The CSR: another way to communicate

Then comes the moment of satisfaction when all that hard work is brought to light and the Report is finally printed. The CSR team rests, exhausted after its considerable efforts to pull together meaningful information from throughout the company.

The company’s board is handed copies of the glossy new Report. The PDF is added to the website. A press release is sent out. Copies are mailed to “opinion formers” and key stakeholders, such as big NGOs, opponents and the socially responsible investment community. Perhaps even shareholders and employees each get a copy. The print run in some larger companies can run into the thousands.

So what happens next? In many cases not much. Perhaps in the case of a GAP, or Nike, a couple of newspapers or business magazines might mention some of the relevant issues from the report, if the company is very lucky. Apart from that, the publication of a CSR is generally met with a deafening silence.

So companies are in front of a big problem. They must produce reports but few really read them so here’s a solution. Target marketing in simple formats to those other “opinion formers”who you want to reach who don’t have time to read your 40-70 page report.

For instance, for shareholders, why not send them a short summary of how your plans for sustainability will impact their returns over the medium term, and encourage them to stick with your stock, since you have new products or have improved your technical procedures that may well help the share price, or at least the sales.

For others, let’s say NGOs and the media, why not just take the most interesting parts of your report relevant to those groups and send them those sober looking, humble four-page “issue briefs” that the odd company does well. Here are some good examples. Nike has a cool looking newsletter with information about their CSR progress. It’s humble while obviously being public relations focused, but it’s much more compelling than reading a report, mainly because it’s accessible and shorter.

Unilever and Microsoft send out two, four-page conservative looking “highlights” brochures on relevant issues. Unilever even sends out press cuttings from publications such as the Financial Times.

As a “stakeholder,” I do prefer these. You don’t need to send the full report with it, just supply a simple web link. These types of shorter formats can be compelling and easy to read. Be aware that if the corporate responsibility team writes too much of it, it may become jargon heavy and hard to read. If the marketing or communications team writes too much of it, it risks reading like greenwash and being far too flimsy a document.

The fact that more organisations are reporting demonstrates that sustainability communication is gaining purchase as legitimate and even necessary to organisational performance. It is estimated that 2,000 companies now publish sustainability or corporate responsibility reports. More than 850 purport to use the Global Reporting Initiative’s sustainability reporting guidelines, which advocate the use of a set of principles to define, prioritise, and ensure the quality of report content.

The key is to think of reporting not as the publication for a shiny, printed booket after months of intense activity, but rather an ongoing, a never-ending process with stakeholders. The best reporters know that reporting serves as a communication vehicle and a management strategy tool that can add value to internal processes and, ultimately, your competitiveness.