Sustainability Reporting – holding you back or moving you

forward?

Experience in reporting

• Starting from a blank sheet of paper• Compiling reports suitable for FTSE

company• Working with best practice frameworks and

guidelines• Reporting across all areas of sustainability –

not just environment but also social and economic and areas which don’t always ‘fit’

What benefits does it bring?

• The old mantra…• Raising profile at high level• Demonstrating compliance• Pushing forward performance• Transparency builds trust• Highlighting areas for improvement• Increased awareness• Communications tool• Ahead of the pack – know where you stand• Innovation driver

GRI – help or hindrance?

• Offers a framework to report to – a start point

• Most widely recognised framework for best practice

• Provides credibility and baseline indicators• New guidelines released• Recognition of weight of too many metrics• Refocus on materiality• Are you better if you tick more boxes?• SMEs feel overwhelmed

Where does it go wrong?

• Too much time and effort reporting = not enough time spent doing!

• Common frameworks/reporting requests compete and add complexity

• No common framework for tourism!• Too time consuming and complex for small businesses• Too company focussed• Not transparent enough, too much good news!• Who is reading it?• Measurement – how/what/when• Too ‘fixed’ – doesn’t encourage permanent communication

Moving an industry forward

• Common methods of reporting allow for true comparisons and benchmarking in an industry

• This can be a key driver in moving an industry forward

• Has to allow for SMEs as well as big companies

• Learn from the past, not relive it• Done well – reporting will drive

performance, push an industry forward and give meaningful information to stakeholders

Nothing else quite motivates senior management to tackle an inconvenient ethical

or environmental problem so much as the prospect of the world being 'in the know'. Sunlight really is a fantastic disinfectant.