Conference, you will be missing out on THE sustainability event of the 2013 calendar. Download the conference agenda here. Plus, if you attend, you'll get to meet all our online friends at the TWEET-UP, which will be at 12:00 noon on Wednesday 22nd May, a unique opportunity to put all those Twitter handles to Twitter faces. 

One of the star attractions of the conference will, of course, be the first exposure of the G4 guidelines and the proposals for adopting them as the reporting journey moves forward. The G4 track runs through the conference, starting with the launch at the end of Day 1, running through Day 2 and finishing up on Day 3. If you attend all these sessions, you will become a true G4 expert and be able to advise your company on its reporting journey going forward.

Day One Wednesday 22nd May

17:30 G4 Launch "This plenary will showcase the G4 development process and present the views of different stakeholders on how G4 will help advance organizational reporting and transparency." Speakers are: Denise Esdon, Ernst & Young; Karin Ireton, Standard Bank Group; Mervyn King, IIRC; Roel Nieuwenkamp, Director Trade Policy at Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs; Herman Mulder, Chairman GRI

 

Day Two Thursday 23rd May 

09:00: G4 Content Briefing: Jo Confino of the Guardian and Nelmara Arbex of the GRI will introduce the G4 guidelines

10:00: Defining Report Content: Material Aspects and Boundaries discussion will be moderated by Simon Longstaff, St. James Ethics Centre Disclosure 

11:30:  Disclosure on Management Approach (DMA) discussion will be moderated by Judy Kuszewski, SustainAbility

14:30: Governance and Remuneration discussion will be moderated by Christianna Wood, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Corporate Governance Network

16:00: Supply Chain discussion, moderated by Simon Longstaff, St. James Ethics Centre

Day Three Friday 24th May

09:00: Greenhouse Gas Emissions reporting discussion, moderated by Simon Longstaff... again.

In addition to the G4 track, there are "Trends in Reporting" sessions, Regional Overviews by Delegations from around the world, Policy and Regulation sessions and Learning Sessions, such as "First Time Reporting Made Easy" with Crystal Crawford, Corporate Responsibility Specialist of Liberty Global, whose report I featured on the CSR Reporting blog a while ago. (10:00 Thursday 23rd, Day Two)

In other words, plenty of interesting perspectives, updates, networking, discussion, insight, information, innovation and integration. I am looking forward to seeing absolutely loads of old, new, offline, online and bothline friends, colleagues and sustainability movers-and-shakers at the conference.  

In the meantime, before you get to Amsterdam, there is something else you can be doing.

 

As you may know, the voting period for GRI’s Next Generation Competition began on Wednesday 20th March, on GRI’s Facebook page. More than 60,000 Facebook users have been reached, and more than 3,000 votes (or "likes") for the different posters presented have already been received. The competition was designed to encourage young professionals up to age 30  to engage with the sustainability agenda and compete for the opportunity to be part of a landmark conference and turning point in Sustainability Reporting history. The challenge was to design a poster that promotes an inspiring concept or message to encourage people and/or companies to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable global economy, while relating to one or all of the key words that make-up the theme of the GRI Global Conference: Information, Integration, Innovation.

 

The Facebook album of the 25 posters submitted can be viewed on Facebook via this link: http://on.fb.me/16006K9, and you are invited to "like" the posters you believe best reflect and inspire sustainability. Public voting closes on  10th April, which means your chance to vote for the top 10 is quickly approaching!

See the full selection of posters, and vote for your faves, on Facebook!

 

 

Once determined by public voting, the top 10 posters will be submitted to an international jury (which includes me, myself and I, as well as other sustainability pros) for a shortlist selection of the top three posters.  The authors of these top three posters will be invited to join GRI (and us) at the Global Conference in May and conference delegates will select the overall winner. This 1st Prize winner will be invited to give a speech at the closing plenary session of the conference, to explain her or his entry and inspire the international audience! Who knows, one of these poster-masters may well be a global corporate sustainability leader of the future...wouldn't you like to be able to say you had a hand in her or his professional development? Sure you would... so take a look, vote and see you at the GRI conference!

PS: I will be on the lookout for the best ice-cream in Amsterdam, so all suggestions welcome!

