Signs of weakness in sustainability reporting

Signs of weakness in sustainability reporting

News

Longer corporate social responsibility reports increase the likelihood of winning sustainability awards, according to a new analysis of FTSE 100 environmental reporting.

Environmental Reporting: Trends in FTSE 100 Sustainability Reports says that companies that write longer reports are more likely to win awards, although the amount of resources devoted by companies to reporting often does not correspond to their impact on the environment.

The report also says that corporations fail to define critical reference terms when reporting. Of the 79 organisations that use the term ‘sustainability’, only two (BP and British American Tobacco) define it.

The report investigates the terminology, thematic content and length of Britain’s leading corporate reports on sustainability.  The research analysed all of the most recent, publicly available reports from FTSE 100 companies using linguistic and statistical software programmes.

Gavin Ingham Brooke, managing director of Spada, said, “In the sample we analysed there are many excellent examples of good, evidence based reports but a number of key issues need to be addressed within CR reporting as a whole. For example, should a company engaged in what might be regarded as an inherently harmful activity be rewarded for comprehensive environmental reporting? By the same token, are some companies who undertake wholly beneficial work failing to get the public recognition that their efforts deserve?”

The report is available on the Spada website.