der of the article shows communicators to build on internal relationships and sys- a report that reflects all the issues of
how they can do more with less. tems that have already been put into place importance to the company and its stake-
Corporate governance is a key issue in during previous reporting processes. holders, but is still easy to use for readers
the wake of the economic crisis. Investors, A related strategy is to look for quick with different needs and interests. The
the public and employees are taking a clos- gains by capitalising on low-hanging fruit. RY/GRI report found that 32.5% of
er look at their company’s governance sys- Reporting on carbon footprint is one such organisations provided a full online report,
tem and wondering if the company has example. Doing so is a win-win for exter- but the PDF is still the format of choice
what it takes to weather the storm. But a nal stakeholders who expect this informa- with 100% of reporters in their sample
survey by KPMG of the Global Fortune tion, and senior management who will be using it as a component of their reporting.
250 (G250) found that although 92% of interested to find ways to reduce costs and It is time to unlock the information
G250 companies disclosed a code of con- risks associated with carbon emissions. trapped in sustainability web pages or PDF
duct or ethics in their sustainability documents. The RY/GRI study showed
reports, only 59% reported on perform- Talk less, listen more that most companies have not figured out
ance or compliance with this code. If there are scarce resources for talking this how to distribute the information in
The survey found a similar trend when year, turn it into an opportunity to listen. reports to stakeholders. Only 10% of com-
looking at supply chain reporting among The sustainability reporting process is panies were using new web-based tech-
the G250. Social and environmental risks in often an untapped opportunity to build nologies to enable users to produce a cus-
the supply chain have emerged as a key sus- relationships and understand key con- tomised version of their report. The same
tainability issue for companies with inter- stituencies better. But all too often the study found that 7.5% of organisations
national reach. Companies with strong reporting process is a one-way street. A had an RSS feed or email service to keep
brands at home risk reputational and sales recent study by Radley Yeldar (RY) and stakeholders up to date on issues in real
damage when the truth about dismal work- GRI found that only four of their sample time. But with web 2.0 platforms allowing
ing conditions or damaging environmental of 40 reporting organisations provided an people to communicate instantaneously,
emissions are discovered by the media or online feedback form. For companies that and news outlets pushing breaking stories
external auditors at the factories contracted have issued sustainability reports in the to mobile devices, stakeholders expect this
to produce the goods or services. past, an easy next step is to reach out to new style of short information packets.
Ninety percent of the G250 report their key audiences and get their opinions. An analysis of which data is available
code of ethics or conduct for suppliers, Interacting with the target audience is a and which stakeholders need or want this
65% went further to report on supplier methodology better known as stakeholder data in which time interval and/or format
strategy and operations, but only six per- dialogue. Sometimes these conversations will help unlock the value of corporate
cent reported on performance details such are not aimed at sustainability, but there is reporting by getting the right information
as the number of suppliers audited against a major opportunity for streamlining into the right hands at the right time.
the code. If the budget is tight, focus on a reports to focus on only the most relevant
small number of material issues and identi- and material issues, and to use stakeholder Alyson Slater founded Sustainability
fy opportunities to move from high level dialogue to help determine what these are. Advisory Services in 2008, where she
policy disclosures to drill down and report works with corporate and non-profit
on substance. This is one way to show Get creative clients on sustainability strategy and
continuous improvement in reporting, and One challenge faced is how to put together communications / alysonslater.com
SB FutureProof ❘ October 2009 5
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