Sustainability reporting:
A contrarian’s viewpoint

Lynn Patterson
Director, Corporate Responsibility
RBC
lynn.e.patterson@rbc.com
416-974-1381

The facts

Source: Corporate Register
CR Reporting Awards ‘08
March 2009
2

Why report?

Activist
Activist
NGOs
NGOs

SRI
SRI
Community
Community

Regulators
Regulators
and and government government Employees
Employees

Consumers
Consumers

Your
Your
Company
Company
AlAlGore
Gore
Factor
Factor

Scandals
Scandals

Development of
Development of global global standards standards

3

Peer and other
Peer and other industry pressure industry pressure
New media, blogs,
New media, blogs, internet internet

Stakeholders say they want to hear about:

human rights

61.4

energy/eco-efficiency

61.0

health and safety

60.4
59.4

climate protection environmental policy

58.8

environmental management of the production process corporate governance

58.8
56.8

standards in developing countries

56.6

avoiding soil and water contamination

53.9

environmental management system

53.9
52.7

bribery and corruption

51.1

supply chain standards for social issues corporate citizenship

4

34.5
Source:
Pleon

Transitioning from “a report” to “reporting”

Ad
Adhoc
hoc

Annual
AnnualReport
Report

Marketing
MarketingVehicles
Vehicles

CR
CRReport/Review
Report/Review
CR
CRor orsustainability sustainabilitywebsite website Responses
Responses to to SRI
SRI analysts analysts 5

RBC’s reporting suite

6

…plus a ‘create your own’ option

7

So…what to include?
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8

Issues that are relevant to your business (common sense)
GRI indicators (menu approach)
Areas of interest identified on SRI surveys
Competitive scan (financial services)
Input from stakeholders
Report rankers (CERES, Stratos)
Content of award-winning reporters (UK, Brazil, Canada,
US)
Current events (trends, scandals, media campaigns etc.)
Codes of conduct or voluntary commitments your company has signed (UN Global Compact)

Example: CERES/ACCA

9

RBC’s reporting cycle
Spring

Summer
DJSI Survey
1 month

Website updated

Report Production

Website updated

3-4 months

Report Released

Winter
10

Promotional tools updated

Fall

RBC reporting strengths and weaknesses •
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•

Readable style
Consistent structure year over year
3-year comparative data
Discussion of issues that are relevant to the business
Good mix of formats for various audiences

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11

Few or no targets
No external verification
Lack of specific information about risk, liabilities and exposure within our investments arm (carbon etc). Lacking specific detail on
CR