The Event


Silver Sponsor

DNV

Web Comms Sponsor

Ammado

Co-sponsor

Credit 360

Reporting Clinic Sponsor

context

Exhibitor

Flag

schuttelaar




Speakers

Nestle Vodafone alliance boots GRI GlaxoSmithKline The Guardian West LB Ammado danone debeers ethical corporate institute Lego Insight Investment Henkel Marks & Spencer National Express ORSE Tesco Umicore Virgin Media Arcelor Mittal BG Group Danske Bank SKF asda aviva

Agenda

Day One, 25th November 2009

Registration

09.30 - 10.45: Plenary Session One

No-one reads our CSR reports, what are we going to do now?

Did you know that 75% of the world's top 500 companies now produce sustainability reports? So far so good: CSR reporting has become mainstream. But the bad news is that in an era of information overload, not enough people are actually reading these reports - making it hard to justify all the time, money and resources that are being spent on your corporate story. In this session, you'll gain valuable advice from leading companies that are tackling the growing issue of readability - and getting proven results from all their stakeholders.

  • Effectively target your key stakeholders: Learn from LEGO Group's radical new direction in reporting - and its impact on readership
  • Danone's golden rules: How to ensure your reports communicate, educate and entertain
  • Keep it real: The Guardian's editorial perspective on bringing your CSR reports to life and engaging your readership
  • Lego Group, Helle Sofie Kaspersen, Vice-President, Corporate Governance and Sustainability
  • The Guardian, Jo Confino, Head of Sustainable Development and Guardian Executive Editor

10.45 - 11.15: Coffee Break

11.15 - 12.30: Plenary Session Two

Embed sustainability reporting in your company: The kind of payback you can expect?

World class organisations like Ikea and Timberland have proved that embedding ethical values into the DNA of your company is crucial to survival and success. And integrating the processes of transparency and accountability into your company is a big part of it. So how do you embed CSR reporting effectively in your company? In this eye-opening session, you'll discover how SKF and GlaxoSmithKline do it, and what the benefits are.

  • How to define the internal value of CR reporting - and to communicate it to every employee from CEO to newest recruit
  • Full involvement: How a well coordinated reporting process will dramatically strengthen your company's commitment to ethical values
  • How to use your report to drive change throughout the company
  • Do what you say and say what you do: How to maintain the company's trust in your report once the process is in place
  • GlaxoSmithKline, Julia King, VP Corporate Responsibility
  • SKF, Bengt Olof Hansson, Vice President, Corporate Sustainability

12.30 - 13.45: Lunch break

13.45 - 15.00: Breakout Session 1:

Track One:
Measure your Environmental & Social Performance

Measurement Part 1

How to create accurate environmental indicators

With climate change laws looming, and an increasingly carbon-constrained economy, there's no doubt that environmental reporting is an absolute must. It's not only crucial in the shaping of your company's environmental strategy, but it will also help your potential investors to assess their own opportunities and risks. But how do you go about defining your environmental indicators - and measuring what really matters?

  • What should you measure?
  • What metrics should you use?
  • What's the best way to set accurate environmental targets that fit your business - and then reflect them in your report?
  • Reporting on the full carbon footprint, not just the bit you control: Who does it? Who does it well?
  • Nestlé, Hilary Parsons, Senior Manager, Global Public Affairs

Track Two:
Achieve the optimum balance between risk and opportunity

Transparency Part 1

Successfully manage the risk of transparency

The whole point of sustainability reporting is transparency. But ironically, that's where the complications start. In the case of an oil and gas company with no renewable energy business – like BG Group – being transparent about GHG emissions can damage your exposure. But the risk of not reporting is equally bad for your reputation. So where's the balance?

  • Transparency through clarity: Learn how to overcome the challenge of complex data
  • Disclosure: What's the best way to deal with controversial information?
  • Greenwash: Why it doesn't work and how to avoid it
  • BG Group , Dominic Hall, Sustainability Communications Manager
  • National Express, Nick Coad, Group Environment Director

Track Three:

CR Report Clinic

Struggling with your CR report? Join us at the two Report Clinic Sessions  for in-depth discussion on all your challenges!

You've heard the presentations, now birng your practical questions about any aspect of reporting to the Report Clinic. This session will be run by Simon Propper, Managing Director of Context, and Pam Muckosy, Research Director at Ethical Corporation.

The Clinic will be a 'group therapy' session where experiences will be exchanged between all those attending. Simon and Pam will help solve your problems and ease your anxieties. One-to-one private sessions can be arranged at other times during the conference

  • Context, Simon Propper, Managing Director
  • Ethical Corporation, Pam Muckosy, Research Director

15.00 - 16.00: Breakout Session 2:

Measurement Part 2

Social Impacts assessment: How to quantify the unquantifiable and reflect it in your report

While environmental reporting can be expressed in numbers (thanks to carbon measurement), social reporting is a separate and less tangible challenge. So how are you supposed to assess whether you've made a positive contribution to the local people and the local economy? Is it as simple as saying: 'We created X jobs in the community, and contributed Y dollars in tax.'? Join this session to pinpoint the most effective ways to assess and report on your social issues.

