I have read about a interesting blog about Incorporating Sustainability in Business Reporting and it totally sums up what sustainability should be for a business. We have approached sustainability on a piece-meal basis and have not fully integrated it to the whole of our businesses. Hence, it is not unusual for a company to have an internal corporate sustainability policy but still turn a blind eye on their supplier sustainability.
What really will earn our business a two thumbs up?
The best thing to do is for business to develop their sustainable policies further and their annual report should show transparently and authentically what are their sustainability measures and how it has affected their company.
In the Otago Daily Times quoted by the blog:
The [2009] report was 57 pages, of which 30 to 40 of them were the financials. So, while it was a good report in terms of giving an overview of their financial situation, it didn’t in any way indicate their performance across the four sustainability dimensions – environmental, social, political and economic.
Institutional reporting needs to account for more than just economic reporting, rather [an organisation's] effects on the environment, how they are working with their community, the social impacts of what they are doing, and how they are actually working beyond compliance.
Sustainability isn’t something you bolt on, it’s not something you do on a nice day and it’s not something you do on pages 8-9 of your annual report.
Sustainability is your annual report. (Emphasis supplied.)“
This is the ultimate dream: when a business can say that sustainability is their annual report!
Are you up for the challenge?
Photo via Flickr Creative Commons: Two Thumbs Up by KColwell
