A CSR report (also called a sustainability report) is an effective, transparent and sustainable communication and management tool that provides information on the social, economic and environmental performance of your company.
Who is the sustainability report for?
Any company that wishes to express its ethical, environmental, economic and social commitment, either on its own initiative or at the request of its stakeholders.
What does the sustainability report contain?
TMI will prepare a report on the economic, environmental, social and governance performance of your organisation. Our aim is to help companies to make their operations more sustainable, to set goals and to manage the necessary changes.
Methodology for writing a sustainability report
The drafting of sustainability reports consists of 4 very important and specific phases for each company:
Phase 1: Defining the methodology
There are currently various methods for drafting sustainability reports.
However, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) methodology is the most widely recognised and used worldwide, and is therefore highly recommended.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an organisation whose purpose is to promote sustainability reporting for any type of company or organisation.
It was founded by CERES and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1997 in the United States.
GRI has created a Guide for the elaboration of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports where it establishes the principles and indicators that companies or organisations can use either to measure or to disclose their social, environmental and economic performance.
Phase 2: Defining the content
This should consider:
- Stakeholder engagement
- Sustainability context
- Materiality
- Completeness
Phase 3: Defining the quality criteria for the report
Being clear about how to write a sustainability report from the beginning of the process helps to make better decisions about the quality of the information and its proper presentation.
Quality information enables stakeholders to make informed and reasonable assessments of performance and to take appropriate positions and actions.
What aspects should be considered before drafting a sustainabilityreport?
In order to write the report correctly, the following aspects should be considered:
- The balance of the report, since it should disclose both negative and positive aspects of the company's or organisation's performance and thus allow for a proper assessment by third parties.
- The report should be comparable, i.e., it should be prepared according to established criteria and parameters so that stakeholders can analyse all the changes that may occur in the organisation, whether they are changes in the organisation itself or changes with respect to other organisations.
- The information should be as accurate as possible, as well as detailed, so that stakeholders can correctly assess the performance and contribution to sustainable development.
- Publication dates. As it is the stakeholders who make decisions based on the information they gather from the report, the information should be presented on a regular and known schedule and on time.
- he content of the CSR report should be written in a clear and understandable manner to encourage and ensure that stakeholders understand the entire content of the report without any misunderstandings arising.
- All information and procedures followed in the preparation of the sustainability report should be collected, analysed, recorded and presented in such a way that they can be subject to objective evaluation.
Benefits of having a CSR report in your company
Some of the main advantages:
- They improve the understanding of the risks and opportunities your company faces.
- They also improve your reputation and strengthen brand loyalty.
- They enable you to benchmark and assess your sustainability performance against laws, standards, codes, operating standards and voluntary initiatives.
- They provide your stakeholders with an understanding of your company's performance and impacts.