February, 26, 2015 | Adam Garfunkel | Reporting | Sustainability
Ten Things to Include in Your Sustainability Report
A super quick round up of ten key areas that are a must have for any sustainability report worth its salt.
Adam Garfunkel
Adam has spent over a quarter of a century helping organisations plan and deliver effective strategies and communications to further social and environmental goals. Reach him at [email protected]
Adam has spent over a quarter of a century helping organisations plan and deliver effective strategies and communications to further social and environmental goals. Reach him at [email protected]
From our experience working with brands like Adidas, Seasalt, Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels and many others, here’s our list of the top ten things to include in your sustainability report:
- A statement from your CEO, ideally with genuine personal commitment, to drive the business to be more sustainable.
- An assessment of the most material, or relevant, issues that your company has to address.
- A clear expression of your company’s vision or ambition for sustainability. This should be in the context of the big picture social, environmental and economic challenges the world faces.
- A clear sustainability strategy demonstrating how and where this is linked to your company’s overall business strategy.
- Governance structures and processes that show readers this stuff really matters and is reviewed, managed and acted on, just like other important areas of your business.
- Clear goals and targets in each of the main issue areas.
- An overview of performance against key indicators, with some analysis and explanation of trends over time.
- Stories that inspire your readers about your progress. It’s not all facts and data.
- Real people’s voices, both your own and external stakeholders to make your work much more tangible and engaging.
- A good, not too limited, assurance statement from a recognised, independent provider to lend credibility to the report, and give you some great tips of things to improve.
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