Introduction
Sustainability reporting is the process of measuring and reporting on your sustainability efforts. It’s a great way to give yourself and your stakeholders insight into what you’re doing, how you’re performing, and where there are opportunities for improvement
The evolution of sustainability reporting
Sustainability reporting has evolved from a voluntary practice to a requirement for many companies. In fact, sustainability reporting is now a legal requirement in some countries. This guide provides an overview of how sustainability reporting has changed over time and what you need to know about measuring and reporting on your company’s performance.
How can you measure and report on your sustainable business practices?
There are several key metrics for measuring sustainability. The first is to look at how much waste your business produces and how much of it you’re able to recycle, reuse or compost. You can also track your energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by measuring the amount of electricity or natural gas used by your company each month, as well as CO2 emissions from transportation (if applicable) for employees/suppliers who travel regularly for work purposes.
Another important measurement is employee satisfaction: Are people happy at work? Do they feel like they’re making an impact on the world through their efforts? These factors can have a huge impact on productivity levels too–not only will happy employees be more motivated but they’ll also likely stick around longer than disgruntled ones!
Once you’ve gathered all this data together into one place via an app like [insert name here], it’s time for reporting! Here are some tips on how best communicate these numbers with stakeholders such as investors or customers:
What kind of information should you report?
The next step is to decide what kind of information you should be reporting. This will depend on your organization’s goals and objectives, but it also depends on your audience. For example, if you are trying to attract investors or customers who want to know more about how their money is being used and whether or not it’s helping the environment, then you may want to report on things like greenhouse gas emissions or water usage rates. If instead your goal is simply improving internal efficiency within the company (as opposed to making a profit), then perhaps reports like these aren’t as important for getting buy-in from staff members who might otherwise be skeptical about sustainability efforts being worthwhile (even though they really are).
In general though–and especially when starting out with sustainability reporting–it’s best not just assume that everyone knows what type of information would be useful; instead ask around within various departments before deciding which metrics make sense based upon their perspectives too! You’ll probably find some overlap between what different groups want reported because ultimately everyone wants higher profits/lower costs…but there may also be some differences depending upon whether someone works directly with customers/suppliers versus employees only; has been working at [Company Name] longer than others vs newer hires etcetera too.”
How often should you report your progress?
Reporting on your sustainable business practices should be an annual activity. There are several reasons for this:
- An annual report gives you time to reflect on the previous year’s performance and plan for future changes. It can also help you set priorities, because it gives you a clear picture of where improvements are needed.
- Annual reporting will provide a benchmark against which future progress can be measured and tracked over time. If quarterly reporting was used instead, it would be difficult or impossible to see how much improvement has been made since last year–or if any improvement has been made at all!
What are the best ways to communicate your sustainability efforts?
When communicating your sustainability efforts, it’s important to use a variety of communication methods. You can choose from:
- Textual reports that are easy-to-read and understand
- Visuals such as infographics or videos that explain what you’re doing in an interesting way
- Social media posts (Twitter, Facebook) that highlight specific aspects of your work
You can use sustainability reporting to paint a picture of your internal operations and external impacts.
Sustainability reporting is a way to document and communicate your internal operations, external impacts and progress towards goals. It can help you track your progress over time, identify areas for improvement and communicate your sustainability efforts externally.
You might already have some experience with sustainability reporting if you’ve seen reports on climate change or waste management from companies like Apple or Coca-Cola in recent years. These types of reports are known as “environmental” because they focus on measuring environmental performance–things like greenhouse gas emissions, water use and waste generation (also called “triple bottom line” reporting). But there are many other ways to measure sustainability: social impact assessments are used by brands like Adidas and Patagonia; “human rights” assessments have been published by companies such as Intel; while others such as Amazon have opted for more general definitions such as “corporate responsibility.”
Conclusion
We hope that this guide has helped you understand the basics of sustainability reporting and why it’s important to do. We also want to remind you that there are many different ways to measure your impact on the world, so don’t feel limited by our suggestions here! The key is finding what works best for your organization–and then keeping track of those results over time so they can be compared against other companies doing similar work.