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, winning (CRRA'12) Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of 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)

25 examples of Creativity in Sustainability Reports

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Birth from Aggregate Industries

Banco Bradesco Sustainability Report 2010 (GRI A+)

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

Calling out for more information at Banco Bradesco

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

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

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

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

British American Tobacco Sustainability Report 2010 (GRI Undeclared) 

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

# Should a tobacco company aim to be sustainable?

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

# Isn't this all "PR spin"?

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

# Can you be responsible when you need to compete?

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

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

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

Capital Power Corporation Sustainability Report 2011 (GRI A+)

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

Creative presentation at Capital Power

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

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

Coca Cola Ent. balloons

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

Danisco Sustainability Report 2010/2011 (GRI A+)

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

Danisco's full page materiality matrix

Dell Corporate Responsibility and Report 2011 (GRI A)

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

Join Dell's sustainability conversation

Deloitte LLP Fiscal 2010 Corporate Responsibility Report (GRI B)

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

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

Digesting data at Gas Natural

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

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

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

HP auditors at work in China

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

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

One of the lost islands from Kuoni's report

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



Quotable section heads from Kuoni Travel Holdings



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

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

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

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

Loyalty One Inc. Accountability Report 2011 (GRI C)

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

Microsoft 2011 Citizenship Report (GRI undeclared)

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

National Grid plc Social Purpose Report 2010 (GRI Undeclared)

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

Creativity in connecting energy to people from the National Grid

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

QR straight to Newalta

Qualcomm 2010 Social Responsibility Report (GRI B+)

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

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

10 years of sustainability data at Shell

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

Camping out after mine closure at Teck

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

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

Coca-Cola's sustainable agriculture initiative

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

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

A sustainable water attraction from The Walt Disney Company

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

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


Women get to high places at Waggener Edstrom

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

And one more

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

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

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

The CRRA 12 Navigation Guide

The CorporateRegister.com Annual Reporting Awards - CRRA 12 - is now open for voting :-). See the press release here.

As most of you will know, the CRRA annual awards is the largest annual online sustainability report awards around the globe, organized now for the fifth time by CorporateRegister.com, the global CR resources website which hosts the world’s most comprehensive directory of corporate non-financial reporting, profiling over 36,000 reports from over 8,400 organizations. The go-to place for sustainability reports.

As usual, CRRA attracts a collection of excellent reports, 93 in total this time around, from 29 countries including Turkey, Romania, Ukraine, Israel, Hungary, Japan, Greece, Singapore, Korea, Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal, Brazil and more. This is a whole 15,668 pages of CSR information (excluding the L'Oreal entry which is an online report and not downloadable). There are reports representing big firms, small firms, universities, municipalities and non-profits. A great collection of worthy reports, all published in the year prior to October 2011.  This year, in addition showcasing the report itself, companies were asked to provide a brief narrative about the key highlights of the report, in their own words. Most reporting companies have used this opportunity to provide more details for the readers during the voting process and it is well worth looking at these highlights if you don't have time to read all the 93 reports (!) to help you select which reports to look at in more detail.

Some quick facts:

• Sanofi Aventis takes the prize for the longest report - 400 pages
• Royal Dutch Shell takes the prize for the most number of entries - six in total - every category except first time report, SME report and integrated report.
• 27 of the 93 reports entered in CRRA 12 also serve as a Communication on Progress to the UNGC.
• Around 20 of the 93 reports entered in CRRA 12 are integrated (but only 18 are entered in the Best Integrated Report category)
• Only 9 reports are more than 200 pages long and 7 reports are 30 pages or less.
• The USA has the most number of entries - 35 voting opportunities - representing 22 reports. The UK follows with 19 entries representing 7 reports.
• HP and Coca Cola Enterprises, first and second place winners in the Best Report category last year are both entered in the Best Report category this year. Bayer, third place winner in the Best Report category, is not entered this year in any category.
• The Support Services sector (legal, consulting, marketing services etc)  is represented by 19 entries (11 reports), followed by the banks with 15 entries (6 reports)
• The only report in the tobacco sector is British American Tobacco, which is entered in 5 categories.
• The only Stock Exchange to enter the reporting awards is Deutsche Boerse with a report called "Positions". This is the third report by this organization but the first time they have entered CRRA.
• The report with the least number of pages is M4C with an eleven page report, entered in the SME category.

And a quick look at the 9 categories:

Best 1st time report: 

We know that for the past few years, about 20% of all reports are first-timers and in many ways, these are some of the most interesting and the most innovative. CRRA 12 entries include 18 first time reports from 10 countries across 15 sectors. 13 out of the 18 reports (72%) are GRI-based, one is integrated and 5 (28%) are assured. The average number of pages is 64 with the highest page count going to Bloomberg with a whopping 235 pages.

Best SME report:

Surprisingly (and disappointingly), this category attracted only 5 entries this time around. Wonder why? Are fewer SME's reporting? The five reports are from five countries and three sectors and have an average of 55 pages, ranging from 11 to 160 pages. Four out of five are GRI-based reports, and one  is an intergrated report.

