Sustainable Development Reporting

Source: Sustainable Development Reporting, Striking the Balance

By Bert Heemskerk, Pasquale Pistorio, Martin Scicluna; World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Synopsis: “The main purpose of this report is to help companies to understand the added value that reporting can bring them. We also provide guidance, both to the initiated and the uninitiated, on how to report, thus complementing other initiatives which guide companies on what to report.” (foreword)

Reflection:

My apologies for the dearth of posts recently. Allow me an explanation (I promise it’s related to sustainability). I started a new job this week. I’m not going to advertise for whom, as I don’t know the ethics of disclosing business practices, and it is this company’s business practices that have me all excited (I’ll also say this: nothing disclosed herein will be a secret. In fact, I think it’s all on our website). A few examples: They are profitable. In fact, in these difficult economic times, they have been busy enough and profitable enough to expand. It may be obvious that a sustainable business must also be profitable, but it is so important it bears repeating. They are concerned about the environment. I don’t think much harm can come of telling you they are in the bike industry (given my interests, you might’ve guessed that anyway). Bikes are not guilt free. I own six or seven of them, the production of which consumed raw materials and a lot of energy. I justify this excessive consumption by riding one of them to work as often as possible. But there are few products out there that can be considered solutions on the scale of bikes. Related to both expansion and the environment, their newest buildings are LEED Gold certified. They own the largest solar array in the upper Midwest. They take care of their people, offering competitive wages and benefits and a dog-of-the-day program, in which employees can sign up to bring their pets to work. Anyway, my point is not to brag but to… No, my point is to brag. My new company is awesome, and I am proud to be a part of it. On to reporting!

I promised a connection, and here it is: my new company is clearly on the right path. I don’t yet know where the drive towards sustainable business comes from, and I don’t know who we’re telling about it. So, when reading resources such as Sustainable Development Reporting, I’m applying it to my new place of business. I can’t help it; it’s where my brain wants to go, and I’m taking that as a good sign. Because the fact is, we’re not going to single-handedly revolutionize the bike industry, or the business world, or the world-world. Problems are too big and we’re too small. And that, I suppose, is the impetus behind Sustainable Development Reporting. Our issues and solutions need to be qualified, quantified, scrutinized, and communicated. Furthermore, since these are global issues and we’re moving increasingly toward a globalized economy, there must exist standards so we can all get on the same page.

Regarding the last sentence. What do we mean by standards? Who is we? What is the same page? I’m not sure we have the best answers to these questions yet, although I think people would increasingly agree we’re all in this together, so we is everybody, all people, and by extension the systems upon which we depend. “Standards” and “same page” are a lot more controversial, and books, papers, and PhD theses have been written studying those concepts. But, like so many of the concepts and processes we’ve talked about, reporting is going to be evolutionary. Best practices will emerge, and those will be modified to get better.

Regarding Sustainable Development Reporting specifically, I found the document to be complete and I could certainly envision its utility in my future world-saving endeavors. Heck, maybe my new job and this document will lead to some kind of project to get me a little closer to those additional letters after my name.