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MONITOR, REVIEW REPORT - reporting progress - MRR3
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Key Questions
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‘Who are we reporting to?’
‘How are we accounting for feedback from the reporting process?’
‘What are we reporting?’
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Alignment with principles
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Organisations should ensure that:
| They have taken into account the information needs of stakeholders in preparing and communicating their current state of alignment with the organisation’s principles, the actions they have taken or are planning to take to improve their alignment with their principles and any progress they have made since the previous reporting period. |
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When
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Following the Tactical and Strategic Review process - typically following an annual cycle.
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Who
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Project Champions, Board Members and Senior Management Team, Implementation Team, Legal departments,
Corporate Affairs and Communications departments.
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Scoping and boundary-setting
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Key activities
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| Defining the objectives and boundaries for reporting |
| Setting and agreeing the level of total disclosure - including frequency of reported information |
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Suggested resources
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Outcomes & outputs
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| Agreed objectives and boundaries for reporting, including level of total disclosure,and a coherent rationale for the agreed level of disclosure |
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Report content and format
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Key activities
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| Identifying the audiences for reporting and tailoring language and content accordingly |
| Identifying relevant information to report - using data drawn from the organisation's business management systems, key performance indicators, etc. |
| Agreeing the reporting formats and design (e.g. hard copy or web-based reporting) |
| Identifying media/approach to reporting |
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Suggested resources
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| 'Sustainability Reporting Guidelines' Global Reporting Initiative (August 2002) www.globalreporting.org |
| WBCSD 'Sustainable development reporting - Striking the balance' (January 2003)(Available from: www.wbcsd.ch |
| 'The State of Sustainability Assurance - 2003' AccountAbility (2003) www.accountability.org.uk |
| ACCA guidance on reporting www.acca.org.uk/resources.html |
| Corporate Register - a useful website listing companies producing environmental and sustainability reports with direct access to examples of reports. www.corporate-register.com |
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DEFRA 'Environmental reporting - General guidelines' (November 2001) Available from: www.defra.gov.uk
Also from DEFRA:
| - | Guidelines for Company Reporting on Greenhouse Gas Emissions' (2000) |
| - | Guidelines for Company Reporting on Waste' (June 2000) |
| - | Guidelines for Company Reporting on Water' (December 2000) |
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Outcomes & outputs
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| Key audiences/readership for reports and stakeholder needs identified |
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Collation of data for reporting purposes (including performance measures and indicators for significant impacts) |
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Specification for reporting, including media and delivery mechanisms (e.g. continual web-based reporting) |
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Report approval, distribution and feedback
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Key activities
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| Creating and approving reports prior to distribution |
| Distributing/communicating reports |
| Establishing or reinforcing mechanisms for handling stakeholder feedback on reports |
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Suggested resources
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Outcomes & outputs
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Completed reports including evidence of approvals/sign-off |
| Distributed reports - posting to website, etc. |
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Key Issues
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Useful documents:
| Previous reports and reports from industry or sector peers (see reporting portal on WBCSD website at: www.wbcsd.ch) |
| Best practice surveys and indexes of reporting |
Real-world tips:
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Implementing organisations will need to carefully consider how progress towards organisational sustainability is reported both internally and externally. Feedback loops will need to take account of:
| - | The severity, permanence and nature of the impact |
| - | The organisation’s own vision, strategies, tactical plans, management programmes and objectives and targets |
| - | Existing corporate best practice |
| - | The need to engage senior management in a regular strategic review |
| - | The need to provide feedback to mainstream business tactical and financial planning |
| - | The needs and views of stakeholders |
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Some organisations may wish to consider the development of a web-based approach to reporting such a difficult and complex area as sustainability. Using HTML links and web search engines would allow stakeholders to extract the level of information relevant to their own needs. However, such development should not be at the cost of print-based approaches to allow for the widest possible communication of results.
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