How to successfully create your first sustainability report

Do you want to create your first stand-alone sustainability report but you’re not sure where to start? Have you wondered what internal steps you may need to take to start the sustainability reporting process at your company? Or have you created your first sustainability report and you’re not sure how to improve your approach?

We’re due to release a guide we’ve created to help anyone looking to start their sustainability reporting journey with the aim to develop a stand-alone sustainability report.

There are many ways you can report on your sustainability strategy and impacts, either through a dedicated section in your annual report, an integrated report, a sustainability report, or on your corporate website. This guide will specifically focus on how you can develop a meaningful stand-alone sustainability report, while referencing your annual report.

You will have the opportunity to benchmark your company against three approaches to sustainability:

1. Initiator: If your company is starting this journey then you are most likely going to identify with this level.
2. Developer: This represents an intermediate level. If your company has an established sustainability strategy and either a well-developed sustainability section in your annual report, or you have already published your first sustainability report, you may identify with this level.
3. Leader: This represents an expert level. If sustainability is a core part of your company’s business model and you’ve had experience in sustainability reporting for a while, you are most likely to identify with this level.

Once you’ve identified your level, you can see our reporting roadmap, which provides in-depth reporting recommendations across several reporting areas: interconnectivity, storytelling, business overview, materiality and strategy, performance, accountability and assurance, and specific issues (such as climate change, modern slavery and Covid-19). 

After looking at the roadmap, you should be able to identify what actionable steps you need to take to improve your approach. It is important to remember it takes time to develop your sustainability reporting. The roadmap can be used over a few reporting cycles to get you to the level you aspire to.

The guide will cover the following:

• An introduction to sustainability reporting, with a summary of the sustainability reporting landscape
• Guidance on how to ensure your reporting is authentic 
• An outline of the steps you need to take internally to implement a successful sustainability reporting cycle 
• An explanation of the three levels of sustainability, allowing you to benchmark where your company currently stands
• A sustainability reporting roadmap, containing in-depth recommendations across all the areas you need to consider within a sustainability report 
• Best practice sustainability reporting examples

If you'd like to sign up ready for our guide launch in January, please do so here!