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What do you expect from the 2011 CSR / Sustainability reporting season?

January 21, 20115:26 pm

2011 has only just started and I am already expecting some interesting companies to publish their CSR / Sustainability reports shortly. Novo Nordisk is one of them for example.

But the question for today’s blog post is what you expect from 2011 the upcoming CSR / Sustainability reporting season. Do you feel that we have an innovate year in front of us or will 2011 be a year of transition where finally integrated reporting will make a proper splash in our CSR / Sustainability reporting world for example?

Here is what I think (I guess you saw that one coming).

CSR / Sustainability Reporting in 2011 – My expectations

The continued rise of Integrated Reporting: GRI and Integrated Reporting will be as big a topic in 2011 as it was in 2010 since the GRI is now fully committed to push integrated reporting. What the result will be is another question but I believe that integrated reporting will be as huge as a topic in 2011.
Interactivity and Social Media: An increased interactivity with social media sites such a Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn will give CSR / Sustainability Reports a whole now look and feel about them. The danger here is that if a company decides to go down the social media integration route it needs to be innovative and forward thinking. A half-hearten approach will most likely not be successful.
Most will be online but print will stay as well: The vast majority of reports will be even more extensive online in terms of content. The printed report will not be as comprehensive. But a printed brochure or short report will still be something each organization needs to produce in my view.
Another year of records: I am not sure about the total numbers but I am certain that we will see another record breaking year in terms of the number of companies producing CSR / Sustainability reports.

These are four my expectations for 2011. What are yours?

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juhansonin/5135576565

Can augmented technology enhance CSR / Sustainability reporting?

October 15, 201011:50 am

2 Comments

We know that CSR / Sustainability reports are not the most interesting bedtime reading. Despite some great work by the individuals in the CSR / Sustainability departments a CSR / Sustainability report can not really be more then some pictures and text on a piece of paper at this point in time.

Todays post is about introducing you to the topic of augmented technology. Sounds very complex and techie but don’t worry it is really easy to understand. This is the general concept: By using augmented technology, in our case smart phones, we as readers will be able to have an enhanced view and perception of the content and pictures of this CSR / Sustainability report. If I have lost you here please bear with me and watch this video below.

Here is a video to provide you with a practical example of how this technology is being used already (please disregard the horrible facial hair of the presenter )

How can this technology could be used to enhance CSR / Sustainability Reports?
In many different ways is the answer. Here are some possibilities. First from a companies perspective and then from the stakeholder perspective.

Company Perspective
Let’s view this from a recycling/ waste company’s perspective: Here augmented technology (when you hold your smart phone (iPhone, etc.) in front of this picture) can be used to provide the reader with so much more context by using different layers in images. Imagine a derelict landscape which during the course of the years has been transformed into a wildlife sanctuary again. Here the company finally has the company to show past and present all in a sequence and not by having to explain everything in detail with lots of text which no one will read anyway.

Stakeholder Perspective
As a stakeholder, this technology enables us to find the interesting bits and pieces of information much easier. Imagine you are viewing a chart of selected environmental key indicators. Only the past 2 years are displayed in order for you to see the short term progress the company has made. But holding your smart phone in front of this chart you will be able to see 5 years worth of data if you interested in a longer term view of the data.

The picture on the right is showing some glaciers in the Alps. By holding your iPhone towards them, the distance to these glaciers from your location and their altitude is being displayed.

These are only two examples (as you know I like to keep it short) on how this technology could be used to enhance CSR / Sustainability Reports. But enough from me now.

What is your view?
What is your view on this technology? Have you come across it before and do you think this would be valuable to enhance CSR / Sustainability reports?

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10812666@N03/4271298758

The 2010 Sustainability and CSR Reporting season is beginning

March 25, 201012:06 pm

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The 2010 Sustainability and CSR Reporting is beginning. Here are some the most recent CSR reports that have been published so far (including my comments of course!),

Most recent Sustainability and CSR reports I have come across:

PepsiCo
This is a very interesting development from PepsiCo. They now publish a so called ‘Health Report’ instead of a Sustainability Report and new global commitments announced on nutrition, environmental sustainability and financial performance. All in all this is a really interesting development from PepsiCo. I did not expect this development.

Segro
Segro is a UK commercial property investment and development company with a really good Sustainability reporting track record. Their new report is no exception. Really good!

United Technologies
United Technologies Corporation (UTC) is a diversified company and has many bases to covers with regards to Sustainability and CSR content and communication. This new report is not bad but also shows how hard it can be for these kind of companies to report on their material issues and topics.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
Hmm. This is a really difficult one. GSK and been part of the Sustainability and CSR reporting field for a long time. They have always reported on the topics and issues that are important to them and what they do to address these. But I expected something different this year, something more unique to GSK. To me this report and website have an old fashioned feel. Although the information provided is still very good.

The trend I can see so far for 2010:
Companies seem to move away from the classic CSR or Sustainability Reporting branding and go for Reporting on topics and issues that are more in tune with their individual business sector. Examples here are PepsiCo, Nestle and Segro. Other companies are still stuck in their old ways of reporting and presentation. Here examples include GSK and United Technologies.

I believe that there are arguments for both options, 1) continuity and 2) innovation. I prefer the innovation but this is the beauty of Sustainability and CSR reporting. The spectrum of stakeholders is very diverse and each company needs to decide for themselves how they want to report. So let’s see how and on what other companies will report on in the coming months.

UPDATE: Here are two more most recent reports I came across. Standard Chartered, a UK Bank. And Aviva, a UK based insurance company. Two good reports.