An evolving component of sustainability management is the use of integrated reports that capture an organization’s financial, environmental, social, and governance performance in one document. A seminal event on this was held last October (2010) at Harvard Business School (HBS).
The event, “A Workshop on Integrated Reporting: Framework and Action Plan,” was sponsored by HBS’s Business & Environment Initiative. After the event, HBS published an e-book of the proceedings, a beefy publication with 64 chapters that cover a wide range of integrated and sustainability reporting topics.
If you are in an EHS & Sustainability (EHSS) leadership position, this document is a must-read—and it’s free (click here to get it).
Over the next several months, I will be posting blogs on various chapters. Some of the document’s highlights for EHSS managers and executives include reviews of:
- BP’s reporting scheme and the Deepwater Horizon event in the Gulf of Mexico.
- How integrated reporting can be a powerful tool in driving organizational change.
- The role internal audit programs play in preparing and verifying integrated reports.
- How integrated reports can increase stakeholder engagement, including employee engagement.
If you are not aware of your company’s integrated reporting practices, it would be wise to find out and see how your department can or does support it. If the practice of integrated reporting is embryonic or non-existent, you can demonstrate forward-thinking leadership by suggesting its use to the C-Suite.
There are numerous integrated reporting approaches. Certainly the most evolved and widely used is the Global Reporting Index (GRI) framework. There are others, but GRI is the gold standard.
Something to think about is how your EHS performance is captured in an integrated report, or even in GRI. While frameworks such as GRI are robust, think about whether you and your company should develop metrics unique to your business strategy and needs. To this end, have you considered how valid and robust your EHSS metrics are?
© Redinger EHS, Inc. (2010)