Sustainability Report: A Virtuous Path Supported By Communication

Communicating with sustainability is a critical factor for companies. Sharing one’s initiatives to protect the environment, the approach adopted toward workers, and one’s positive relationship with the territory and its communities is a distinctive factor. It immerses the organization that identifies it in the reality in which it operates. And so he manages to give a dimension to his activity’s added value and presence.

With which tool to communicate?

The sustainability report is the tool for doing all of this in an organized and accountable way. A document through which the company reports its initiatives and its environmental, social, and economic sustainability performance.

To date, this report is voluntary (it is mandatory only for European public interest companies with at least 500 employees). Still, it must, in any case, comply with precise and shared compilation rules. These are internationally recognized and indicated by the GRI – Global Reporting Initiatives. Data organization is one of the determining factors. For this reason, it is first of all necessary to choose the topics which the social report will deal with: to make an index of the relevant facts concerning the company and to involve its stakeholders. The second crucial point is to understand that the concept of sustainability is broad and not limited exclusively to ecological factors. These are certainly one of the components but not the only ones. The sustainability report declares the company’s ability to have a 360-degree view of its actions and the consequences they trigger. For this reason, environmental, social, and governance factors are included in sustainability”.

“Sustainability”

Transparency is a pillar.

Elements, those just indicated, have a pillar on which to base their credibility: transparency. The account of one’s actions must be clear, sincere, and documented, going into the merits of the objectives achieved and those that failed, illustrating the reasons for the result.

A report is an evaluation tool.

The sustainability report is an evaluation and comparison tool for the company, with reality and with itself. For this reason, performance indicators are an essential element. Numerical indicators and measurable objectives support the transparency and truthfulness of the actions undertaken and their exposure.  

Since objectivity is an essential element of any social responsibility activities, it is clear that a specialized and impartial company can examine the sustainability report that can attribute a guaranteed value to what is declared.

The three basic elements

There are three essential final elements for a sustainability report. They are in order: it’s constantly updating because if objectives are achieved, these must also be maintained or increased. This gives continuity to the social responsibility action by ensuring it can involve other territorial and social realities.

Values ​​are elements of involvement: a sustainability report is effective if it is understandable and manages to arouse positive emotions. So then, the second element must be considered a tool to promote the company. This is why having an attractive graphic design to support the third element, communication, and dissemination, can make it even more effective and engaging. 

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