How can you use sustainability reporting to inspire your employees to make a difference?

Sustainability reporting is sometimes required by customers, investors and other stakeholders. Large companies are legally obliged to publicly disclose some aspects of their sustainability impacts such as Greenhouse Gas Emissions and diversity metrics.

O relatório de sustentabilidade é uma forte ferramenta de engajamento interno e envolver os colaboradores e seus projetos na constru??o do documento é fundamental para que essa ferramenta seja utilizada como um canal de transparência com a equipe de trabalho. Sendo assim, para inspirar os funcionários a fazer a diferen?a: - Permita que o documento seja construído a várias m?os e que os projetos das equipes sejam expostos no doc; - Mostre onde está e onde quer chegar (fale sobre desenvolvimento, diversidade, inclus?o e etc) - Abuse na divulga??o interna; - Torne o documento acessível: uma vers?o resumida é sempre bem vinda; vídeos, podcasts, além do documento completo.

Sustainability reporting, as it practiced currently, is almost entirely a reflection of “weak sustainability”. It is weak in so far as the impacts and goals for doing less harm to exhaustive lists of People, Planet, Profit items are provided, but little or even nothing is provided to report on “Ecologically Positive” achievement, or even whether in the overall organization vision and mission is compatible with an ecologically positive planet. The employees are not naive and want to be inspired by bold and visionary sustainability.

O relatório de sustentabilidade detalha em dados, indicadores o desempenho da empresa relacionado às quest?es ambientais, sociais e de governan?a, sempre alinhado ao escopo da empresa. Grande ferramenta para avalia??o de riscos e oportunidades do negócio.

In my opinion, sustainability reporting is an essential component that provides stakeholders with information about the organization with which they deal on a regular basis. This will increase stakeholders' confidence and faith in our company's performance, as well as how much we love the planet and people, not just in words but also in actions.

A sustainability report is your opportunity to present a balanced, transparent disclosure of your organisation’s sustainability performance. It is not a marketing tool, though and organisations must exercise prudence to ensure that they disclose on the strategy, goals and KPIs for the material topics that are most relevant to their business and their key stakeholders.

The primary purpose of sustainability reporting varies greatly depending on the company's stakeholders other than its employees (investors, consumers, NPO/NGOs, etc.). Two examples are given below. (1) Oil industry, which has a tremendous impact on the environment, reporting on attempts to reduce environmental impact is required mainly due to considerations for investors and NPO/NGOs that promote decarbonization. (2) CPG companies, whose main stakeholders are consumers, will be required to promote the safety and superiority of their products as well as the reduction of environmental impacts.

One thing I discovered is that sustainability reporting is not only for external stakeholders, but also for internal stakeholders such as design engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain departments. Internal stakeholders can review the report and identify opportunities for improvement in all aspects, including improving overall operating efficiency, conserving natural resources, and increasing stakeholder participation.

Well said Annaya, this need of hour to motivate and their getting involvement of employees, moreover their contribution will surely help in achieving set sustainability and ESG KPI,s????

It also provides a different perspective or lens to identify and address the risks and opportunities facing your organisation - current and future.

In the context of sustainability reporting, there are several ways in which it can inspire employees, Alignment: Sync sustainability goals with organizational values and overall mission. Communication: Convey sustainability progress for shared understanding. Empowerment: Involve and empower employees in sustainability initiatives. Recognition: Acknowledge and celebrate contributions, offering relevant training. Collaboration: Foster cross-functional collaboration through best practice sharing. Learning: Expose employees to external sustainability experts for innovative insights. Creativity: Encourage creative thinking to address sustainability challenges. Rewards: Provide incentives to motivate engagement in sustainability efforts.

Sustainability reporting directed to the organizations employees need to be transparent but also bold and inspiring. Ideally, it can be utilized to help harness the hearts and minds of all employees and to value and celebrate “ecopreneurship” and to actively engage in the process of embracing nature in our work and personal lives. A culture of eco inventiveness needed to be created to transform the organization at the purpose and operational levels. To this end I encouraged cross disciplinary work-shopping and the creation of exemplar projects for sustainability projects at the project, office and home scale.

Involve them in identifying which aspects matter most to them, and what future objectives should be. Building in this employee ownership early saves considerable communication time and effort at the reporting stage.

A melhor forma de inspirar os funcionários quanto ao relatório de sustentabilidade é envolve-los durante a sua elabora??o. O treinamento, conscientiza??o e participa??o de toda a parte interessada interna da empresa torna n?o apenas mais um relatório e sim um documento completo de informa??es pertinente e alinhado ao escopo da empresa.

While best practices highly depend on a company's objectives and goals, ESG rating agencies can help identify their best practices. For example, CDP, ISS-ESG, Sustainalytics, MSCI, EcoVadis, and Bloomberg are most frequently cited by companies and investors according to ERM surveys on March 2023.

Recomenda-se que o relatório de sustentabilidade tenha sua estrutura ou padr?o baseado nos frameworks - GRI, SASB. é de suma importancia que a coleta dos dados tenha sido de forma íntegra. A divulga??o interna e externa refor?a o interesse da empresa em demostrar seus interesses quanto ao ESG.

Expose to your employees the meaning and importance of Sustainability. Send them the message of AWARENESS AND CONSCIOUSNESS about the environmental scenario.

I found, during my daily “walk-abouts” that many colleagues had ambitions to do “eco projects” in their own homes. As someone who “lives sustainability” I could give them useful advice on any topic, including eco home renovation products and ideas, keeping chickens, where to buy inexpensive organic food, composting, establishing vegetable gardens, etc. The lesson here is as a sustainability leader you need to “walk the talk”, learn by doing and become valuable to other people. Of course, it takes years of commitment, but I would say that this is all part of being the “leader” you aspire to be.