Sustainability Reporting Guidelines

What is sustainability reporting?

Born from the HSE (health, safety, and environmental) reports that some companies have begun to produce in recent years, sustainability reporting expands on that to provide information on a company’s social, environmental and economic matters and the steps they have taken to improve in areas that needed it and maintain high standards and compliance in those that did not. Sustainability reports can found on corporate websites. They are also distributed in hard copy or digital form to interested parties.

What kinds of information are included in a sustainability report?

Sustainability reports include information on a company’s efforts to reduce emissions and become more environmentally responsible, employee heath and well-being, spills and accidents, the steps taking to prevent and/or reduce their occurrences, labor practices, human rights, diversity, and training.

Why do companies issue sustainability reports?

• Companies issue sustainability reports for a variety of reasons including:

• To inform and attract stakeholders, shareholders and investors.

• To increase brand value.

• To enhance the company’s public image by demonstrating its commitment to the community, the environment and to its customers.

• To attract feedback from non-governmental agencies.

• To illustrate compliance with important social and environmental standards.

What U.S. companies have made sustainability reports available?

More and more U.S. companies are releasing sustainability reports. Some are complete while others only report on health, safety and environmental matters. Over 25 of the country’s top companies now issue some type of sustainability report, including AT&T, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dow Chemical, Georgia Pacific, Johnson & Johnson, Nike, Proctor & Gamble, and Sunoco.

Do sustainability reports give insight into a company’s finances?

No. Sustainability reports are not meant to provide a look into or forecast a company’s financial solvency. They are strictly designed to report on their social, economic, and environmental performance, compliance and impacts. They can not and should not be used to determine a company’s prospects for long term survival.

Are there guidelines report content must meet?

Sustainability reports should meet the following criteria:

• They must contain only that information which is material to the company’s social, economic, and environmental performance.

• They must include all major stakeholders and explain how they responded to those stakeholder’s concerns. Stakeholders are defined as any entity, be it an individual or group, who is affected by a company’s actions or who can or does have an affect on a company’s actions. Share/stockholders are considered to be a subset of stakeholders.

• All information must be placed in proper context.

• The report must be complete and wide enough in scope to allow stakeholders to make informed decisions about the company’s performance.

• The report must present its information in a way that is transparent and can be clearly understood and analyzed by stakeholders.

• The report should also be timely, balanced, and accurate.

Who is responsible for enforcing compliance?

There are several agencies that set guidelines, including:

• International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 for Environmental Management Systems and ISO 14031 for Environmental Performance Evaluation

• The Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES)

• Framework for Social and Ethical Accounting Auditing, and Reporting

• GRI's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines