Sustainability reporting
If you’ve worked hard to get to grips with sustainability in your organisation, you will quite rightly want to showcase your findings and tell the world what great work you are doing. One way to do this is by publishing a sustainability report.
Why bother with a sustainability report?
And your supply chain wants to see it.
In the UK, sustainability reporting is mandatory for large businesses but not for smaller organisations. But we are increasingly seeing evidence of sustainability measures or carbon neutral commitments as requirements for contracts, grants or funding for smaller organisations. This is alongside increased consumer awareness and demand for climate-friendly products. Having a clear and easy to understand report available on your website is a great way to show everyone who is interested that you are aware of your organisation’s impact on society and the environment.
Before starting your report
The first step you need to take before doing anything else when approaching the topic of sustainability in your organisation is to measure your impact. It seems logical, but you would be surprised how often organisations jump straight into ‘problem solving’ mode without understanding the actual problem.
What to include in a sustainability report
In an earlier blog, we suggested you answer four questions to understand what sustainability means in the context of your own organisation. Your sustainability report should reflect these findings in a formal manner. But formal doesn’t have to mean incredibly dull. Don’t forget that your sustainability report can be an important marketing tool as well as helping your business strategically. It’s important to incorporate your own branding, and don’t forget to make it an exciting document to read. Check out Oatly’s 2019 Sustainability Report website for a great example of this.
What to avoid in your report
Many organisations decide to jump on ‘carbon neutral’ schemes like tree planting simply for the CSR boost, but customers and potential investors can see straight through ideas like that. People want to see that your organisation truly understands what impact it is having on the planet and how you are going to reduce that impact. Not greenwashed fluff.
But we don’t have the time to do this…
Never fear, we can help. Grow Business Solutions are specialists in exactly this. We will work with your organisation to audit your impact on the environment, understand your current approach to sustainability and identify potential areas for improvement. Is your marketing team already run off their feet? No problem. We will happily produce a report that fits in with your current branding and marketing strategy.
If you want to know more about how we can help showcase your sustainability efforts to the world then simply email us at hello@goodbusinessesgrow.co.uk for more information.