2019

EUROPE TOP 50

futureassessing communications for sustainability

.FUTURE EUROPE TOP 50 – 2019 EDITION

At Lundquist, we’ve been working on sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) for 12 years, organising our thinking in a dedicated piece of research – the CSR Online Awards, which saw seven editions.

Today we are witnessing a dramatic shift in the scenario, in terms of sustainability itself and the way technology has altered how we access information and maintain relationships. Our thinking is evolving too as we investigate the role of digital in a more sustainable and responsible future.

With this whitepaper we are introducing a new phase in our research with .future (pronounced “dot-future”). At the same time, we are extending our horizons to take a look for the first time at how European companies are interpreting the challenge of sustainability communications.

futureassessing communications for sustainability

The year 2078 I will celebrate my 75th birthday. If I have children maybe they will spend that day with me. Maybe they will ask me about you. Maybe they will ask why you didn’t do anything while there still was time to act. You say you love your children above all else

and yet you’re stealing their future in front of their very eyes.

Greta Thunberg, speech to United Nations, December 2018

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WELCOME TO .FUTUREOur new research takes the best from a decade developing the CSR Online Awards and takes a new, future-oriented perspective built around real stakeholder expectations: we’re looking for credible and concrete stories about sustainability.

Back in 2007 when we launched the first edition of the Lundquist CSR Online Awards, we wanted to explore how to talk about corporate sustainability in new digital channels.

We felt there was a need to break with a report-driven approach that tended to churn out static, technical content and ignore the needs of the digital user.

Today, that mission is as urgent as ever, driven by surging interest in sustainability and an expectation that business should articulate how it is contributing to our collective future challenges.

SAME MISSION, NEW PERSPECTIVEIn launching .future, we’ve chosen to organise our communications model around two pillars because we believe that successfully engaging on sustainability topics depends on a combination of two elements:

Content with substance based not only on a structured process to manage material impacts but also a future oriented vision and agenda for change.

Engaging the user-stakeholder in a way that shows how the business is meeting its societal responsibilities and takes part in the wider conversation about a better future.

"Our research is challenging because it reflects the urgency of today’s context, in which companies are being called upon to give concrete and convincing answers. As sustainability becomes more integrated with innovation and business transformation processes, communication needs to evolve too and become more dynamic, interconnected and strategic."

James OsborneHead of sustainability, Lundquist

Our ambition with .future is to discover who is leading the way and share examples of how effective sustainability communications can be constructed, helping companies to be better prepared for this evolving scenario.

CONTENTS OF THIS WHITE PAPER

1How do European

companies perform?page 8

5After #metoo,

diversity as a strategic cultural issue

page 15

2Five ingredients of a

credible strategypage 10

6Sustainability

in a storypage 16

3Connecting

the dotspage 12

INTRODUCTION• The context that underpins our method •

• The .future evaluation model •page 5

7Social media and

sustainability: who’s leading the conversation?

page 18

4Climate change: a

common challenge, different responses

page 14

8.future results

(Europe)page 20

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THE CONTEXT THAT UNDERPINS OUR METHODThe approach that we have adopted in .future is based on real stakeholder expectations, on the digital and media context and on leadership attributes in corporate sustainability.

Sources: Label Insight Transparency ROI Study 2016. The Honest Product Consumer Goods Forum/Futerra, October 2018 AccentureStrategy 2018. PwC, Global Consumer Insights Survey, 2018. Purpose at Work 2016 Global Report, LinkedIn/Imperative.Cone Communications Millennial Employee Engagement Study, 2016.

Studies about Millennials reveal that ethical, social and environmental issues are important in forming perceptions of brands and businesses. These attitudes are no longer just a niche generational phenomenon but are becoming widespread among consumers.

As consumer concerns about sustainability grow, most people are focused on the impact of the products and services they buy or are thinking of buying and are less engaged by corporate information about the responsibility of a company as a whole. Moreover, for many people, it goes deeper than product transparency: they want to know about the company’s or the brand’s position on sustainability, ethics and relevant issues in the public debate.

So, from this perspective, business impacts are front-of-mind, and consistent, credible brand values are an important element of awareness and loyalty.

In a “post-truth” world, true transparency is based on a relationship between business and society, formed through engagement. Sustainability can support credibility and trust by expressing coherently how a company operates, its ambition and future goals.

The connection between sustainability and trust extends to the workplace, where it’s a key to forming a culture and purpose that can attract the best talent and sustain loyalty. Many people are aware of the wider impacts of the work they do and are keen to take an active role in finding sustainable solutions.

In this context, “joined-up” communications is critical to showing an authentic and credible approach to sustainability. Consumers and young employees turn most frequently to social media to check out purchases, brands and businesses because they trust the opinion of people in their network and have a knack for sniffing out superficial commitments. But the company’s own websites are critical too in providing an authoritative source of information.

Millennials and consumerattitudes: new trends for brands and employers

WHAT LINKEDIN USERS WANT

37% optimise their job to align with work that matters to them.

