Who reads your sustainability report?

I went into the Ethical Corporation CR (corporate responsibility) Reporting and Communications conference last week dead against the idea of integrating sustainability reporting into a company’s annual report. Why? Because I feared it would put people off reading them.

Many CR reports are already huge. But that’s the nature of the beast. Leading the way means reporting on all the GRI indicators relevant to you. And, more importantly, being open and transparent in what you report. So it’s no wonder you get 125-page reports and equally large ‘micro’sites. Integrate all your CR information into your annual financial reporting and it’s going to be like an annual sequel to War and Peace. Who’s going to read that?

Whose job?
As it turns out, CR professionals, socially responsible investors (SRIs) and students are the only ones actually reading sustainability reports, according to the presenters’ research. And according to all the debate, we professionals only read them because it’s our job. None of us does it for fun or a good read. And it’s the ‘job’ of students as well as SRIs to read them. And NGOs whose role it is to see if a company’s telling the truth, covering up or lying about its operations.

But, it transpired, other stakeholders – employees, customers, suppliers and community partners – are not reading them. You can’t blame them. For me,it’s like expecting everyone who uses a PC to read an annual 100-page report on the latest Microsoft operating software. It’s not going to happen. We expect our IT experts to do that for us and then ‘translate’ the really relevant bits into something we can easily digest and make use of. The same holds true for sustainability reporting: we experts need to translate it into something relevant for non-specialists.

Audience. Audience. Audience.
The conference had several good examples of companies who understood this – ‘X-Factor’ winner BAA Heathrow most notably. I loved the idea of their single issue regular(ish) briefings that were short and to the point and more appealing to employees, customers and their local community. They haven’t got it 100% right just yet, and I’m not convinced it was right to replace their annual CR report with these leaflets, but it was a brave step. I personally think the briefings should be in addition to a full report.

Coloplast have started to take this approach, producing tailored mini reports for key stakeholders who they knew weren’t reading their main CR report. The presenter told me it’d started an internal marketing craze, with everyone wanting mini reports for their customers. Who’d have thought a CR spin off could start a trend!

There were plenty of other examples of bespoke communications and initiatives to engage employees. One that caught my eye was Enel’s sustainability e-learning course. And, as you might expect, companies continue to work and communicate in very tailored ways with community partners. It’s all horses for courses. Audience. Audience. Audience.

Integrated strategy
So, getting back to where I started. On digesting all the experiences, I realise that integrated reporting actually has its place – for the investment audience. For listed companies, investors are a key stakeholder and sustainability information needs to be presented to them in the way they want it. There wasn’t anyone from an SRI company at the conference to confirm it, but the consensus is that this particular audience wants integrated reports. On reflection, I’m now happy with that. Give your audience what they want. Just as long as you remember all your audiences....

That means CR and comms professionals need to work even harder. It means continuing to collect and publish all the relevant annual CR performance data. As an open, honest and transparent reference document. Nothing fancy, just there for those who need to scrutinise it. Complemented by bespoke communications to suit your stakeholders. So, an annual integrated report for investors and regular bite-sized comms and stories for everyone else.

In short, it’s not just about integrated reporting, it’s about integrating all of a company’s stakeholders into a much broader sustainability communications strategy.

Debbie Griffiths www.idealCSR.co.uk