Historically, environmentalists and government have tended to lead the charge for sustainability, but it is now businesses that have taken charge. The shift in leadership occurred in Copenhagen in 2009 when the negotiations failed. Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, succinctly stated “after Hopelesshagen, governments have been left to the wayside”. While Barbara Kux, Siemens’ Chief Procurement Officer, stated “the Green race is on!” Both statements were made at the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Amsterdam Conference this year on Sustainability and Transparency that was attended by some of the Greenomics team.

The conference concluded with a record attendance topping 1200 delegates from 77 countries made up of executives and senior managers from major international firms, governments, NGO’s and others. The GRI’s mission is to make reporting on environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects of performance as normal and as important as financial reporting. The GRI presented some very ambitious goals including having all medium and large sized companies, totalling 80,000 firms, issue ESG reports by 2015, or explain “why not”. As well, GRI intends to set the standard for integrated reporting (a combination of sustainability and financial reports) by 2020. Of note, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is targeted as a prime case study for the type of content that should be required in a truly transparent sustainability report. For example, detailed safety data would need to be included, since it was stated that BP released an exceptional sustainability report, and yet the disaster still unfolded.

So what does this matter to small and medium sized businesses? Does sustainability reporting have relevance? Will it make the company more sustainable to simply report on its sustainability? The answer is yes, because “you cannot manage what you do not measure”. Developing benchmarks, voluntarily, puts a company at an advantage. Identifying risks and opportunities and opening a dialogue about what is important to your company and why will build internal and external stakeholder trust. Further, sustainability reporting is making some of the big companies look at their Supply Chain and they are asking some very important questions of their suppliers, which are often the small to medium size companies. WalMart, for example, is releasing this year it’s Sustainability Index, and will require its suppliers to align themselves with this new criteria.

Fortunately, there are already advanced tools and methodologies for addressing sustainability issues such as measuring a business’s Environmental Footprint. There are also many companies available to help you interpret and understand the data and build it into your strategic planning. But be warned. A sustainability initiative might start off as a side project or an assessment, but it will likely spread into your organization and transform the way you do business – for the better. Once sustainability takes hold, your company’s mission statement will change. Your by-laws will change to reflect that you will do all the things you do “sustainably”. It will eventually provide the opportunity to address sustainability issues right alongside your financial reporting. Combining your financial with sustainability reporting forms a powerful document to foster dialogue with your stakeholders for future planning. And don’t print those reports off either – post them on your website. In a time of radical transparency, there are no secrets, just people that don’t know yet. Download Report: Explorations – The Transparent Economy

The Sustainability and Innovation Survey Builds

We have had a good response to our request for businesses to complete our survey on Sustainability and Innovation, and we would like to build upon that success.

We are exploring a correlation between innovation and sustainability. Accordingly, this survey is to determine where companies see themselves today. We want to find out if companies think they are being innovative and if they are moving toward more sustainable business practices.

This survey is dependant upon you providing as accurate a response as possible. By contributing to this survey, you will receive a report that summarizes where your company is positioned relative to others based on your industry and size. If this is of interest to you, we encourage you to complete our survey. It should take less than 5 minutes. We will be collecting responses over the next few weeks. When we have collected enough responses, we will tabulate the results and send you our report for your business. Individual data is completely confidential.

Thanks to those who have already contributed, and please feel free to forward to a friend or colleague.

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