38% consider purpose as important in their career choices as pay and status.

WHAT MILLENNIALS ASPIRE TO

75% would accept a lower salary if they could work for a responsible company.

89% say they want to be active participants in finding more sustainable business practices.

WHAT CONSUMERS EXPECT

50% would like full information about a product or service on the brand’s website.

55% say companies aren’t providing enough information on social, health, safety and environmentalissues.

62% want companies to take a stand on current and broadly relevant issues like sustainability, transparency or fair employment practices.

39% look for sustainability information about a product on the company’s websites or in reports.

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In financial markets, environment, social and governance (ESG) topics have rapidly taken on importance in judging the long-term success of companies.

Materiality has become a useful tool for identifying critical topics and clear connections are being made between financial and non-financial KPIs.

It’s not just that sustainability is deemed financially material to investment performance, investors also cite client demand and the need for new products (e.g. green bonds) as reasons for this trend.

ESG topics are connected to financial performance and good governance

Sources1. Survey of 652 investment professionals globally by Amir Amel-Zadeh (Said Business School, Oxford University) and George Serafeim (Harvard Business School), published in Financial Analysts Journal, Vol. 74, No. 3, 2018.2. Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing and Morgan Stanley Investment Management: Sustainable Signals, Asset Owners Embrace Sustainability (June 2018. 118 large global asset owners).3. Globescan-SustainAbility Leaders Survey 2018 – 729 qualified sustainability experts globally4. Lundquist .future survey 2017-2019; 350 sustainability experts in Europe and N. America

What makes a leader in sustainability?

All these different expectations give us a list of ingredients for good sustainability communications, and we’ve built them into our research methodology. What emerges is that stakeholders want to know how a business is working towards future wellbeing for people and the planet in a way that is structured, incisive and authentic (in the sense of being underpinned by genuine dialogue and collaboration with relevant stakeholders).

In Europe especially, investors find ESG to be effective in changing companies’ behaviour, which reminds us of the connections between sustainability, governance and investor relations.

For asset owners such as sovereign funds and insurance companies, cross-cutting topics such as climate change, inclusive growth and board diversity have emerged as concerns and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are frequently adopted as a common framework¹.

Why are some companies perceived as leaders in sustainability? Experts cite the following attributes as most important in determining which companies they admire:

• Integrated sustainability values• Sustainability as part of the business model/strategic approach• Leadership from top management• Good communications and advocacy• Ambitious targets and results³

These points have directly relevance for communications and are backed up by our own surveys of sustainability professionals and experts. To grasp how credible a company’s commitment and actions are, they tell us look above all at:

• Sustainability strategy• Credible engagement of stakeholders• (Quantitative) targets• Focus on material topics and business impacts⁴

82% of investors globally take ESG factors into consideration in their investment decisions1

45% of global asset owners are actively aligning their investments with the Sustainable Development Goals²

THE .FUTURE EVALUATION MODELTo be credible and engaging, sustainability communications needs to respond to this complex context and go beyond a technical reporting approach that focuses above all on explaining past performance. That’s why we’ve organized our evaluation model around two pillars.

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1 . CONCRETEProviding a core set of environmental, social and governance information, from policies, reports and guidelines to data and objectives.

2 . EXHAUSTIVEAllowing users to see “under the bonnet” with information on key topics and explanations of how sustainability is managed (stakeholder engagement, governance, etc.).

3 . INTERCONNECTEDA joined-up approach to content that presents sustainability as part of the business approach and provides specific information for investors, customers, jobseekers, etc.

4 . STORIES & VIEWPOINTSTelling an engaging, unique story focused on the most important issues and showing what sustainability means day-to-day through storytelling, video and visual communication.

5 . ONGOINGKeeping stakeholders updated and involved on a regular basis and remaining open to feedback and comment.

6 . USER FRIENDLY Ease of navigation, legibility and search as well as use of visuals. Includes rating by our partner Siteimprove for accessibility, SEO and absence of errors.

7 . SOCIALLeveraging social media to listen, inform and engage in corporate social media accounts. Includes an analysis of Twitter and Facebook metrics by our partner TWIG.

SUBSTANCE DISTINCTIVENESS

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The first part of our evaluation – Substance – seeks to evaluate the sustainability approach of a company and its transparency. It has three sections and gives a total of 45 points out of 100. The second part – Distinctiveness – aims to understand how engaging this content is for users; it has four sections that add a maximum of 55 points.

As a first step in our evaluations, we subject all companies to a “Core” test (max. 20 points) to make sure there is a minimum level of information on the website, based on what stakeholders say is essential (all criteria from Concrete and two criteria from Ongoing). Companies that don’t reach the average score (10 out of 20 in the case of European companies) are excluded from the full evaluation.

In this edition, we assessed 49 European companies (members of the STOXX Europe 50 index), examining the content of the entire corporate website, social media channels and related digital properties (magazines, mini-sites, etc.).

