Reporting on Social Responsibility

This CSM story/interview with two experts focuses on an unprecedented growth in the number of published corporate social responsibility reports.  As the number of reports has grown exponentially over the past several years, so has the number of questions in regards to the social impact of companies’ operations.  Some companies, as the story notes, use these reports as a way to deal with the pressures to be socially responsible, while others, go into more detail outlining the challenges they face as well as a CSR strategy to face those challenges.  Particularly interesting issue raised there is – can it be the case that companies tell too much in these reports?  If so, how does that impact their ability to attract investment?  As one of the interviewees notes,

There’s quite often a tension internally between folks who believe that the risks outweigh the benefits and the folks who believe that the benefits outweigh the risks. It’s not one or the other. It’s a combination of the two. And [the corporate social-responsibility report] is not the only source for investment decisions…. So just because you don’t talk about it in the report doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist [in other published reports].

In related news – the new Global Reporters 2006 Survey published by SustainAbility is out.  This is a biannual initiative by SustainAbility to rate companies’ reporting on CSR (you have to register to view the report, but registration is free).  The Index rates companies on the quality of their CSR reports.  There is more information in this press release, where it is noted that

The report spotlights – and encourages – an emerging effort by some businesses to link their individual sustainability targets and activities with broader macro-frameworks, to provide a sense of scale and to help measure individual contributions. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are used in this way by over 20% of the Leading 50 reporters.