The ‘S’ word – fact or fashion?

We are at a time when two words currently dominate the business agenda, these being recession and sustainability. The former, for the third time in the last 30 years, sees financial prudence come to the fore and the possibility of cuts in jobs, spending, training and potentially non-core activities. Conversely, the latter exists to extol the organisational virtues of some of these non-core activities, and their positive impact on issues, from the third world through to carbon and, indeed, your local school. As more businesses are forced to re-evaluate what is really core to them, it will be interesting to see what becomes of the ‘S’ word.

A twin set and pearls
Both corporate responsibility and sustainability have their roots firmly based in environmental issues. The early days of corporate responsibility reporting were dominated by whose operations had a perceived negative impact on the environment, and looked to redress or offset some of these wrongs. Sustainability on the other hand has most of the definitions from Bruntland onwards and is forecast/prediction based. Increasingly the two sentiments are merging.

In looking at the global output of reporting, CorporateRegister.com identifies that over 70 percent of reports produced in, the early 90’s, were purely environment based. By 2008 at least six identified styles are being used and topics cover not just environment but health, safety, social and community, as well as economic. These are blended according to taste. However, approximately 50 percent of them are under the heading “sustainable” 
and cover the triple bottom line reporting concept of environment, social and economic.

Cutting your cloth accordingly
The growth in reporting has gone from less than 30 reports in 1992 to just fewer than 3,000 in 2008, again based on CorporateRegister.com figures. The interesting thing here is that in characterising corporate responsibility both the United Kingdom and the European Commission definitions use the 
word “voluntary”. So while the subject covers compliance issues, 
it is not one itself.

Tailor-made or off the peg?
Broadly, corporate responsibility reporting covers four main areas:
- Environment
- Workplace
- Community
- Marketplace

Similarly, environmental reporting normally considers areas such as:
- Bio-diversity
- Emissions to air
- Emissions to water
- Land contamination
- Depletion of nature resources
- Destruction of habitat

Both can be difficult to reflect back to their business relevance. Perhaps a better method of gathering and reporting on these issues would be on impact from a corporate sustainability standpoint. This would mean you consider what affects your business and how triple-bottom line (environment, social, economic) reporting affects these. For example, this could include:
- Business ethics
- Staff recruitment
- Health and safety
- Utilities
- Security
- Pay and conditions
- Staff retention
- PR and reputation
- Supply chain
- Property
- Local business community
- Building infrastructure
- Workplace
- Waste

Taking waste as an example, a strategy to reduce waste at source (remove extraneous packaging prior to supply) and increase the use of recyclable or re-usable materials (toner, paper, plastic) should see a reduction in the amount of waste your organisation produces. In turn this will benefit you, economically through reduced landfill tax, environmentally through using and disposing of less materials, and for the local community by the reduction in lorries and trucks needing to visit your premises to take away the waste.

Corporate dress code
Most businesses will effectively have four key stakeholder groups, these being:
- Internal customers
- External customers
- Senior management and shareholders
- Regulators, insurers, investors and enforcers

Each of these groups will view your business success in a slightly different way, be it ethically (1 and 2), financially (3) or compliance (4). Again all are covered in the triple bottom line, albeit the working or broader environment, the local or possibly adopted community, and, of course, the P&L.

Getting dressed up to the nines
Over the next year the world economy will see how sustainable the growth in sustainability really is. For those who wear standards as badges the return to core activities will probably see the reporting reduce or vanish. For others it will provide an opportunity to innovate and develop the systems in place, and to look for other means of aligning their business performance with that of the broader social, environmental and compliance issue demands on them. These organisations will remain corporately sustainable as well as ethically and financially secure.

Written by Greg Davies, 
Head of Service Development, Elementus, a leading health safety 
and environmental consultancy.

Email:info@elementus.com
Web: elementus.com Tel: 0844 8007705