Note: the size of each segment reflects the weighting given to each section out of the total of 100 points.

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.future offers a new way of understanding how companies are positioned in terms of sustainability communications and how they rate against peers and competitors. We measure communications from two connected perspectives: on the vertical axis (Substance) we measure the information that users need in order to

understand a company, the facts and figures that define the substance of what it does and why; on the horizontal axis (Distinctiveness), we track user experience and engagement, from stories and viewpoints to the use of social media. By rating companies on these two pillars, we can position them into four quadrants.

THE EXPLAINERSThese companies are clear in laying out a robust set of sustainability information but lack the ability (desire) to engage effectively. The tendency is to explain and describe sustainability at a rational level: here we find overly detailed sites often aimed at a technical audience and dominated by text, numbers and documents.

EUROPEAN RESULTS: A quarter of the companies we assessed (12 in all) populate the Explainers quadrant, even though there were no stand-out results in terms of Substance. Most of these companies cling quite tightly to the middle-ground, indicating there is little that stops them evolving into Narrators or sliding down into Traditionalists.

THE GLITTERATICompanies in this category often focus on what is visually striking and exploit social channels to talk about sustainability without supporting their vision with concrete information and projects. While their websites certainly give off a wow factor, they can be superficial and the inability to explore topics in depth frustrates users.

EUROPEAN RESULTS: The seven “Glitterati” companies do not stand head and shoulders above the rest for their digital communications: most of them (Schneider Electric is the exception) are positioned little more than half-way along the Distinctiveness axis, suggesting that their positioning is caused rather by a lack of depth in their sustainability content. A fault that could be rapidly rectified.

THE NARRATORSThis category includes companies that present comprehensive and information-rich content - even through stories or blogs – and supports this with proactive user engagement and social media. Their strategic approach to sustainability runs through all communications and is conveyed in both a rational and emotional way.

EUROPEAN RESULTS: Nine of the 49 companies considered qualify as Narrators, led by oil companies BP and Eni, consumer groups Nestlé and Unilever as well as healthcare firms Bayer and Roche. Almost all of them strike a balance between Substance and Distinctiveness.

THE TRADITIONALISTSThis is the most dangerous area to be in since it indicates the absence of a culture of transparency and attention to the digital user. These companies tend to focus on technical and compliance disclosure, without demonstrating a distinct corporate identity. Key themes (if any) are treated in a basic way.

EUROPEAN RESULTS: This is the busiest area in our research with three in 10 of the companies we assessed finishing in this quadrant. Encouragingly, many of them have respectable overall performances – not far from the 50% mark – but fail to stand out either in terms of content or engagement. Below this level, seven companies fail to meet our minimum standard for sustainability information (“Core” evaluation) and didn’t qualify for a full assessment (“Sleepers”).

European performance by communications style

1 HOW DO EUROPEAN COMPANIES PERFORM?Credibility is rooted in communications that exploits the best of digital to engage the user but is grounded in transparency and a rigorous, strategic approach. Companies need to skilfully balance these two aspects to engender trust in stakeholders.

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DISTINCTIVENESS

55 points

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National GridL'Oréal

UBSGlencore

Schneider Electric

Telefónica

THE SLEEPERS*7 companies that did not pass the “core” evaluation

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*for information about the complete list of companies included in the “Traditionalists” and “Sleepers” categories go to page 21

Eni

BayerNestléUnilever

Royal Dutch ShellNovartis

Siemens

Deutsche TelekomBAT

Zurich

Intesa Sanpaolo

Daimler

TotalDiageo

Linde AXA

ING

GlaxoSmithKlineVinci

The European results are encouraging because they show a good balance between what companies have to say (average score 51% of max in Substance) and how they tell it (49% average score in Distinctiveness), suggesting companies are working hard not only to be relevant and engaging but to make sure communication is backed up by the kind of robust evidence that users clamour for.

In Substance, almost all companies have the core ESG information in place – from climate change to diversity – but deeper content on strategy, performance and stakeholder dialogue can be harder to come across. Connecting sustainability-related information across the digital ecosystem is a definite challenge, often undermining claims to an “integrated” approach. As for engagement, use of social media is the strongest way companies are joining the wider conversation about sustainability, with a big jump in the use of LinkedIn and growing engagement on Facebook. Storytelling is somewhat weaker, especially in terms of talking about the broader sustainability agenda.

Getting the balance right between what you say and how you tell it

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1. Make your commitmentYour starting point is a brief, high-level purpose that defines overall ambition, looks to the future and highlights the role/identity of the company and its sustainability.

2. Know your prioritiesYou must identify – from the vast panorama of sustainability impacts and challenges – your most pressing issues in order to lay out clear priorities and areas for action (best if this is done by engaging both internal and external stakeholders).

3. Set measurable targetsBroad goals are not enough for demanding stakeholders. You must set qualitative and quantitative targets in the short/medium term (best if also for the long term) for the business, the environment and social impacts.

