Five Steps to Good Sustainability Reporting A Practical Guide for Companies Five Steps to Good Sustainability Reporting 1 Five Steps to Good Sustainability Reporting A Practical Guide for Companies NOVEMBER 2020 ABOUT THIS REPORT The report is based on BSR’s long experience working on sustainability reporting with companies, a literature review, and interviews with member companies. Any errors are those of the authors. Please direct comments or questions to
[email protected]. This report was researched and written by Nina Hatch and Adam Fishman, with input from Dunstan Allison-Hope. The authors wish to thank the companies featured in case studies for sharing their perspectives and for participating in this exercise. DISCLAIMER BSR publishes occasional papers as a contribution to the understanding of the role of business in society and the trends related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and responsible business practices. BSR maintains a policy of not acting as a representative of its membership, nor does it endorse specific policies or standards. The views expressed in this publication are those of its authors and do not reflect those of BSR members. Five Steps to Good Sustainability Reporting 2 Contents Introduction 4 Step 1: Set Priorities and Develop Strategy 7 1.1 Materiality: Conduct/Review 8 1.2 Set Strategy, Pillars, Ambition, and Goals 11 1.3 Benchmark: What Are Peers Doing 14 Step 2: Build the Structure and Gather Data 15 2.1 Identify Key Audiences for The Report 16 2.2 Assess Gaps against Standards and Frameworks 18 2.3