There are some simple steps that can help sustainability reporters sing, writes Toby Webb

At Ethical Corporation’s recent sustainability and reporting conference we held an “X Factor” session on reporting.

The idea was that corporate managers would pitch their sustainability reports, and we choose a winner, just for fun and to spark discussion with the audience, and we had a popular vote at the end.

Three brave companies, HP, Co-operative Group UK and Reed Elsevier, presented their reports in brief. Our judges, Mike Tyrell of SRI-Connect and Ethical Corporation columnist Mallen Baker, offered their views.

I had to cast a deciding vote, and went for Co-op because they have a holistic plan on sustainability. All companies need one of those. Luckily for me, our audience also agreed when we put it to a public vote.

It’s of course not really fair to compare companies that are so different. In the process, however, six things became apparent that collectively give a sustainability report the X Factor.

Humility and honesty. This is fairly self-explanatory. But as Mallen Baker put it at the conference, most companies seem utterly unwilling “to admit they are less than perfect”. Humble approaches to communication/reporting are vital, yet still sorely lacking in most reports. For example, being more upfront about where targets are missed, or where your company is finding them hard to achieve. This is hard to get colleagues to sign off on, of course, but it’s worth convincing them of the value of humility and honesty in reporting.

That can be done using examples of the leading companies and showing their approach. For example, Unilever, Patagonia and Interface come top in all the surveys of the aspirational brands on sustainability in expert surveys. These three all disclose failings and are regarded highly for it.

Pointing this out to colleagues may help convince them that honesty and humility are the way to go. Employees and potential colleagues, a key audience, also respond better to more authentic communications.

Genuine evidence of stakeholder engagement. Again, this is surprisingly uncommon. It’s hard to demonstrate genuine employee engagement, but it can be done by showing critical comments as well as praise from staff members. Critical NGO comments and/or praise are vitally important for credibility. Companies like usually, at best, to rely on safe “stakeholders” who are actually consultants looking like activists.

This is not sustainable. Of course, not every company can have comments from Greenpeace or the Clean Clothes Campaign, but there are other, local or issue-specific groups out there that will be willing to comment.

More effort is needed here by companies. A first step is a stakeholder mapping exercise, looking closely at constructively critical voices and how they can be engaged.

Demonstrate real impact reductions and outcomes, with context. Many reports still focus on pledges and corporate speak than real detail on environmental impact reductions, or social indicators that show progress. Pledges and targets should be clearly separated from real performance data.

Show how responsibility/sustainability is linked to innovation and opportunity. Too many reports are obviously defensive libraries of data. More focus on them as a tool for innovation should be considered. But a good report engages people in the business, and they can drive innovation and new ideas. Talking about practical ways to use engagement for new products and services is the best way for companies to turn “defence” into “offense”.

Have a holistic “plan” for 2020 and beyond. Lots of companies feel this approach is too ambitious. “We can’t commit to things we don’t know we can do” is a common refrain. This paradigm is increasingly indefensible. The same argument would not be used on the subject of running the business in a shareholder meeting, for example. Yes these plans are tough, but you can either lead, or follow. And even the followers will have these plans in a few years’ time. So why not get ahead now?

Use targeted messages to communicate progress to stakeholders. Peter Knight from Context puts it so well: “The report is the cone; communication is the ice-cream.” What he means here is that the report is essentially a repository of information, and then targeted messages from it should be sent out to specific stakeholder groups. This is the right approach, but still few companies do it well.

Toby Webb is founder of Ethical Corporation and Stakeholder Intelligence. He blogs daily at tobywebb.blogspot.co.uk.

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If your organisation as the 'reporting X factor', you may want to consider entering this year's award for Best Sustainability Report - For full details on the 2013 Ethical Corporation Awards, visit http://events.ethicalcorp.com/awards