4. Measure your progress To prove that you are making progress toward your declared targets, stakeholders need evidence of steps taken and progress made. Achievements and KPIs become relevant for understanding your ability to “walk the talk” and keep your promises.

5. Connect to the wider sustainability contextStakeholders measure the real value of a sustainability strategy by looking at how it responds to the broader context of challenges and trends both at a global and sector level (the UN SDGs provide a framework useful to every business but with a tone of voice available only for professionals).

Performance in the Substance pillarAverage score as a percentage of the maximum score

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TOP PERFORMERS

FIVE INGREDIENTS OF A CREDIBLE STRATEGYMany stakeholders consider strategy to be the most critical element when evaluating a company’s sustainability. In .future, we identify some the ingredients needed to gain trust in this battle for credibility.

In Substance

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(% of companies that satisfy all successive steps) Source: Lundquist.future 2019

86% provide targets aligned

with material priorities and commitment

26% complete all 5 steps of the strategy staircase, from

commitment to context

1. Commitment

2. Priorities

3. Targets

4. Progress

5. Context

98% present an overall commitment

to sustainability or responsibility

Of the European companies that qualified for a full evaluation, almost all of them (86%) manage to complete the first three steps of the strategy “stairway”. This is an encouraging sign that almost all the companies we looked at lay out targets for tackling priority issues.

The challenges emerge on the final two steps: while most companies publish performance and mention, for example, the SDGs, only about a quarter of companies link this information to their strategic objectives.

Who’s at the top for their sustainability strategy?

ASTRAZENECANESTLÉ

Uses visuals to clearly set out the three pillars of its sustainability commitment in a single at-a-glance overview:

it highlights focus areas with associated material issues, how each one connects to the business as well as the

SDGs that they correspond to.

Provides an effective overview of its sustainability strategy. Performance and progress against targets are clearly identified as well as its environmental and

social commitments set against the context of its broader business strategy.

Ones to watch

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With .future, we introduce a new concept for sustainability communications: "interconnected" content.

This new idea springs intuitively from two facts: on the one hand sustainability areas of company websites still tend to get few visits, mostly coming from technical, professional users such as ESG analysts; on the other hand, interest in specific environmental, social and governance issues is growing in a range of stakeholders. The challenge is to bridge this gap sensibly through a user-centred approach: it’s not enough to just place a few cross-links and we’re not advocating duplication of content around the website, either. But companies are discovering it’s most effective to tackle critical topics more than once.

What’s important is for sustainability topics to be addressed in different ways to reach multiple audiences with their own interests and priorities. Key topics – for example, diversity, strategy and innovation – can be seen from different points of view in different parts of the communication ecosystem. It’s time to go beyond storytelling as the sole focus for spreading the sustainability message.

These different dimensions of the sustainability narrative should be properly connected into a logical, intuitive whole that enriches sustainability communication as a cross-cutting theme in all its websites, on social media as well as in magazines and blogs.

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The questions that led us to "Interconnection"

1Does an investor easily

find information about ESG performance or responsible

investments in the IR section?

2Can a jobseeker find out about

the approach diversity in the careers section or discover what

volunteering initiatives are on offer?

3Do customers find out about product

responsibility or the company’s sustainability on the commercial,

brand or product website?

WHAT TOPICS ARE MOST INTERCONNECTED?As a percentage of the companies that have content on the following topics, how many connect content in more than one part of the website:

78% Sustainability commitment & strategy59% HR/employee approach54% Diversity24% Innovation

A NEW CHALLENGE: AVOIDING THE DISCONNECT FOR CUSTOMERS AND CONSUMERSIn .future, we also looked at how companies connect their corporate sustainability with customer or consumer touchpoints.

We found that 45% of companies talk about raising consumer awareness about the sustainability of their products or services. But only a handful connect this content with other parts of the website or even with their product/brand website, suggesting there often is a disconnect for anyone seeking full information online about the products and services they buy.

At first glance, it appears that companies are reluctant to adopt an interconnected approach to their sustainability content: with an average score of 20% of the maximum, it’s the weakest section of the research for Europe’s top 50 companies. Digging into the results, however, the poor result is partially explained by a lack of content in the first place: only half the companies assessed, for example, have information about their sustainability governance and one in five of these connect this content with their overall corporate governance information (leading to an overall average of just 10% on this one aspect).

Looking only at the companies that actually talk about the topics in question, we see that over three quarters of companies presenting information about their sustainability commitment and strategy interconnect that topic in other sections (often in the strategy pages of the “About us” or “Investors” sections) and over half the companies with information about their employee approach and diversity reinforce these topics in other parts of the website (e.g. “Careers”).

Companies, however, need to build on this initial level of interconnection, which is often limited to simple references, with more structured and in-depth content. There also needs to be more attention given to topics connected to the business such as innovation and information for customers.

