RESOURCES
Sustainability Report
Strategy Management Marketing
SYNOPSIS
Elevate your brand value and spearhead initiatives that benefit your culture, the environment and the community you serve. Use our Sustainability Report presentation to illustrate the balance achieved between financial performance and giving back.
PREVIEW
TOOL HIGHLIGHTS
Utilize this slide to assess the problems and define objectives. Determine what sustainability means to your team, company, industry and customer. Then identify the essential problems each of these groups consideres a priority.
This slide will be useful for sharing the sustainability strategy. A strong sustainability strategy can help your company develop appealing brand identity and present opportunities for positive impact on the environment.
OVERVIEW
Sustainability reporting has become an increasingly important trend in the corporate world, as it benefits both internal and external stakeholders. It demonstrates the importance of performance and metrics other than financials and helps your company operate more efficiently and uphold higher standards. As a result, it has the power to influence public perception and expectations of the company, with the hope of improving brand loyalty and reputation.
Moreover, sustainability is driving consumers' purchase decisions. Shoppers are increasingly considering sustainability when making purchases, per research by CGS, a global provider of business applications, enterprise learning and outsourcing services. CGS's 2018 study found that 68% of US internet users named product sustainability an important factor in making a purchase.
APPLICATION
The following steps will help you to create a solid sustainability report, according to Green Officers Movement. The experts use an educational institution as an example, but the steps can be applied to any type of business or non-profit organization.
Set your goals – before you start the hard work, think about what you want to accomplish, Green Officers Movement experts say. At this stage, do a simple assessment by creating an inventory of all sustainability changes your company underwent and mapping existing sustainability initiatives.
Identify issues and choose indicators – in your report, you should focus on the most important sustainability problems at your company. If you are not sure what they are, talk to staff and executives to find out their thoughts on the subject.
Collect the data – after you choose your indicators, collect data on them. Depending on the indicators you use, you may have to get information from facility and energy managers, department heads, the company website, sustainability managers, the procurement or finance departments (and maybe even clients).
Analyze the data – don't only list the exciting sustainability projects the company is doing. Include numbers, such as electricity and gas usage, waste production, water consumption and CO2e emissions
State key observations – draw conclusions and make recommendations to allow stakeholders to act upon the main points from your report. Ask yourself: Where is the organization doing well? What are the critical areas for improvement? What interesting or surprising facts did you learn? How do you recommend the organization moves forward?
CASE STUDY
Tesla
The electric vehicle and clean energy company can be fairly called a model for sustainable leadership. Tesla regularly publishes sustainability reports you can learn from and get inspired by. The four main categories included in the reports are Environmental Impact, Product Impact, Supply Chain and People and Culture. Notice how the company leaders emphasize that unlike other businesses that focus on future goals for sustainability efforts, Tesla communicates the totality of the environmental impact of their products today.
Tesla does a great job providing quantitative data, graphs, charts and high-resolution photos of its establishments to add credibility to the report. To summarize the data and make it more accessible, in conclusion, the company states the following:
"As of the end of 2019, Tesla (including SolarCity prior to its 2016 acquisition by Tesla) had installed almost 3.7 Gigawatts of solar systems and cumulatively generated over 16.6 Terawatt hours (TWhs) of emissions-free electricity. For reference, that is multiple times more energy generated by our installations than the total energy Tesla has used to run all of our factories since we began producing Model S in 2012. It is our goal that eventually all of our manufacturing energy needs are satisfied through renewable sources where possible. Additionally, we are hoping to see more Tesla vehicle customers installing solar panels or Solar Roof along with a Powerwall. We are striving to always remain a net contributor to renewable energy generation."