(In this excerpt from the newly-published PR News Guide to the Best Practices in Social Responsibility, Karyn Margolis, a senior account supervisor in the New York
corporate and public affairs practice at Edelman, details how to create a balanced and verifiable accounting within the body of a corporate responsibility report).
If your company has not yet published a corporate responsibility report, you would be wise to begin planning for the inevitable. According to the KPMG International
Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting, in 2005, 64% of the Global Fortune 500 companies issued either a separate CR report or included CR information in their annual
reports.
It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking of the CR report as just another communication vehicle to promote your company's good deeds. It is much more than that. The report,
no matter which term you choose to use - corporate responsibility reporting, sustainability reporting or triple bottom line reporting - must disclose a balanced accounting of both
the positive and negative aspects of your company's economic, environmental and social impacts on the communities in which your company operates and your stakeholders live.
Where To Start
You may begin the reporting process intending to report on existing company policy, but the process itself may evolve into a catalyst to create corporate responsibility policy
within your company. As you engage with internal and external stakeholders on CR issues or begin to set targets for future reporting, your company may revisit some of its policies
or develop new initiatives to improve the company's performance. This is a good thing. A primary objective of a CR report is to serve as an impetus to reexamine or establish good
corporate responsibility initiatives.
Points To Consider
However, as the leader of the report development process, it is your role to encourage the policy discussions and concurrently prevent them from stalling the actual development
of the report. That is a hard balance to find, especially with a first report. You should encourage the continued policy discussions, while making it clear to your colleagues and
external stakeholders that the development of the report must continue in tandem.
There are several ways to ensure that the process continues to move forward and does not get mired in policy discussions:
- Establish a concrete publication deadline. Unlike annual reports, CR reports do not have an externally mandated publication deadline like the SEC-imposed
deadline for annual reporting. As with any project, the absence of a stringent final deadline can drag out the information-gathering, approval, editorial and design processes.
Some companies choose to issue their CR reports at the same time as their annual reports. Others tie the report launch to a company milestone or annual event.
- Create a cross-functional task force. Developing the report with widespread support from throughout your organization is imperative. An effective way to secure buy-in
and to educate business leaders is by convening a working group that represents key functions across the company. The members of this committee will play many roles, including
identifying the issues and indicators on which to report, suggesting external stakeholders to speak with during the report development, as well as functioning as conduits for
information for the report.
- Enlist a high-level champion. Since this CR report will be breaking new ground at your company, it will behoove you to recruit a champion in the C-suite. Ideally, the
CEO, who will sign a letter at the front of the report, will wish to have a vested interest in the report and its content.
- Identify and involve internal approvers early. It is wise to involve the lawyers and compliance officers early in the process. Many of these decision-makers may have
limited knowledge of CR reporting and will resist the types of information you are including. You will need to familiarize the lawyers with this frank and open language, which
will be in conflict with their instincts to say as little as possible.
Considerations To Make
Once you have assembled your task force and set a deadline, you will need to make decisions about how to structure the report. Many of these decisions will be new to you and
your task force, but are essential to developing a credible and valuable report.
The report framework. Your stakeholders will use your report as a resource, either to analyze changes or trends in your performance over time or to compare you to
industry peers. To ensure that your stakeholders are able to use your report as a tool, it is important to use a consistent reporting structure.
Independent verification. Stakeholders are expecting your report to be reliable, credible and transparent, and they often want more than just your word. In response to
these increasing expectations for independent verification, assurance standards for CR reports have evolved in recent years.
The International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE 3000) and AccountAbility's AA1000 Assurance Standard (AA1000AS) provide guidance for accountants and
other CR assurance providers. Although only 30 percent of companies surveyed by KPMG chose to provide formal assurance statements, you will need to decide whether your
stakeholders will want your report independently verified.
A green printing process. Your report may include myriad metrics about your company's environmental impacts and efforts to minimize its footprint. But that
information will lose credibility if the report itself is negatively affecting the environment and wastefully expending natural resources. To produce a truly sustainable report,
you should consider the volume and type of paper you use, as well as the printing process.
Ensuring A Sustainable Impact From The Report
Although the C-suite may understand the value of a CR report, the rank and file at your company may not. Some may shrug off the report as "just another project coming from
corporate;" others may worry that being a responsible company will add to their workload. Your job is to use the communications surrounding the launch of the CR report as a tool
to disabuse them of any notions that "being responsible" is a new corporate initiative, but rather is an integral component of the company's values.
Consider the launch as an opportunity to demonstrate how employees can integrate sustainability in their daily tasks. By explaining the principles behind corporate
responsibility, employees may see how they can personally refine certain practices even slightly to support the company's triple bottom line.
(To purchase the PR News Guide to the Best Practices in Social Responsibility, go to http://www.prnewsonline.com.)