CONNECTING THE DOTSHow can different areas of a company take advantage of the complexity of various sustainability topics and effectively engage different audiences and stakeholders? Our answer is: interconnected content.

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BURRING BOUNDARIES: HOW REPORTING IS EVOLVING

Blurring Boundaries is a research project created by Lundquist to guide companies in a new landscape for sustainability reporting, one in which the traditionally clear confine between financial and non-financial topics is breaking down. How companies interpret the interplay between financial performance and their approach to sustainability is emerging as a key attribute of best practice reporting.

Each year, we look at the corporate reporting of best-in-class European companies in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, allowing companies to benchmark their approach against the latest trends. We conduct a quantitative and qualitative analysis looking at where and how sustainability is integrated into corporate documents, covering annual, integrated and sustainability reports as well as the connectivity between financial and non-financial topics. We examine everything from materiality to guidelines, from digital formats to visual communications.

KEY TRENDS TO EMERGE FROM BLURRING BOUNDARIES

An integrated strategy is key to narrative organisation,

guiding choice and structure of documents

Narrative and visual elements are used to translate abstract concepts into reality and drive

engagement

Different formats are used to reach different audiences with

content tailored for digital and social channels

UNILEVER ACCOR

Adopts an integrated communications strategy across its corporate website to address the role of consumers in

achieving its sustainability goals: in the Brand section, when talking about specific products as well as through news

items and stories.

Interlinks content in different sections of the group website to highlight the connection between sustainbility and the

overall vision as well as to encourage responsible behaviour among its clients, for example in special pages inside the

sites of some of its hotel brands.

Ones to watch

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Who’s backing up their climate claims with credible information?(% of companies evaluated)

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The positive message is that climate change is on the agenda of all major European companies and given attention irrespective of sector. This is a change from a few years ago when it was principally carbon-intensive sectors leading the way in explaining how they managed their impacts. Indeed, only 5% of the companies we analysed failed to outline a climate change strategy (separate to their environmental approach).

The differences start to appear when we look at how well companies translate that strategy into measurable goals and then clearly explain how they’re progressing on those long-term commitments. While we may expect that most of the oil companies and utilities are making the effort to articulate goals and performance, it’s actually the consumer sector that stands out above the others for its treatment of climate and emissions.

Perhaps it’s a reflection of the strong connection made in recent years between carbon impacts and what we eat and drink, the clothes and the products we buy. All but one of the consumer companies we analysed backed up their climate strategy with disclosure of their progress against their environmental targets, in many cases long-term commitments. Names like Diageo, L’Oréal and Unilever are among these good practices.

This situation contrasts with financial companies – banks and insurers: like other sectors, they are clear about how they are contributing in the fight against climate change. What’s missing in two-thirds of cases is evidence of how far they have got in achieving their stated goals.

CLIMATE CHANGE

88% of Europe’s top consumer companies back up their climate change strategy with disclosure about progress against their targets

L’ORÉAL

Gives details about its long-standing commitment to emission reductions, explaining how it performed on previous goals, what it’s looking to achieve now and what actions it’s taking to make that happen.The explanation is supported by an informative video.

Source: Lundquist.future 2018

28%Climate strategy with

environmental targets

24%Climate change

strategy only

43%Climate strategy with progress against targets

5%No climate

change strategy

CLIMATE CHANGE: A COMMON CHALLENGE, DIFFERENT RESPONSESHow are companies responding to the growing attention placed on the issue of climate change coming from financial markets, institutions and younger consumers? Which sectors are leading in giving credible answers?

Ones to watch

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Just as in the case of climate change, the issue of diversity is firmly on the map. For sustainability communications, that means it’s not enough to have a clear approach and publish relevant data. Virtually all companies do the first and reporting usually ensures that the latter are to hand as well.

A more qualitative picture has emerged: what’s more important than just publishing dry numbers (as if diversity were just another technical disclosure) is the way the best companies show the value of diversity to the business, employee culture and even topics like innovation. Credibility is rooted in an ability not to be defined by a compliance-based or reporting-driven approach to topics.

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93% of Europe’s top companies present information about their approach to diversity

L’Oréal is deeply engaged on the topic as a way to ensure an inclusive work environment and this comes across in connection with different parts of its corporate communications, not only in the presentation of its D&I strategy itself and a range of supporting numbers: it comes through in its response to climate change, in its sourcing policy, in the commitment of its foundation, in its approach to innovation.

SAP is another company that takes a strategic approach to diversity and inclusion, for example looking at how a mix of gender perspectives in the company or generational diversity helps innovation and customer service.

The German company shows what this commitment means in practice through ample use of news, videos and blogs.

AFTER #METOO, DIVERSITY AS A STRATEGIC CULTURAL ISSUEThe #MeToo movement has brought gender and diversity issues onto the front pages and some countries have begun to request corporate disclosure on the gender pay gap.

SAP HSBC

The software company shows diversity in action by ensuring that it has stories to tell about a range of diversity issues, covering gender, generations and

disability. The company’s approach comes through in the multiplicity of voices and perspectives it provides through

video, stories, news cuttings and personal blog posts.

At global bank HSBC diversity is framed not only in terms of its internal organisation and culture but as a

question of making better business decisions. That allows the company to talk about diversity in relation to its

sustainability, as part of its employer branding proposition and as a business value.

Ones to watch

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Storytelling to support sustainabilityWhat are the key elements needed to build an effective and relevant story?

Ingredients of sustainability storytellingGood sustainability storytelling is always made up of two distinct parts:

THE “WHY”Authentic storytelling must

link to a company’s most significant impacts, its

context and sustainability strategy, key elements in meeting stakeholder

expectations. This can be done explicitly or implicitly

but is the key to making stories relevant to the

company’s sustainability and its audiences.

THE STORYThe narrative presentation of the content itself needs to include a “who”, “where” and “when” alongside a development over time (the “challenge”), supported by the technical execution of the story and its ability to prompt an emotional response in the user.

SUSTAINABILITY STORYTELLINGIn this research, we have combined these two elements so that we can evaluate not only how effective the content produced really is but also the story’s ability to depict a company’s daily

reality, from its strategic actions to the context it operates in.

CONVEYING THE COMPANY’S APPROACH & IMPACTS

Do the stories illustrate and exemplify how the company

addresses its material ESG impacts?

100% of the companies studied have stories related to their

internal strategy

ADDRESSING THE EXTERNAL CONTEXT AND ISSUES

Do the stories help you understand the context the company operates in

and address its hot topics?

67% of the companies studiedhave stories related to their

external agenda

GIVING VOICE TOSTAKEHOLDERS

Does the company let (internal and/or external) stakeholders talk about

topics in their own words?

83% of the companies studied present their sustainability from the point of view of their stakeholders

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SUSTAINABILITY IN A STORYDigital has opened up new ways to communicate and continues to bring us new tools, but sustainability storytelling needs to address material issues and be relevant in a wider context to avoid the trap of self-referentiality.

Stories, articles, videos, blogs: these are just some of the ways companies today are looking to go beyond traditional disclosure and share their sustainability message more widely.

As ecosystems gets richer day by day, opportunities to engage audiences grow. In .future we try to understand how these new forms of content can be effective by creating more interest for sustainability issues and bringing a greater number of user-stakeholders to discover a company’s impacts and actions.

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Average performance in Distinctiveness pillarAverage score as a percentage of the maximum score

WHAT ARE SUSTAINABILITY STORIES ABOUT?(% of companies with stories/viewpoints by topic)

93% Social issues

90% Environment

64% Strategy and priorities

60% Business and innovation

40% Context

WHERE ARE STORIES DEPLOYED?

83% Sustainability section

79% Combination of more than one location

67% In magazine or blog

55% In Media section

2% PDF/Printed

BEST PERFORMERS

In Distinctiveness

Two main questions arise when developing a storytelling approach: what to talk about and where does it make sense to deploy this content? Our research reveals interesting trends from Europe’s top companies, considering that they all adopt storytelling to support their sustainability communications. First of all, stories, blogs and articles are the main devices used to break sustainability out of a section of the corporate website.

While almost all companies deploy stories in the sustainability section of the website, two thirds have a separate magazine or blog to gather this kind of content. A considerable portion of the companies use a mix of solutions. These stories are commonly used to populate social media channels and speak to a broader audience than that offered by the corporate domain.

For example, Airbus stories that mix innovation and sustainability topics, appearing in its innovation, sustainability and media section as well as its investor newsletter. GSK has launched Behind the science to explore innovation in medicines and healthcare and talk about social topics such as STEM and diversity while German rival Bayer uses the magazine section of its website for Better Life stories plus blog posts, interviews and educational content.

Storytelling forces sustainability to integrate into a broader narrative: while social and environmental topics are equally present in sustainability stories, increasing space is being given to stories that use sustainability to provide a perspective on innovation, business transformation and strategy.

What’s the story: how storytelling changes the frames of sustainability

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Rising interest in sustainability is pushing businesses to build relationships beyond traditional corporate and professional audiences. As they examine how best to do that in social media channels, sustainability is being called upon to play various roles: it may be to support employer branding, to show the real-world effect of innovation or to underpin the CEO’s thought leadership stance.

What’s clear is that this use of social media for sustainability has improved considerably. Compared to our previous study two years ago, “Social” is now one of the strongest sections, with an average score of 62%.

There has been a dramatic expansion in the use of LinkedIn, where we’re starting to see concerted campaigns connected to sustainability. The proportion of companies getting at least half the score available for their LinkedIn page more than doubled from the previous research, with companies such as BP, Nestlé and Schneider Electric standing out.

The share of posts including sustainability and corporate responsibility keywords is fairly stable on Facebook (about a third of posts over a year) but engagement has improved. This boosted scores, led by names including Linde and L’Oréal. On Twitter, where about a quarter of tweets overall had a connection to sustainability and CR, Nestlé, Unilever and Eni were top performers thanks to the engagement they generated on these topics.

