3 Elements to Improve Your Companys Transparency Efforts and Drive Performance Sustainability reporting is stalled. Companies are spending too much time and too many resources creating lengthy reports that few read. However, sustainability reporting and transparency have also brought many benefits, helping companies manage key environmental and social impacts and build trust and credibility with stakeholders. And yet, we are failing to tap into the potential value of reporting and transparency – value that could provide vital information to more directly inform decisions that drive better business and societal outcomes. Our latest research which launched today, See Change: How Transparency Drives Performance, proposes a solution. Informed by over 50 interviews and a survey of nearly 500 sustainability practitioners, See Change features three key elements of transparency, six case studies, and a practical tool. Specifically, the Transparency Advancement Tool guides companies to develop their transparency efforts by focusing on what is strategically important (i.e., materiality), valuation of externalities, and integration. Three Elements to Drive Transparency Performance The three elements build upon each other: A company must focus on the most material issues, narrowing down what is truly strategic to the business. A company must account for the externalities related to these material issues, including the impacts on society and the environment beyond the four walls of operation. Having prioritized the most strategic issues and accounted for the impacts related to them, a company can then integrate relevant data into corporate strategy to inform strategic decisions. This integration is fundamental; it’s the way in which transparency can drive performance and positively contribute to society. True integration enables companies to leverage their business models for sustainable value creation. See Change offers guidance for reporting practitioners and corporate citizenship specialists at companies large and small. Colleen Brady, Business Partner of Johnson & Johnson asserts, “SustainAbility’s research on the future of transparency couldn’t be more timely. Companies grappling with the latest corporate sustainability reporting framework from GRI and the prospect of integrated reporting can use the findings to explore how understanding materiality and valuation of external impacts can lead to progressive reporting.” While the three elements presented in the report are not new or unfamiliar to practitioners, most companies are not maximizing them in a way that drives their sustainability efforts forward and brings value to society. By providing step-by-step guidance, bringing into sharper focus the interplay between the three elements, and enabling valuable data collection and decision-making, See Change advances the transparency agenda toward a better, more sustainable future. As SustainAbility’s Senior Director and co-author of the report Lorraine Smith reinforces, “It is time to create more value from all the hard work, expertise and desire for a better world that goes into sustainability reporting. No one wants to create a report for the sake of another report; everyone wants to solve complex societal issues. Transparency can—and must—play an important role. The baseline data is there. The stakeholders are engaged. It’s time to see real change.” Download the report to learn more today! See AlsoSee Change: How Transparency Drives PerformanceLibrary SustainAbility
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 13:00:06 +0000
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