There are a plethora of books that explain how to introduce sustainability in your business, and reports that rank companies on their sustainability performance. However there are few that explain, succinctly, how to go about reporting your sustainability to the public. CSR Trends 3 fills that gap.

CSR Trends 3 is so named because it is the third year the survey has been compiled. Craib Design & Communications has been involved since the beginning, and this year the company partnered with PricewaterhouseCoopers to create the report.

The study is a survey of corporate social responsibility (CSR) report trends, benchmarks and best practices. Those involved in compiling the study’s results reviewed more than 1,000 CSR reports from around the world to determine best practices in a variety of areas, such as:

• Report format and structure;
• Design, including typography, graphics, diagrams, illustrations, and other items used to enhance the communication of the content;
• Key content elements, such as materiality, report scope and stakeholder engagement;
• CSR performance, including targets and performance indicators; and
• Website treatment.

The examination of some of the results of this research won’t surprise some. It’s clear from the benchmarking study (based on the reports of 100 companies – 25 from Canada, 25 from the U.S., 25 from Europe, Australia, and Japan, and 25 from the rest of the world) that Canada lags behind much of the rest of the world in the sophistication of its reports. CSR Trends 3 outlines very clearly where Canada is doing well, and where reporters here need some improvement.

On the positive side, Peter Johnson, a director with the Sustainable Business Solutions practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, sees the landscape improving here.

“In my opinion, the quality of reports in Canada is improving,” he noted in an interview with Green Business. “A lot of that is due to the experience that companies have gained over previous years of reporting. I think there’s also more of a focus in the reports on what stakeholders are interested in, and what is material to that company. We’re headed in the direction of more sophisticated reporting in Canada. I think we still have a ways to go, but we’re heading in the direction of a higher quality report. We are going to see a continuation of new reporters starting to come out with CSR reports, but what we’re also going to see from existing reporters is a continued focus on improving the quality of their reports as opposed to increasing the quantity of information they deliver.”

In other words, reports are likely to get slimmer but more refined over time — publishing what is meaningful for stakeholders and what is material. Companies are starting to say “we don’t necessarily need to do a sidebar or a profile of every single community event we sponsored across the country — let’s do a cross-country sample of that,” Johnson offers as an example.

Johnson also notes that not only are there more resources out there in terms of guidance — from the Internet, governments and consultants — but there are also more individuals within companies getting involved in the preparation of reports.

“You’ve got more people from a wider range of departments that are contributing and helping out to produce these reports,” says Johnson. “Historically, it might have been the initiative of the investor relations department, or it may have been the role of the marketing and communications department or public affairs or it may have been EH&S or the sustainability department. Now we’re seeing many more departments involved in the background. We’re also seeing the quality of data improving because there are a lot more software tools that are available to help with that. So companies have got better quality data that will contribute to a better quality report. It’s evolving, it’s growing.”

In addition, companies are definitely getting more feedback from readers of their reports, saying that they don’t need all of the information being offered in some reports. So improvements in reports are being influenced by a number of sources.

While CSR Trends 3 touches on all of this, it is not a ranking. Nor does it point out poor reporting practices. The majority of the report picks examples of the best of the best in a number of areas (focus, credibility, context, performance and accessibility) and explain what makes the best reporters in those areas so good.

The report is somewhat unique in that it deals not only with issues of materiality and how many companies have specifically focused areas in their reports on climate change; it also addresses the non-data attributes of reports that are so important in getting the CSR message across — considerations such as graphs, photographs, or “where the CEO’s statement is positioned within the report,” notes Johnson (a point I certainly never would have questioned).

This report is certainly a valuable resource — easy to read, both visually and textually. It’s a simple guide with excellent and clear examples that a company could sit down with to help shape a new report of their own.

The only minor quibble I had with the PDF is that none of the many links to the reports being positively reviewed were live, so you can’t seamlessly shift to the company websites to reference. But that’s a minor point. If you are looking for a tool that will help you get better focused on balancing all of the critical elements that go into creating a CSR report, this is a great place to start.

To go directly to the report, click here.
For an excerpt of the introduction to the report, Eight key components of CSR Reports: A general framework, by PwC’s Mel Wilson, click here.

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