The uptake of video has allowed some companies to provide a rich variety of material on YouTube, expanding the content available on the website. Channels by ABB, Novartis, Shell and Unilever are among them.

What do these best practices have in common? Clear integration of sustainability into a broader corporate narrative and engagement strategy: social media is never just another channel to push out content but an opportunity to leverage sustainability to build trust.

HOW DO SUSTAINABILITY PROFESSIONALS BEHAVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA?They want to follow experts in the field and keep in contact with peers

68% use LinkedIn at leastweekly in relation tosustainability topics

44% prefer to use Twitter to engage on ESG-related

subjects

42% turn to Facebook to keep up to speed on sustainability and CR

SOCIAL MEDIA AND SUSTAINABILITY:WHO’S LEADING THE CONVERSATION?Social media has upended the way companies can engage stakeholders. Performance metrics enable us to understand which companies have foundthe keys to unlocking attention, trust and credibility.

OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH TWIG TO MONITOR SUSTAINABILITY ON SOCIAL CHANNELS

Through our partnership with Twig we analysed companies’ activity related to sustainability issues on Facebook and Twitter.

Our analysis covered one year of activity on corporate Facebook and Twitter accounts. We created a list of material keywords related to the sustainability context, divided into 5 clusters and translated into 5 languages, and used them to identify the posts and tweets that contributed to the sustainability debate. This enabled us to see which companies talk the most about sustainability but also which ones manage to generate the most engagement.

ECONOMY AND INNOVATION

COMMUNITY

HR

ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESS PRACTICES5 T

hem

atic

Are

as

50 EUROPEAN COMPANIES COVERED

1 YEAR OF SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY

36,000 TWEETS MONITORED

9,400 POSTS ANALYSED

Num

ber c

runc

hing

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lundquist.future

TW

ITT

ER

25% Sustainability share of total tweets

20% Sustainability share of total engagement (likes, comments and retweets)

Other results:

Sustainability share of engagement:Societe Generale: 61% - Unilever: 59%

Annual volume of sustainability tweets:Nestlé: 919 - Schneider Electric: 586

Best use of Twitter

While others stand out for the sheer volume of tweets and total engagement, Unilever clinches the top spot because it generates so much more engagement on social and environmental themes than on other topics.

THE HUMAN FACE OF USER EXPERIENCE

Evaluating “user experience” isn’t just a question of looking at technological aspects; it’s actually a reflection of all the choices a company makes to interact with user-stakeholders in a digital channel. We’re all human, after all.

We look at user experience and website design as a gauge of the importance companies place on user engagement and satisfaction, since good UX and design both require significant effort.

To evaluate user experience more precisely and consistently across different websites, we partnered with Siteimprove, a software company founded in Copenhagen. Thanks to this partnership, we monitor the effectiveness of each of the corporate websites we examined via the Siteimprove platform, which tracks more than 200 parameters in three macro categories.

The analysis we conducted with Siteimprove’s software represents an important contribution to the User friendly section of .future.

WHAT WE MEASURED WITH THE SITEIMPROVEPLATFORM

Quality assurance: We checked for broken links, not only on the website, but also in PDFs, checked for spelling and grammar mistakes in the text, and insecure domains.

SEO: We analysed the different components needed to optimise the traffic from search engines: meta descriptions, structured content and titles, page loading speed on mobile and navigation.

Accessibility: We looked at automated evaluations of alt tags, meta descriptions and structural problems that could inhibit navigation.

"Creating a website that satisfies the needs of end users means working collaboratively across all departments with a single goal in mind: creating a useful, approachable, and accessible website. The web is a resource that should be easy to access, and Siteimprove’s mission is just that – to make the web more accessible to all.”

Jesper Termansen

Chief Marketing Officer, Siteimprove

FAC

EB

OO

K

35% Sustainability share of total posts

38% Sustainability share of total engagement (likes, comments and shares)

Best use of Facebook

Sustainability is not just a recurrent theme on the industrial gas company’s page but it’s a big driver of engagement as the company seeks to inform and entertain

Other stand-out results:

Sustainability share of total engagement:Linde: 96% - Shell: 85%

Annual volume of sustainability posts:L’Oréal: 299 - Schneider Electric: 242

Social media performance and best use of Facebook and Twitter

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8

SILVER CLASS(Companies scoring at least 50% of maximum in both pillars but not qualifying as Gold)

GOLD CLASS(Companies scoring at least 60% of maximum in both pillars)

BRONZE CLASS(Companies scoring 50% or more in only one pillar, i.e. Glitterati and Explainers)

British AmericanTobacco

Royal DutchShell

Schneider Electric

NovartisLinde

ING Groep

Diageo

AXA

GlaxoSmithKline

Intesa Sanpaolo

Daimler

Glencore

L'Oréal

Siemens Telefónica

Total UBS Vinci

Zurich InsuranceGroup

BASF BP

National Grid Roche

Deutsche Telekom

Bayer

Unilever

Eni Nestlé

.FUTURE RESULTSCompanies listed in alphabetical order

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NOTEThe evaluation protocol of .future consists of 7 sections with a maximum score of 100 points. We analysed the English language version of corporate websites and social media channels linked from the website. “Core” evaluations were carried out in February 2019 using the Concrete criteria and two Ongoing criteria (with a threshold of qualification of at least 10.5 points out of 20) while full assessments took place in March-April 2019.