  • Determine the best indicators for socio-economic impacts in communities you work in
  • Learn how to develop meaningful quantitative measures of your impacts
  • Understand your impacts in emerging markets: Is value chain analysis the best approach?
  • BAM Nuttall, Speaker to be confirmed

Transparency Part 2

How to get your message across – and remain genuine

In companies like Virgin Media and Marks and Spencer, developing customer trust through the CR report is critical to the credibility of the brand as a whole. In this session, you'll see for yourself how these two firms promote transparency and authenticity in their CR report through:

  • Dialogue: Why stakeholder engagement is key to prioritising issues and providing independent commentary
  • Project management: Why a shared understanding of your company's current performance across all departments is essential – and how to make sure it happens
  • Honesty: How to avoid common traps like jargon and self-congratulation
  • Clear storytelling: Improved readability with a good story told in a simple, conversational way
  • Virgin Media, Dr. Stuart Poore, Director - Corporate Responsibility
  • Marks & Spencer, Rowland Hill, Corporate Social Responsibility/ Sustainability Manager

16.00 - 16.30: Coffee Break

16.30 - 17.30: Breakout Session 3:

Investors: What really makes them tick?

According to Matt Christiensen, Executive Director from the European Social Investment Forum, financial reporting captures less than 20% of corporate risks and value-creation potential – with the other 80% deriving from intangibles such as human capital and resource efficiency. And it's here that the CSR report becomes a crucial tool to help potential investors to better gauge longer-term risks. So why is it so difficult to engage them? In this thought-provoking session, Insight Investment and Danske Bank will share their views with you:

  • What investors definitely must have from CSR reports
  • How – and where – CSR reporting fits in with investors' financial data
  • Can web-based reporting reinvigorate sustainability reporting and make your information more enticing?
  • The impact of Denmark's new CSR reporting law on investors' demands on report contents and quality
  • Insight Investment, Rory Sullivan, Head of Investor Responsibility
  • Danske Bank, Anne Søgaard Melchiorsen, Group CR Manager

External verification: Is this the best way to make your report credible?

A recent KPMG survey on CR reporting trends shows that formal third-party assurance for Global Fortune 250 companies jumped from 30% to 40% in three years. But while assurance makes the report more trustworthy and transparent, couldn't stakeholder panels do the same job equally well? This session enables you to evaluate the best way to convince your readers of the authenticity of your report.

  • How can the external verification process help to balance your report's content?
  • What is the value of an independent check from the GRI?
  • How to channel the assurer's feedback towards the elaboration of a more formal process of data collection and reporting
  • Find out how the stakeholder panel approach can work best for you at the development stage of the report
  • Umicore, Dr. Bert Swennen, MD, Director Environment, Health and Safety Management
  • Det Norske Veritas, Antonio Ribeiro, Project Manager

17.30 - 18.30: Breakout Session 4:

Innovation and Creativity: Make the most of web 2.0 technology to deliver a strong, relevant CR report

With the sheer amount of web tools available these days, it's not easy to know which one is best suited to help you communicate your CSR message most effectively. Join this session to learn how to tap into the potential of these tools, and make a stronger impact with your CR report as a result. You'll hear how to:

  • Use the Internet as a communication tool for corporate governance and corporate social responsibility
  • Harness interactive technology to effectively communicate with various stakeholder groups
  • Empower stakeholders via web 2.0 tools to increase employee motivation and customer loyalty
  • SAP, James Farrar,Vice-President of CSR
  • ammado, Peter Conlon, CEO and Founder

Close-up on the CRC: What does this UK law mean for your company?

As of early 2010, the UK's non carbon-intensive sectors will have to measure, manage and reduce their carbon emissions, by law. Which means that if you fall under this category, the countdown is well and truly on to prepare your business. Join this session to find out exactly how to implement the new law in your company – and report accordingly.

  • Understand what the CRC expects from your company
  • Who are the leaders? How are they coping with preparing for the new law?
  • How must you update your carbon reporting systems to meet the requirements of the CRC?
  • Ensuring you're a winner in the league table – what are the prime do's and don'ts?
  • Ethical Corporation, Pam Muckosy, Head of Research

18.30 - 20.00: Drinks Reception

Day Two, 26th November 2009

09.30 - 11.00: Plenary One - Debate:

What will CR reporting look like in 5 years time?

This interactive panel brings together a corporate company, an NGO, a multi-stakeholder network, an investor and an independent commentator to discuss their views on what the CR report of the future should feature. Join the debate for a fully-rounded perspective on what to expect from the evolution of CR reporting trends in the next decade.

