Reporting Change
Readers & ReportersSurvey 2010Executive Summary
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Foreword
Less than a decade ago, sustainabilitywas still treated as ‘hype’ or ‘anadd-on’ and often labelled as simply‘giving back to the community’.
recent commitments from CEOseager to show true leadership, manyorganisations now appear to beintegrating sustainability into their business strategy as a key issue.
Nowadays, leading organisations are competingwith each other to announce the greening of their product portfolio, or a halving of theircarbon emissions whilst increasing turnover, andthey are asking their suppliers to follow them onthis journey.A similar story can be told for sustainabilityreporting. Whilst the
rst non-
nancial reportswere written over 20 years ago, only in thelast decade has reporting been used as anengagement and performance managementtool. Today, sustainability reporting isincreasingly considered essential, accompanyingpublicised commitments whilst being integratedinto the mainstream annual reporting cycle.For better or worse, sustainability reportinghas professionalised over recent years. The keyquestions remain whether these developmentsare in line with the expectations of Readersand how the reporting process bene
ts theorganisation that produces a report.This report is based on a survey of over5,000 Reporters and Readers. The survey wasconducted by KPMG, SustainAbility and Futerra,commissioned by the Global Reporting Initiative(GRI). The objectives were to gain insights intowhy organisations report on their sustainabilityperformance, and to drive the transparencyand accountability of these reports. Reportingwill only be successful if an organisation clearlyidenti
es its target audience and ful
ls theirneeds. Our global survey matches that agenda,exploring the views of both Readersand Reporters.It is with great pleasure that we have createdthis second edition of the Readers and ReportersSurvey. We hope the results inspire Reporters tocontinue improving their accountability systemsand adapt to Readers’ views. We also hope thisreport will inspire Readers to continue interactingwith organisations in order to hold themaccountable for their social, environmental andeconomic impact. We believe these results willprovide the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) withevidence and insight to support the continuousdevelopment of the GRI SustainabilityReporting Framework.We look forward to receiving any feedback youmight have. To tell us what you think of theresults, or your views on the future of reporting,email talk@reportingchange.com or contact uson Twitter by including #reportingchange inyour message.
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