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The Emerging Markets Disclosure Project (EMDP), an international initiative to improve corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG or sustainability) reporting in emerging markets, and more specifically to promote greater disclosure of sustainability factors by corporations operating in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa and South Korea, today issued a renewed call to investors to sign onto its Investor Statement on Sustainability Reporting in Emerging Markets.  Signatories to the statement affirm that the next generation of leading companies will distinguish themselves through their commitment to sustainability through robust ESG reporting and will be correspondingly rewarded by the market.

Read more (Source: GRI)

First found on CSR Europe.

State-owned enterprises perform better than private and multinational companies in corporate social responsibility (CSR), according to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), but analysts registered doubts as to the report’s methodology and results, Global Times reports.

The report is based on information included in the CSR reports and annual reports of 100 top State-owned companies, 100 top private companies and 100 top multinational companies.

The report noted that the level of CSR implementation is still low in most companies. Moreover, ”the report does not reflect the real situation of CSR in China, because it focuses on companies’ own sayings rather than their performance,” said Li Youhuan, a researcher at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences.

In November, PricewaterhouseCoopers also expressed doubts on the credibility of more than 600 Chinese companies’ CSR reports, saying there was a considerable discrepancy between what the companies wrote in their reports and what they actually did.

Read more (Global Times)

Source: CSR Europe

Some interesting news:

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The Roberts Environmental Center (REC) at Claremont McKenna College today released the analysis of social responsibility reporting for the 26 largest pharmaceutical companies world-wide. The report contains a compilation of Pacific Sustainability Index (PSI) scores evaluating the environmental and social reporting of the companies. Scoring is based on the transparency, intent, and performance for both environmental and social issues.

The research, based entirely on material released on the firms’ web sites, found Bristol-Myers Squibb (U.S.) and Sanofi-Aventis (France) led the sector as the two highest scoring companies. The lowest scoring companies, Forest Laboratories and NBTY, were smaller companies in the sector and are both based in the United States. There was a slight trend between PSI scores and annual revenue; however, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, the two largest corporations in the sector, both showed room for improvement.

Prior to the report’s release, companies were given the opportunity to respond to their scores and provide additional information if available. Often this reveals information not previously captured in the scoring system.

“Biogen Idec scored low in the rankings,” said Elgeritte Adidjaja, research fellow at REC. “However, after speaking with a representative responsible for sustainability matters, the company appears to be committed to many environmental programs, but they are not yet ready to make sustainability information public.”

To create the report’s ranking, REC evaluated each company’s web site using the PSI and sector-specific questions. The index uses a systematic questionnaire to analyze the quality of sustainability reporting. The selection of questions was based on the most frequently-mentioned topics in almost 1,800 corporate sustainability documents analyzed from 2002 through 2008 by the Roberts Environmental Center. The company’s grades in this report were assigned on a grading curve, giving an A+ to the highest scoring companies and those with scores near it.

To view the report, visit: http://www.roberts.cmc.edu/PSI/SectorReports.asp.

Major companies around the world are failing to engage with stakeholders despite the interactive opportunities provided by the web

I mentioned in my recent blog on online CSR reporting that a study was coming out which is pretty damning about company transparency around social, ethical and environmental performance and I would give more details when it was made public.

Well, the report by Milan-based communications consultancy Lundquist is now out so I thought it would be useful to highlight what it says.

Read the complete article here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainability/blog/2

Sun Microsystems has released an update to their 2008 CSR Report. Dave Douglas, Chief Sustainability Officer at Sun said that there where two main reasons for this update.

1. We want to make sure we were holding ourselves accountable throughout the (reporting) year – not just during the report process at the end of the year. Over the long term we would like to move toward a reporting model where we publish timely data throughout the year rather than just once a year in a neatly packaged report. By definition, some of the data is stale by then.
2. We’re trying to sharpen our internal processes around data collection and progress measurement. With some of the CSR reporting being new in the company, if you only do it once a year its easy to talk yourself into not automating the collection and reporting process. We think in the end we can report some data more often AND at lower cost.

Here is the link to the CSR Report update and the CEO message:

Update

CSO Message

Mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting will become a reality for large firms operating in Denmark from next year, after the Danish government last month passed legislation requiring 1,100 of the country’s largest listed firms to include updates on CSR performance in their annual reports.

The new law was passed by an overwhelming majority of the Danish parliament, and while it will not oblige firms to to undertake CSR programmes they will have to disclose that they are failing to invest in CSR activities.

The new law is the latest move in a growing trend which has seen both France and UK pass similar legislation that has required firms to report on their social and environmental performance in some way since 2007. Read more

Source: Business Green

The number of large multinational companies reporting corporate responsibility (CR) data has risen dramatically over the last three years, with vast majority doing so because of ethical reasons, according to new research from KPMG.

