| Commentary |
| What “An Inconvenient
Truth” Reveals about CSR Reporting |
“An Inconvenient
Truth," Al Gore's feature film on global
warming, was a box office hit (at least by
documentary standards). In the 10 weeks after
its release, it grossed over $20 million,
becoming the 4th highest grossing documentary.
|
| Does this have anything to
do with sustainability reporting? Our answer
is yes. |
| The popularity of "An
Inconvenient Truth" reflects the sea change
in public opinion regarding the perception of
climate change and its potential impact on our
future. Stakeholders increasingly want to understand
how companies are impacting and addressing global
warming. The investment community in particular
is digging deeper to determine which companies
are best positioned to handle climate change
risk-and opportunity. |
| Climate Change Impact
on Automotive Sector Assessed |
| Last year the World Resources
Institute (WRI) collaborated with Merrill Lynch
to assess how climate change would affect the
auto sector. This year, WRI worked with Citigroup
to identify companies best able to exploit climate
change by offering products and services for
climate change mitigation. Investors, cautious
of the unknown, are likely to reward companies
that do a better job of long-term planning and
reporting of their climate change initiatives.
|
| UN and Leading Institutional
Investors Launched Principles for Responsible
Investment |
| Investor perception is being
influenced by external factors as well. The
Secretary-General of the United Nations is continuing
to use the UN's media sway to urge companies
to better address sustainability issues. In
early May Secretary-General Kofi Anan and 50
institutional investors from around the world
launched the Principles for Responsible Investment.
The Principles include integrating environmental,
social, and governance issues into investment
analysis, practicing active ownership, and seeking
relevant disclosure by companies. |
| The UN has tapped converts
on the sell side to promote the message. Last
month the United Nations Environment Programme
Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) released a report
that assesses how ten leading global brokerages,
including Goldman Sachs and UBS, are integrating
environmental, social, and governance factors
into their research reports. |
Social and Environmental
Reporting on the Rise |
| Developments such as these
increase the demand for corporate sustainability
reporting. The number of companies responding
continues to rise - in a survey released last
month by the Social Investment Research Analysts
Network (SIRAN), Web-based reporting of social
and environmental policies and performance increased
34 percent over 2005 for S&P 100 companies.
Now almost 80 percent of S&P 100 companies
have sections of their websites dedicated to
social and environmental reporting. Globally,
nearly 900 companies report data associated
with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework,
according to the GRI. The GRI covers a wide
range of environmental, social and governance
data. [View survey
summary or full
analysis] |
| About OneReport™ |
| OneReport streamlines sustainability
data management and reporting for clients such
as IBM and Microsoft. Web applications range
from free, entry level reporting tools to robust
reporting, internal data management and Web
publishing solutions. OneReport provides a structure
to help you manage and report your environmental,
social and governance information. |
