A snapshot of success
For UNGC signatories and participants, it can be your Communication on Progress (COP).
If you’ve implemented an environmental management system using ISO 14001:2015 it can help fulfil your clause 7.4 requirements for internal and external stakeholder communications.
It may form part of your annual reporting cycle and comprise fully integrated ESG and financial disclosures.
You may be required under European Union Directive 2014/95/EU to make annual non-financial and diversity disclosures.
As a publicly-traded entity you may be required by your sustainable stock exchange to make regular ESG disclosures.
Your report may follow any number of sustainability frameworks.
If you are a UK company, you may be readying yourself for the near future when the British government introduces mandatory TCFD-aligned disclosures for large firms.
Or, as a responsible organisation, you may have decided to report on your sustainability targets and achievements voluntarily for no other reason than this.
Sustainability reporting is the right thing to do.
If regular sustainability reporting is not yet part of your sustainability strategy and programme already, it should be. Whatever framework, platform or format you use, your sustainability report is a key deliverable in communicating sustainability performance and impacts.
A sustainability report in its basic form reflects an organisation’s environmental and social performance. Sustainability reporting helps organisations to build customer, employee, and stakeholder confidence. It also enhances an organisation’s reputation and trustworthiness by demonstrating commitment to transparency. Sustainability reports disclose company information beyond the monetary bottom line, delving into social and environmental aspects and impacts that are just as essential to organisational sustainability as economic factors are.
Regular sustainability reporting is a useful tool for internal and external stakeholder engagement and a means to avoid the dreaded greenwashing. Sustainability reports disclose facts and figures, and they are intended to show progress and improvement over time. Sustainability reports allow you to communicate your targets, how you intend to reach them, and where you are in your journey.
We can help you create a baseline of agreed environmental, social and governance metrics for the planning phases to follow. Once your sustainability strategy has been developed and implemented, sustainability reports will track the goals, targets and KPIs you’ve committed to.
At Grain we’ve got broad and in-depth knowledge of how different companies operate. We can take you through the full journey from deciding the most appropriate standards, guidelines and frameworks for your organisation, to heling you to dig out the right data and establish a robust reporting regime. We’ve also got the rich communications and visualisation expertise you need to ensure your sustainability metrics and disclosures are transparent and easily understood.
For help with your sustainability reporting, get in touch on +44 20 8187 7040, email hello@grain-sustainability.com, or book in a chat.
