According to a recent United Nations study of global CEOs, 93% believe that sustainability issues will be critical to the future success of their business. Additionally, 73% indicate that “brand, trust and reputation” are one of the top three factors driving them to take action on sustainability issues. The decision to create a corporate responsibility report is no longer a question of should, a company report, but rather a question of when and how to approach reporting. For first time and early stage reporters the answers to these questions can be a mystery and it is often difficult to know where to begin.

ConAgra Foods published its first corporate responsibility report in 2008 and is developing its second report for release later this year. Chris Kircher, Vice President of Corporate Affairs for ConAgra Foods, shares his first-hand perspective of the decisions facing companies who are new or early in their reporting journey.

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Date: Wednesday 7th July 2010
Time: 14:00 – 15:00 (UK time)

Once I’d got past my surprise that Tesco was now selling phones as well, I couldn’t stop thinking about the implications of the ad… Here was Tesco, encouraging us to change our handset every year i.e. encouraging more consumption, more resource use, more waste and for what? An extra megapixel on the camera? A few more apps that will tell you where your nearest Starbucks is…?

I could have lived with it if was Lebara or some other obscure company out to make a quick buck… I’d understand that they wouldn’t have heard of a tricky little thing called sustainable consumption…

But this is Tesco! Yes, Tesco, that set up the Sustainable Consumption Institute at Manchester University…. Tesco whose chief executive last week said at the Consumer Goods Forum that the company needed to “create a mass movement in green consumption”…

The business model for the mobile phone industry in the UK has always irked me. Its contractual basis takes the cost of a handset out of the purchase decision. “Pay monthly for XX calls and YY texts and the phone comes free if you stay with us for a year and half…” When your contract runs out it is time for your “upgrade” – i.e. your are incentivised to extend the monthly fee by being offered a new ‘free’ phone… However, in environmental terms the handset is not ‘free’ – there has been an environmental cost in producing it and an environmental cost in disposing of it. How many thousands of perfectly functioning mobile phones end up in landfill every year?

In most other countries the handset is an upfront cost for the consumer, and not an insignificant one, which would make anyone think twice about flinging their old handset into the token recycling bag that most companies now offer… The UK model encourages someone to get through as many phones as possible in the shortest space of time.

A Green Monday event a couple of weeks ago debated the issues around sustainable consumption. A representative from WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Plan) was on the panel and said that as far as phones were concerned things were definitely changing – the Apple iPhone had effectively made people want to hold on to their handsets rather than changing them every other year. Hmmm… good theory, but perhaps the nice man from WRAP hadn’t heard that the “new and improved” iPhone was coming out days later…

So for now, I don’t see things changing drastically. Until mobile phone companies factor in the environmental cost of handsets into the current model, we’ll keep being encouraged to throw away our year-old handsets. And as for Tesco, I‘ve pointed out to them the inconsistency of their messages – I will let Tweeter followers know how they respond.  Let’s hope Terry Leahy invites the head of Tesco Mobile to any future grand speeches on green consumption…

Perhaps this explains the impressive turn out from the private sector on the Education and Employers’ Taskforce, launched in October. Skills shortages and access to the professions have been in the headlines in recent months too, providing further impetus for business to get involved with schools and colleges. The Taskforce offers a platform to work directly with a range of other stakeholders: from children’s charities and governors’ bodies to trade unions and academics, all are represented on the Taskforce’s partnership board and working groups.

Although the group’s overall ambition is apparent (“every school should in time benefit from an effective partnership with employers”), the milestones and timelines to making this happen are as yet unclear. Perhaps more clarity will come in due course, and indeed a key function for the research working group is to investigate the current level of employer-education engagement. Once a clearer picture of present activity has been established, it may be easier to agree a firmer set of deliverables to justify the £150 million Government investment.

Another key output from the group will be to standardise and ease the processes for businesses to engage with schools, thereby ending the ad hoc approach seen at present. In the meantime, for those companies yet to get involved with the education sector, or for those wanting to look afresh at methods of engagement, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has published a short but informative guide, “Building Stronger Partnership”, on working with school and colleges. It’s worth a read for some ideas on ways to engage local schools and colleges.

In recent months, there has been a discernable shift in emphasis on the part of institutional investors. As several of these news reports suggest, corporate performance on climate change is rising in importance as it becomes a more material risk to business success.

This trend is compounded by the findings of a recent report from the UNEP Financial Initiative. The authors of this report argue that investment advisors and asset managers could be sued for negligence if they do not consider the environment and other social issues when making investment decisions. Apparently they have a legal responsibility to raise concerns about such aspects of corporate behaviour when offering investment advice to clients.

This raises the game for all companies, not simply those with a large or obvious environmental impact. There will be growing scrutiny of their environmental credentials and risk management systems by investment advisors. The increased threat of shareholder resolutions related to environmental performance cannot be dismissed. Each business needs to think carefully about its level of disclosure in this area if it is to avoid an embarrassing confrontation at the next AGM. The need to understand the full extent of your environmental impacts, and to report on these in an appropriate way, has never been more pressing.