SustainabilityHQ.com Weekly Highlights October 1, 2013

Top Story of the Week

If You Prepare Sustainability Reports – Or If You Are a Reader of Reports…

…You will want to carefully read the Featured story this week. Experts share their views on how to read and analyze corporate sustainability reports that U.S. (and global) companies are now producing at record rates.  We consider these among the top influentials in the corporate sustainability / CSR / ESG performance space. They are Marc Gunther (author of the piece, who writes his own blog, writer for Fortune since 1996, blogs for Greenbiz, and is now commentator for the new blog focused on the US from The Guardian); Steve Lydenberg, veteran investment professional with Domini Social Investments; and Bill Baue, prolific author and leader of Sustainability Context Group; he is also a Fellow of the G&A Institute).  They provide five essential rules for reading sustainability reports.

Corporate managers preparing sustainability reports (or planning to) will find valuable observations and tips from this very tuned-in audience for their reports.  We found their views on what is in andnot in the reports they read to be very instructive, and we think that you will, too.  Here at G&A Institute we analyze more than 500 reports each year as Data Partners for the Global Reporting Initiative.  The “gaps” in U.S. corporate sustainability reports can be very wide, or, sometimes the gaps can be closed with a bit of effort.  The coming of the fourth generation of the GRI guidelines (“G4”) will present challenges for corporate reporters who (as observed in the commentary) seem to be avoiding disclosure for important aspects of the business that readers of the reports – stakeholders – are interested in knowing more about.  Examples are provided in this piece.

You can search for U.S. corporate sustainability reports on G&A Institute’s web site feature at: www.ga-institute.com/reports As the exclusive data partner for the GRI in the United States, we can help you get started on the right path for reporting on your company’s sustainability journey, please see our services (outlined in this newsletter) – you can contact us for more information on how we can help you at www.ga-institute.com/services-portfolio.html

How to Read a Sustainability Report: Five Tips       
(Monday - September 23, 2013) 
Source: Alt Energy Stocks - Corporate sustainability reports have been around since … well, it’s hard to say. The first report may have been published by “companies in the chemical industry with serious image problems” in the 1980s, or by Ben & Jerry’s in...

This is just a sample of some of the articles from this weeks SustainabilityHQ Highlights.  You can view the full Highlights by using the following links.  Sustainability | ESG, Highlights for the Week of October 1, 2013