What are some of the emerging trends and best practices in CSR reporting and disclosure?

I started my consultancy focusing on environmental sustainability, to now running a social business, I have seen a shift in the focus of ESG and CSR. From my experience, there are 3 camps in CSR today: 1. From PR - As mentioned by Darin, this is a PR exercise and always looking for media attention 2. From finance - result and matrix driven, personally, a tough group to manage as social impact is difficult to measure and achieve at times 3. From HR - mostly coming from the angle of employee engagement and retention. This is the group where we love to work with for our training and volunteering experience sessions. Important to know the background of the person you are speaking to and align the proposal to the org's needs

Any framework or process should be adapted to local realities of the communities. Even if the global agenda is quite inclusive, the best practices can emerge from the community itself. I believe some problems have simple solutions that don't really need an entire process or a team of experts to be deployed

Simply put: endeavor to do good for doing goods sake. Then, do what you say you will in this space and avail yourself and your organization to objective scrutiny.

There must be a balance so that simple reporting of CSR activities by organizations does not become a tool for cheap PR or marketing. To ensure that reporting is objective, I propose due diligence to customers, media, investors and all the stakeholders.

Global Standards are a general guide for businesses to be able to compare some data between companies and between industries. It is very important to choose the actions in which we think we can be more efficient to start any CSR project. It is always advisable to start with small steps such as the DisCert Certificate that measures commitment to disability. Clear and concise.

Totally agree. Some companies can create wonders just by sharing their employees skills and time, sharing information about their business and their field, and just educate the community. This might benefit the company hugely by reducing costs, improving employees performance, or economically empower the community to convert into paying customers. Financial and non financial results should go hand in hand

You cannot improve what you cannot manage. You can't manage what you don't measure. You cannot measure if there are no indicators. The important thing is to start measuring, managing and improving.

The integration of CSR/ESG reporting, and associated quantified financial metrics, is essential to identify and communicate the impact of climate-related and other ESG factors on an entity's performance. Simply put, how can an entity's true value be presented if it doesn't reflect its exposure, both risks and opportunities, to the impacts of physical and transition risks as a minimum? Again, this is where more rigorous mandated standards can drive organisations to better understand their exposures, identify their impacts, and put in place measures to reduce them - ultimately reducing their impact on the environments and societies they operate within.

Why not have much higher wages at the bottom and lower pay for the top. My program is do it yourself taxation where a Corporate shows better home made fiscal policy by socially oriented pay outs to employees. Also Democracy in the workplace. That is all salaries and bonuses individually are voted on by all employees together.

Absolutely. CSR impact can be understood only when we measure quantity and quality together. It’s not only about giving money for a cause it’s also about measuring the effectiveness through quality parameters.

Great article. Another consideration is to be sure everyone can be meaningfully included by assuring access for all. Be sure to blend accessibility into all your efforts.

Certainly, in today's fast-paced digital landscape where attention spans are limited, using digital and interactive formats for CSR reporting is key. Websites, videos, podcasts, and social media, can help capture and retain the attention of stakeholders. These formats make information more engaging and user-friendly but also allow for tailoring content to suit different audience preferences. Moreover, the agility of these formats in terms of real-time updates, feedback collection, and impact measurement ensures that businesses can effectively cut through the noise and resonate with their audience in an information-saturated world.

In my opinion, it is necessary to distinguish interactive tools that allow the user to obtain any information on CSR programs and therefore provide additional transparency value from interactive tools that present audiovisual and partial data that can sometimes indicate a bias in the information provided and be perceived by users as a "greenwashing" system. It is very important to establish and explain the objectives of each interactive tool before its implementation.

Through my work in rural Morocco, even the best content on the best platforms can't reach the community without onsite events and awareness. Businesses should work closely with local government entities and local NGOs to make sure the info reaches masses

The integration of digital and interactive formats represents a compelling shift in the realm of CSR reporting and disclosure. This trend not only signifies a departure from traditional methods but also opens up new dimensions of accessibility, engagement, and user-friendliness for diverse audiences. The adoption of digital and interactive formats, holds the potential to transform the way businesses convey their CSR narratives and data. These formats breathe life into the information. Furthermore, the dynamic nature of digital and interactive formats facilitates real-time updates and revisions, ensuring that the information presented remains current and relevant.

This is arguably THE most important element in an organisation's ESG journey. Rather than following the ever-changing reporting requirements, an organisation needs to first understand the ESG issues that are relevant to its operational model and prioritise resources accordingly. No one can be an expert in everything, and no one needs to. Focus on things that matter to you and your stakeholders.

Joint participation with stakeholders is one of the most laborious tasks of any CSR project because it has the added requirement of external and expert control over one's own actions; however, these collaborations with the right stakeholders are an exponential lever of the possible results of any action.

CSR needs to go beyond marketing and it starts with employee engagement and then trickles into how businesses operate, what and how they sell and what they can do for their customers.

This is essential and materiality needs to be both quantitative and qualitative, as some stakeholders will engage with the numbers, others with the story, and ultimately both are needed to paint a clear picture. What helps this is truly understanding your stakeholders - partners, governments, customers, supply chains, and not least of all the communities and those impacted directly and indirectly by an organisations activities. It's not easy but time invested in understanding these groups pays itself back in dividends and allows for more meaningful, engaged, and honest disclosures

(Double) materiality helps businesses understand what their impact is on the wider world such as the climate biodiversity and society and how the wider world impacts the outlook of the businesses Stakeholder engagement is not easy and requires good communication skills to formulate the questions to stakeholders in an unambiguous way.

An important aspect of CSR that is often overlooked, especially in measurement indicators and value quantification, is its profound impact on staff and internal stakeholders. A company's commitment to CSR is valued by employees and is seen to align with a purpose that is deserving of their allegiance, trust and longterm loyalty.

Definitely, Technology and Innovation are great. However, we need to remember that it can only be an enabler, a tool to bring change to the ground. Sometimes, we are so focused on the glory of Innovation that we forget to measure impact in its entirety.

Spot on. We can have certain qualitative and quantitative measures in place. Also, surveys, polls and other data collection tools should be used to enhance accountability and transparency.

CSR activities should not have a business case. However, I have seen such cases. Yes, definitely, it is compliance. But, can we ensure we all see it as an opportunity to contribute our bit, to what we popularly say, "giving it back" with clear intentions on "Impact" rather than branding and marketing stunts?

Corporate Social Responsibility Activities attracts the recently enacted DPDP Act very much. The information received and shared by the Corporates are to be handled on par with Privacy Information Management System in the days to come and it will become a norm at the earliest.

There is a growing trend to implement MTP (Massive Transformative Purpose) in organizations in order to improve their contribution to the world. With this correctly oriented MTP we can achieve exponential organizations that allow us, for example, to generate communities of followers or supporters who will not necessarily be customers but who will help us to improve society and the world.