  • Business Respect, Mallen Baker, CEO, Independent commentator, writer and EC columnist
  • Global Reporting Initiative, Mike Wallace, Director of Sustainability Reporting Framework
  • WWF, Oliver Greenfield, Head of Sustainable Business & Economics WWF-UK
  • Aviva Investors, Dr Steve Waygood, Head of Sustainability Research and Engagement

11.00 - 11.30: Coffee Break

11.30 - 12.45: Breakout Session 1:

Track One

Employees: How to maximise the value of your report for your internal audience

As it becomes more successfully embedded in companies, CR reporting is turning into a massive enterprise that can involve dozens – even hundreds – of people. So making sure that your workforce understands the value of your report – and consequently, your CSR strategy – is absolutely essential to its creation.

  • Build awareness: Use the report to educate everyone and spread a 'culture of responsibility' across your business
  • Inspire: How to make CR reporting a workforce growth tool rather than a boring task
  • Engage: Bringing to life the concept of 'participatory innovation' and making your workforce part of the process
  • Speakers to be confirmed

Track Two

Use data management systems to develop your CSR reports

Efficiently gathering meaningful data is one of the biggest challenges organisations face in CSR reporting. Growing demands for this data to be verified externally only increases the pressure! This session explains how data management systems can help you put in place a framework for collecting data from all areas of your business, including across multiple countries and with different reporting purposes.

The agenda will cover:

  • Challenges other companies have experienced in gathering CSR data and how they handled them
  • Effective ways of analysing your CSR data, once you've gathered it
  • Embedding continuous improvement in your CSR KPIs using dashboards and overviews
  • Moving towards more regular online communication of CSR performance
  • Alliance-Boots, Richard Ellis, Group Head of CSR
  • Credit 360, Mark Shields, Managing Director

CR Report Clinic

Struggling with your CR report? Join us at the two Report Clinic Sessions  for in-depth discussion on all your challenges!

You've heard the presentations, now birng your practical questions about any aspect of reporting to the Report Clinic. This session will be run by Simon Propper, Managing Director of Context, and Pam Muckosy, Research Director at Ethical Corporation.

The Clinic will be a 'group therapy' session where experiences will be exchanged between all those attending. Simon and Pam will help solve your problems and ease your anxieties. One-to-one private sessions can be arranged at other times during the conference

  • Context, Simon Propper, Managing Director
  • Ethical Corporation, Toby Webb, Managing Director

 

12.45 - 14.00: Lunch Break

14.00 - 15.15: Breakout Sessions 2:

Materiality: Striking a balance between what you want to say – and what they want to know

In the current economic climate, it's absolutely crucial to get your materiality analysis right. In fact, it's even more important than the format of your report, since the choice of issues discussed will determine who reads it. So how do you encompass the demands from your market, your external stakeholders, your company and from society, all in a single report, whilst still keeping it relevant to everyone concerned?

  • Make it appropriate to your core business: Deliver a balanced picture of risk and opportunity management
  • Create a comparable report with some scope for differentiation
  • How to make your report as comprehensive as possible, without sacrificing the readability factor
  • Henkel, Christine Schneider, CSR/Sustainability Management
  • Rabobank, Olof Brugman, Senior Manager, CSR
  • E.ON AG, Volker Tuerk, Corporate Responsibility Manager

Stakeholder Dialogue: Is this the most effective way to report transparently?

Close to 40% of the world's 1,600 largest corporations discuss structured stakeholder dialogue in their CSR reports, says CSR Europe. Why? Because doing so reinforces the report's transparency and relevance to the mix of stakeholder groups – which in turn boosts overall credibility. In this session, you'll learn how to make the most of this dialogue as a spingboard to deliver an even stronger CR report

  • How to create a context of trust, as a foundation for the dialogue
  • Determining strategic issues together – and understanding how best to reflect these in your report
  • Using feedback to pinpoint sustainable development risks, and how to re-shape your KPIs accordingly
  • PepsiCo, Andrew Smith, Head of Corporate Responsibility
  • Arcelor Mittal, Steve John, Manager - Socially Responsible Investment and Reporting
  • ORSE, Patricia Lavaud, Head of Finance & Insurance Club

15.15 - 16.15: Breakout Sessions 3:

One report, or many? How to strike a useful balance between global strategy and local issues

It's difficult enough having to deliver a compact, readable, relevant report about your overall CSR performance – and even more so if your business has a global presence. How do you reflect both local and global issues without writing a hefty document that looks like hard work to read? Find out in this session.

  • Effective data gathering: What's the best method when dealing with several – or many - countries?
  • Telling the whole story: How do the various local drivers fit your global agenda?
  • Local materiality selection: How should you redefine your KPIs to reflect the local issues highlighted in your report?
  • Vodafone, Joaquim Croca, Head of Corporate Responsibility Performance & Reporting

Make all the hard work worthwhile: How to communicate your message to everyone – and be heard

How do you make sure that your report is accurate, transparent, relevant AND readable? Join this session and find out how to tick all the boxes to deliver a powerful, unputdownable CR report.

  • Clearly identifying your stakeholders, and understanding what they expect from your report
  • Match – and exceed – their expectations by selecting the ideal format, the correct tone and ensuring you genuinely connect with your audience groups
  • Cultivate transparency and openness: Make sure your report doesn't just tell pretty stories
  • Tesco, Josh Hardie, Head of Corporate Responsibility