The vast majority of companies still fail to identify material strategic and financial risks and opportunities associated with the economic, social and environmental impacts captured by the ‘triple bottom line’ agenda, according to UNEP and SustainAbility’s sixth benchmark survey of global reporters. Risk & Opportunity: Best Practice in Non-Financial Reporting, published on October 29, concludes that most companies do not give any real insight into what they report on or why they are doing so, despite investing more and more every year in corporate social responsibility. The survey says, however, that financial and non-financial worlds are beginning to converge.
ACCA has published the Future of Sustainability Assurance on October 11, in association with AccountAbility. The report provides a review of the current state of sustainability assurance and offers perspectives on its future. It calls for co-operation between standard developers, business and civil society groups to develop an architecture of standards that integrates accounting, reporting and assurance of sustainability. The report concludes that for sustainability assurance to contribute significantly to sustainable development, it must provide a better set of signals about an organisation’s ongoing health and performance than financial figures alone. Contact Pat Breen, AccountAbility on 020 7549 0400 (http://www.accountability.org.uk)
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire
Members of the public can examine the internal workings of British American Tobacco down to the smallest detail, thanks to a website launched in October. The Guildford Archiving Project, a joint project between the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of Southern California, San Francisco, and the Mayo Clinic, a US medical not-for-profit group, will give online access to more than one million pages of internal memos, research and reports relating to the activities of BAT from the early 1940s to 1995. The original versions of the documents were already publicly available at a depository in Guildford, but only until 2009. Contact Lindsay Wright, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 020 7927 2073 (http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/cgch/tobacco/guildford.htm)
Bean counters count
Chartered accountants have the potential to be major players in sustainability reporting and assurance, according to a new report published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales on October 22. They have the right skills set, are experienced in business risk issues and are likely to have a prominent role in preparing and assuring the new statutory Operating and Financial Review. The report says the mechanisms used to enhance environmental, social and economic performance depend on credible information flows if they are to operate effectively – an area in which accountants specialise. Contact Alison Heppenstal, ICAEW 020 7920 8100 (http://www.icaew.co.uk)
Voice of America
A group of social research analysts from 18 North American investment companies including Calvert and Trillium Asset Management is calling for companies to base their reporting on GRI guidelines, it was announced on October 6. The group, who have $230bn in assets under management, say that this will increase the credibility, comparability and utility of corporate sustainability reports. The recommendation came as part of a collective statement to articulate the group’s expectations for corporate reporting of social and environmental performance information. The companies say that they find compelling the “large and growing body of evidence linking companies” strong performance addressing social and environmental issues to strong performance in creating long-term shareholder value.’ Contact Steve Lippman, Trillium Asset Management 00 1 206 633 7815 http://www.trilliuminvest.com)
Premier division
BT is the best performing company in an Online CSR League Table, published on October 14 by CTN, a communications agency. The table ranks FTSE 100 companies according to the effectiveness of their CSR communications on the web. BT is cited as an example of best practice for using interactive games, online polls and stakeholder feedback to engage people with CSR content online. The league table, prepared as part of the CSR Online Survey which assesses the websites of all FTSE 250 companies, finds that online reporting is more often designed to meet the requirements of the regulators and specialist CSR agencies than to connect with the general public. Contact Richard Coope, CTN 020 7395 4460 (http://www.ctn.co.uk)
Standard bearers
GRI is recruiting participants for two new work streams, which feature working groups looking at the clarity and purpose of GRI indicators, and at reporting as a process, it was announced on October 26. Over the next year, the work streams will review and build on the existing principles and indicators that make up the GRI Guidelines, and look at how the guidelines should be interpreted and applied, with a view to building the guidelines into a reporting standard for launch in 2006. Contact Alyson Slater, GRI 00 31 20 531 0000 (http://www.globalreporting.org)
Courting controversy
Anglo American, Shell, BAA and British American Tobacco are among the companies with significant social impacts that have made the shortlist for the ACCA UK Awards for Sustainability Reporting 2004, announced on November 1. An independent panel of judges assessed more than 80 reports and short-listed a total of 18 organisations in the three categories of sustainability reporting, environmental reporting and social reporting. The awards recognise organisations that address their key impacts and provide demonstrable examples of change and progress. The winners will be announced in February 2005. Contact Colin Davis, ACCA 020 7396 5738 (http://www.accaglobal.com)
COMMENT:
Behind this announcement is the beginnings of a very significant change in the Global Reporting Initiative. Dubbed ‘generation 3’, the new approach will test to destruction the question of whether one size really can fit all. If lots of companies in hugely different sectors and varying cultural /national reporting contexts are to comply with one standard, it will have to have considerable flexibility. But if the standard is to work as a real badge of achievement, it will have to have clear, objective performance criteria, not lots of relative interpretation, and set the performance bar quite high. At present over 600 companies claim to use the guidelines, but fewer than 50 are formally “in accordance” with their full (currently quite flexible) terms. We think there are some hard choices ahead. Whether GRI is a mass movement for those on the accountability journey or a prize for those who have arrived will be fought out over the next two years.
COMMENTS