Best integrated report

18 integrated reports are competing in this category, with over 2,200 pages of narrative and data. Reports come from 14 countries with USA, Korea, South Africa and Germany having two reports each in this category. 18 sectors are represented with the leisure, software, transport and pharma leading in integration. Only two reports in this category are not GRI based (Siveco, Romania and Syngenta International of Switzerland) and of the others, only Wilderness Holdings Ltd of South Africa does not declare a GRI reporting level. 8 out of the 18 reports are at GRI A level and 10 (56%) are externally assured. Normally, we could expect to see a higher level of assurance for integrated reports, though the assurance of CSR related information is not always comprehensive.

Best Carbon Disclosure:

9 contenders this year in the Best Carbon Category which was won last year by Hewlett Packard's 2008 Report. Reports come from 6 countries with USA and Brazil in the lead, and from 7 sectors, with the banking sector trying for three of the nine report entries. The longest report is Banco Santander of Brazil with 144 pages and the shortest, Vodafone Group plc with 23 pages. All reports are GRI-based, and all at A or B level with one exception (Wyndham Worldwide Corporation) which is a C level, and, the only report that is not externally assured.

Creativity in Communications:

24 reports are aspiring to with the Creativity Award, of which over half come from USA (9), UK (3) and Canada (4) and others from a further 7 countries. 15 sectors are represented with the Support Services sector contributing 5 reports out of the 24 which are entered. 22 reports are GRI-based, with Newalta Corp and Dell Corp being the odd two out. HP contributes the most pages (242) to the 1,892 pages in this category, which is 13% of the total.

Relevance and Materiality:

25 reports in this category, from 18 sectors, with banks and pharma taking three reports each. 18 sectors are represented with banks and pharma at the top (3 reports each). 12 companies also report to the UNGC in this category. 17 countries contributed reports and all but three are GRI-based.

Openness and Honesty: 

This is probably one of the hardest categories to judge as one has to guestimate what is not disclosed in order to assess the degree of openness! The 20 reports in this sector are from 19 different industry sectors, which shows that openness and honesty are universal values. However, only 10 of the 29 countries entering the Reporting Awards are represented in this category, with UK reporters believing they are the most open and honest of all, with 25% of reports here. Honesty, however, is not always best left to chance, so 13 of the 20 reports in this category have used external assurance. Natura Cosmeticos of Brazil has the biggest offering in terms of openness with a 250 pages, the longest report in this category.

Credibility through Assurance:

14 reports have entered this category, bringing their assuring vendors along with them. 12 countries and 12 sectors are represented in this category, and the assurer who had the most work, apparently, was Ernst and Young UK who worked on the British American Tobacco report which is 216 pages long. None of the other reports in this category topped 151 pages. 

  

Best Report:

And finally, the largest category of all, in which you have a choice of 44 reports from 22 countries. All but 7 reports are GRI-based (which is 85% GRI) and of the GRI reports, all but 3 declared a reporting level. 25 of the total 44 reports (57%) are externally assured, 15 (34%) serve as UNGC COP's, and 6 are integrated reports. Reports in this category have a 90 page average, with the Vodafone Group report being the most compact at 23 pages.

All in all, a great selection. Congrats to all reporters who have entered the awards and good luck to all! Every report is an effort, every report is a production and every report is worthy of recognition (even if there is some ... or massive ... room for improvement). As usual, I am already excited to hear the results, but I think I will refrain from making predictions this year as I never quite get it right.

Voting is open until Friday 27th January 2012 and voters (anyone freely registered on the CorporateRegister.com website) may select up to 5 choices in each award category. Those voters with a first choice for each award category are then entered in the Voters’ Prize draw and can win cash prizes. A total of £2,500 will be awarded to voters. Ha-Ha - it PAYS to VOTE!! But remember, if your report is entered in the competition, you and other employees cannot vote for your own company report! Which, I think, is fair. Tough, but fair!

Ahem! One more thing.....

While you are voting, please consider voting for my own Sustainability Report - How a little consulting firm makes a big impact - which is entered in four categories: Best Report, Best First Time Report, Best SME Report and Best Creativity in Communications.

Additionally, you might also please consider reviewing and voting for the Baran Group report - which I worked on - which is entered in two categories: Best Relevance and Materiality and Best Openness and Honesty.

And now, all that remains is for me to stock up on loads and loads of ice cream as I sit down to read 91 reports (Ha-Ha, I have a head start- I don't need to read the two reports that I worked on :)

Disclaimer: The analyses presented above are my own - I may have miscalculated here and there - apologies in advance - my blog posts are not externally assured - so use my numbers as a guide and not as the absolute truth.

And: WATCH this SPACE for more posts in the CRRA 12 Navigation Guide.

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