Sustainability reports are the new black when it comes to a company’s marketing arsenal.
The problem is that they are usually as dull as dishwater. In a previous article, White Papers – no dust, no starch, no snoring, I talked about the importance of being different. Well, the same applies to your sustainability reporting.
What is sustainability reporting?
Sustainability reporting is all about understanding your business’s impact on three categories: environmental, social and governance (EGS). It should include information on the following:
- The sustainability risks your organisation is facing and how you plan to overcome them
- Your business model and what impact it has on the environment
- How you work with sustainability within your business, through codes of conduct or other policies
Although once the domain of specialist green or environmentally oriented companies, sustainability reporting is here to stay for all of us.
Why are sustainability reports important?
Apart from placing a stronger ESG focus on your activities, it also helps investors, clients and other stakeholders become more aware of your efforts to lessen your environmental impact.
The data it provides will also help with data-driven decision-making in the long term.
What do good sustainability reports look like?
In the words of McKinsey: “The early days of sustainable investing were values based: How can our investing live up to our values? Now, it is value-based: How does sustainability add value to our investments?”
A good report will cover the following eight areas:
1. A sustainability vision statement
After your introduction, kick off with your sustainability vision statement. It should relate to your philosophy and beliefs and how your business can directly contribute to a more sustainable future. However, make sure it remains within the realm of your business capabilities.
2. Issues to address
Talk about the issues you’ve identified as crucial action points for your business. This shows your awareness of the need for sustainable development and sets the stage for the rest of your report.
For example, your issues may be plastic waste, supply chain traceability, lack of sustainable materials, and energy wastage on your premises. Ensure you get the big picture by asking all your people to contribute to the issues raised in your report.
3. Current sustainability activities
Now, you can talk about where your business is today. Be honest because this will present an effective way to add context to your strategy while indicating the progress you’ve already made towards making your business more sustainable.
4. Goals and objectives
These should relate to the specifics of your ESG strategy, both in the short and long term.
Because you’ve already identified the issues (point 2), it should be easy to outline achievable goals and objectives.
5. Clear strategy
Now you must talk about how you’re going to achieve your goals. This is the real meat of the report because it’s where you look at each goal and show the risks and opportunities they present and the steps you need to take to achieve them.
Think about the details investors will want to see. For example, how much is a move towards more sustainable working practices likely to cost? And what are the risks and rewards?
6. KPIs
As you implement your strategy, what performance indicators will you use to show your progress? Stakeholders will want to see a benchmarking and reporting process to evaluate your ongoing strategy.
7. Governance structures and implementation
Identify who, within your company, will be responsible for driving progress and ensuring consistent improvement. This will show that sustainable development is a vital operational area of your business.
8. CEO statement
This will round off your report, re-emphasising the business’ commitment to improving sustainability while delivering a clear message of intent to shareholders, trade partners and customers.
Finally, A good sustainability report will also be engaging. That means using simple and effective language and graphics. A document full of stunning images and graphs will be far more impactful than just pages and pages of text.
Pulling it all together
As you’ve probably guessed, pulling a sustainability report together is a long and complex process. Therefore, it’s essential to have a good team around you.
You’ll need someone within your company to coordinate information gathering in a meaningful format. They should also be able to relate the information collated to your identified ESG targets.
You’ll need a designer to help you create something eye-catching that people will want to read.
Finally, you’ll need a copywriter who can work with you to find the right words and voice to give your report the impact it needs.
Sally Ormond, professional copywriter