Nearly three-quarters of the top 100 U.S. companies by revenue reported sustainability data this year, twice as many as three years ago, KPMG has found. Eighty percent of the world’s 250 biggest multinational companies divulge CR information, compared to 64 percent in 2005. Read more

Source: GreenBiz

Business & Society Belgium, one of CSR Europe’s 25 national partner organisations, has recently published a practical guide on CSR reporting available in French, Dutch and English.

The guide aims to set out the latest trends in non-financial reporting in response to stakeholder expectations. It provides answers to questions such as:

1. What are stakeholders’ expectations with regard to non-financial reports?
2. How can these reports be used as dynamic communication tools in coherence with sustainable development strategies?
3. Which tools are available to businesses?
4. What are the phases and success factors in producing a quality report?

The guide, developed by a working group of 15 B&SB member companies, is available at: www.businessandsociety.be/display.asp?lang=2&nav=311&art=1467&mode=showarticle

CR News Source: CSR Europe

The 2007 E.ON Group Corporate Responsibility (CR) Report has been published yesterday.

This is the direct link:

http://www.eon.com/en/unternehmen/2028.jsp

Ford Motor Company and The Timberland Company received the top sustainability reporting awards today in an international competition organized by the Boston-based Ceres coalition and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). The winners, selected from 87 nominations, also included Calgary, Alberta-based Suncor Energy and Austin, TX-based Dell, Inc. The four winners were announced at the Ceres annual conference today at Boston’s Renaissance Harbor Hotel. A complete judges’ report was also released today which is available at www.ceres.org/reportingawards.

The 7th annual Ceres-ACCA North American awards program, sponsored this year by Weber Shandwick’s Planet 2050, is designed to highlight best practices in reporting on sustainability issues by North American companies and other organizations, and to provide guidance to other groups and companies that are publishing or intend to publish sustainability or corporate social responsibility reports.

“The Ceres-ACCA Awards reward transparency by giving recognition to organizations that report environmental and social performance in the most complete and credible way. We do not reward rhetoric,” said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres, a national coalition of investors, companies, and environmental groups. “These reports articulate ambitious goals, make the business case for sustainability, discuss areas for improvement, and reflect the feedback – both laudatory and critical – of key external stakeholders.”

“As stakeholders grow increasingly savvy in their understanding of sustainability issues, they’re also increasingly demanding about the quality of CSR information they expect from companies,” said Jeff Swartz, Timberland’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We work hard to ensure that we’re providing current, relevant and transparent communications to our stakeholders, and we’re honored to receive this important recognition of our efforts.”

This year there were 87 entries from Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. From these, 21 entries were short-listed, including Gap, Inc., Hewlett-Packard, Starbucks, Nike, and Weyerhaeuser.

The winners were selected by a 12-person independent panel of judges representing a broad spectrum of backgrounds in the nonprofit, corporate and investment worlds. The judging criteria focused on completeness, credibility, and effectiveness of communication.

This year’s award winners are:

Best Sustainability Report (co-winner)

Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan
The 2006/07 Sustainability Report from Ford clearly identifies the material sustainability issues affecting the company, including climate change, human rights, sustainable mobility in emerging markets and safety. The report discloses the greenhouse gas emissions of Ford’s fleet and benchmarks tailpipe emissions per vehicle against industry averages. It also communicates well through both an online and print report; the printed copy encourages reader to learn more online and the website provides an easy-to-navigate format.

Best Sustainability Report (co-winner)

The Timberland Company, Stratham, New Hampshire
Timberland’s 2006 Corporate Social Responsibility Report provides a comprehensive dashboard of key performance indicators and trends that illustrate progress to date on existing goals and sets new goals for the following year. It discusses Timberland’s influence on its supply chain with strong disclosure on factory location, factory growth, and the company’s monitoring, assessment and remediation program. In addition, it provides a thoughtful discussion of how the company is encouraging responsible action among its customers by providing product-specific sustainability information, and shares external feedback on Timberland’s material issues through extensive stakeholder quotes and commentary.

Commendation for Climate Change Reporting

Suncor Energy, Inc., Calgary, Alberta, Canada
The 2007 Report on Sustainability from oil sands producer Suncor highlights the strategic importance of climate change for the company by highlighting the risks and opportunities the company faces. The report describes the management accountability structure for addressing climate change at Suncor, from the board of directors down, and discloses comprehensive and detailed carbon emissions data, both historical and forward-looking, on each of the company’s primary business areas.

Commendation for Product Stewardship Reporting

Dell Inc., Austin, Texas
Dell’s sustainability report provided notable discussion about how the company is working to integrate sustainability considerations into the design, manufacture and recovery of its products. It details Dell’s Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) process and the company’s recovery, reuse, and recycling efforts, including global recycling and environmental standards, consumer recycling and donation programs, and commercial asset recovery services.

Source: CSR Wire