Assessments focus not only on the sustainability section (or equivalent) but cover all sections of the website.

A penalty system for problems in user experience reduces the score by 0.5 for each issue detected (within the score for User Friendly).

For Twitter and Facebook, scores are based on metrics available from the social networks’ API (number of posts and total engagement as the sum of likes, comments and shares/retweets). The analysis includes 1 year of activity (from September 2017 to August 2018).

THE SLEEPERS (Companies that fail to reach the average score in the “core” evaluation)

ASML HOLDINGLLOYDS BANKING GROUPLVMHPRUDENTIALRIO TINTOSANOFISAFRAN

TRADITIONALISTS(Companies below 50% of maximum in both pillars)

ABB

Anheuser-Busch InBev

Air Liquide Airbus

Allianz AstraZeneca

Banco Santander BBVA BNP Paribas

HSBC Novo Nordisk Reckitt Benckiser

SAP Vodafone Group

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Twig is a data management company which offers services that integrate research, data analysis and communications. Thanks to scraping e text mining instruments, TWIG’s Web Listening service collect information about users online “conversations”, interprets all the text data and create an output with concrete indications on web reputation management.Aldo CristadoroData manager+39 035 221953 | aldo.cristadoro@twig.pro | www.twig.pro

For our user experience analysis we collaborated with Siteimprove, a software company which seeks to simplify website management. This intelligent automation software provides the necessary indications for managing a website with optimum performance.Jesper Termansen Chief Marketing Officerjte@siteimprove.com | www.siteimprove.com

ABOUT US

HOW WE CAN HELP

As we embed sustainability into day-to-day operations, the interconnection between strategy, reporting, engagement and communication is increasingly tight. For this reason, the .future method is an integral part of our approach to sustainability. Our vision is for disclosure to become a starting point for a dynamic, constructive relationship with stakeholders and, ultimately, a value for the business itself. With our strategic approach and in-depth understanding of corporate reputation and stakeholder expectations, we are well positioned to support companies in a range of sustainability services:

• STRATEGY THROUGH ENGAGEMENT• NON-FINANCIAL REPORTING• DIGITAL-FIRST COMMUNICATIONS

Thanks to its clear and measurable criteria, .future can help to resolve weaknesses in sustainability communications and define strategies to improve both in the short and long term. It’s a great opportunity for raising awareness internally about the importance of communications, engagement and dialogue as assets for successful sustainability strategies and for learning from best practice companies.

Lundquist bridges the gap between companies and their audiences: that’s because we get to know both intimately.

Specialists in corporate communications and sustainability, we are independent, international and trusted to guide companies towards greater transparency and stakeholder requirements.

We put our minds to work using structured, rigorous approaches to ensure each project is unique and tailored to the client’s specific circumstances.

For more information: lundquist.it

Want more information?For more information,and to request a bespoke, in-depth analysis for your company, contact:

Paolo CominettiProject manager .futurepaolo.cominetti@lundquist.it

Research as the basis for our work

.trustThe .trust research

evaluates companies’ ability to effectively narrate their brand and business, to communicate their leadership and establish trust with their stakeholders.

Our focus is to capture the ability of corporate

communications to support’ competitiveness and

to inspire trust.

Blurring BoundariesNew in 2018, the research seeks to guide companies through the transforming

landscape of sustainability reporting. It focuses

specifically on integration of sustainability themes into the broader reporting ecosystem and provides a benchmark of

50 sustainability leadersin Europe.

WikipediaGoing back to 2008,

we have been monitoring the exhaustiveness of

Wikipedia articles about major corporations. Through the study,

we defined guidelines for companies to help them engage with the

Wikipedia community in a constructive manner.

WebrankingSince 1997, Webranking

monitors corporate and financial communications through the digital channels of the largest

listed companies in Europe.It measures the gap between stakeholder expectations and what companies are actually presenting. The research is based on a yearly survey of

stakeholders’ needs.

Joakim LundquistLundquist CEO

t (+39) 339 5013612joakim.lundquist@lundquist.it

Sara RusconiContent Strategist

and Lundquist Partner

t (+39) 347 2457669sara.rusconi@lundquist.it

James OsborneHead of Sustainabilityand Lundquist Partner

t (+39) 349 7937853james.osborne@lundquist.it

Get in touch for more informationabout our work: