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Moving Sustainability best practice to the next level of development

March 18, 20135:19 pm

The last year has been very busy in my life and I did not spend as much time working on Sustainability topics as I would like to have done.

During 2013 I started to refocus on Sustainability topics. Today’s post is meant to be a short resume post about what I believe is happening in the Sustainability field at the moment and how I could see the Sustainability best practice future.

Key learning for me over the past months has been that Sustainability best practice desperately needs to move to the next development level. Too many professionals still have a nostalgic view of Sustainability best practice and this reflects current organisation best practice. This is not the ideal way to move forward in my view and needs to be addressed by all of us.

I strongly believe that all of us as Sustainability professionals need to leave the past behind us as quickly as possible and change our view of how Sustainability should look like in 10 years time. We do not have the time to rest on our past achievements anymore. It was a great time back when Sustainability was the new business trend but lets us all now move on to integrate Sustainability best practice into normal business practice. Our goal should be to not be needed as internal or external Sustainability experts. That is how I see it.

The example of Sustainability reporting:

Roughly 10 years ago more and more organisations realized that a complete-as-can-be Sustainability report was the goal. Complete Sustainability reporting was hailed as the process and communication tool by Sustainability reporters. Fast forward to today: Sustainability reporting has evolved yes, it is more direct and user-friendly, yes but in itself I always feel that Sustainability reporting is a practice that needs to be integrated into overall Sustainability communication and stakeholder engagement activities. Not as a separate practice just for the sake of keeping some powerful Sustainability reporting specialists’ organisations alive. Now this goal of sustainability reporting is still a very important goal for organisations but Sustainability reporting is just not enough anymore for an organisation to show that it is a responsible business.

These days Sustainability within an organisation is changing to be much more integrated into the overall fabric of daily business.

Sustainability related memberships to boost the acceptance of your Sustainability best practice,Other examples of over-rated Sustainability activities are:

GRI reporting to be part of an elite group of reporters,
Independent assurance to show how transparent an organization is and
mandatory participation in Sustainability conferences to “belong” to the Sustainability crowd.

Do not get me wrong. These are all important aspects/activities of Sustainability best practice but it seems that we professionals (myself included sometimes) are still trying to promote the old Sustainability concepts in favor of revolutionizing best-practice once again.

This post is already long enough in my view but one of my next posts will tackle this exact topic. I will try to explain to you what I see as a possible next step in Sustainability best-practice. All according to my experience and my view on new developments in the Sustainability field.

I do not have all the answers what the next development level for Sustainability best practice looks like in detail but what I know is that we need to look beyond the successes of the past to be ready for the future.

This is what I think. What is your view?

Picture Credit: foilman

Consultation for new guidance for businesses to report their sustainability credentials started

July 30, 20122:03 pm

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Several days ago Defra, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, started its consultation on guidelines to help businesses that want to demonstrate their corporate sustainability credentials in a clear and concise way. This is the story on the Defra website: New guidance for businesses to report their sustainability credentials.

These are most interesting points of the press release:

“For the first time, guidance includes detailed advice on how firms can measure and report on their impact on wildlife and natural services such as clean air, clean water, food, timber, flood protection and welfare benefits.

Environment Minister Lord Taylor of Holbeach said:

“British firms are world leaders in understanding that improving the sustainability and resilience of their whole business is not only good for the environment but good for the bottom line too. This new guidance is another step towards our aim of corporate sustainability reporting becoming normal business practice by making it as simple as possible for companies to show their environmental impact.”

The proposed guidance will help companies to see where they can make savings in their business model. It will also help meet the increased interest from investors in environmental information that is relevant to investment decisions.

The guidance builds on the agreement at Rio+20 where British firms and Government helped secure international support to encourage businesses to include sustainability information in their annual reporting.” (Source: Defra)

My view:

This is one of the only real developments that came out of Rio+20. And it will be interesting to see how much attention and participation this consultation will generate. This guidance is a key element of the UK government Sustainability work and essential to keep UK business on top of the Sustainability best practice in my view.

The Sustainability / CSR sector needs more political guidance

The Sustainability / CSR sector is in desperate need of more political guidance from governments across the globe in my view. Best practice today is mostly only affordable by the big businesses which see a clear use in “being more sustainable”. Only some smaller businesses across the globe seem to be able to generate an obvious business case. I will post more in this topic over the next few days. So stay tuned.

Provide feedback for the next GRI Reporting Standard G4

June 30, 20125:04 pm

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We all usually have more time during the weekend. That is why I wanted to invite you today to visit the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) website to provide feedback for the GRI G4 Exposure Draft.

This is what the email I got send yesterday about the call for feedback:

GRI invites you to help shape the future of corporate sustainability reporting, by providing feedback on the Exposure Draft of G4 before 25 September 2012.

Your feedback on the Exposure Draft will guide the GRI Secretariat, Working Groups, and governance bodies to finalize the development of G4, ahead of its planned launch at GRI’s Conference in May 2013.

Based on feedback from the first Public Comment Period, G4 development is focused on the following five main areas – Boundary, Application Levels, Governance and Remuneration, Supply Chain, and Disclosures on Management Approach. Five Working Groups have developed new and updated existing content on each of these five issues, and it will be available online for comment from 25 June to 25 September 2012.

You can provide feedback in English on the G4 Exposure Draft following a simple process:

1. Download and read the G4 Exposure Draft
2. Register on the GRI Consultation Platform
3. Provide your feedback

For more information, to download the Exposure Draft, and to submit feedback, visit the GRI website.

Have a good weekend everyone.

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

January 21, 20115:26 pm

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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

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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.