What Constitutes a Good Quality Annual

ReportCorporate Social

Responsibility ReportingBy Ng Kean Kok

Types of reports• Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR) reports• Corporate Reports (CR)• Sustainability reports• Environmental, health and

safety (EHS) reports• Environmental, social and

governance (ESG) reports• Community affairs reports

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Areas looked into (in the past?)• Marketplace• Workplace• Environment• Community• General• Other voluntary disclosures

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Marketplace• Corporate Governance• CSR Reporting• Stakeholder engagement• Procurement policies• Product responsibility

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Workplace• Health & Safety (H&S)• Human capital development• Quality of life / work-life

balance• Workplace diversity

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Environment• Environmental management

system• Evidence / description of

initiatives to measure and monitor CO2 / greenhouse gases emissions; energy usage, water management, waste management etc

• Reduction in measurements• Aligning business services to

achieving environmental outcomes

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Community• Community Investment – UN

Millennium Development Goals / National Development Goals

• CI initiatives• Description of CI initiatives

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General• Third party assurances• Audit / awards

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Key concerns surrounding CSR Reports• How thorough and credible

is the report?• Companies expected to go

beyond simply community affairs reporting

• Past criticism: companies tend to confine their programs and reporting to charitable giving and volunteer programs

Questions to be answered (guide):• Is this a CSR report or a

community affairs report?• Does the report provide

details on CSR practices as well as policies?

• Does the CSR report provide systematic data or just anecdotes?

• Does the company report data in a comparable format?

• Does the report present future goals as well as past practices?

Questions to be answered (guide) – continued:• Does the report include bad

news as well as good news?• Does the report address the

company’s greatest challenges?

• Does the company integrate CSR reporting with its traditional business strategy and its financial reporting?

• How can readers look beyond a CSR report?

Framework for assessing reports5 Cs

CONTENT• Offers a complete picture of the

company’s background, impacts, policies, and performance

• Includes the necessary elements of a ‘good’ report such as an index, introduction, and summary

• Incorporates quantified data and references for further information

Framework for assessing reportsCOMMUNICATION• Is easy to read and to navigate• Is accessible to diverse

stakeholders• Communicates key messages

effectively

CREDIBILITY• Is a genuine report - not just a

piece of marketing or public relations material

• Covers issues such as missed targets and ongoing challenges

• Includes an independent external assurance statement

Framework for assessing reportsCOMMITMENT• Looks forward as well as

backwards • Includes ongoing policy

commitments and targets • Sets out a clear direction on

corporate responsibility

COMPARABILITY• Puts performance into context • Measures current performance

with that from previous years• Evaluates performance against

stated targets, sector competitors, and best practice

• Trends, summary, interpretation etc

Other suggestionsMULTIMEDIA FEATURES• Online CSR reports• Allows for multimedia

content• Videos, podcasts, slide

shows, animations and other innovative formats for presenting data in dynamic graphs and charts

• Usability, user experience, more engaging

• Case studies• Present complex issues

Bursa Malaysia’ Sustainability portal• Strategic financial

management – identification of the possible strategies capable of maximizing an organisation’s net present value, the allocation of scarce resources amongst the competing opportunities, and the implementation and monitoring of the chosen strategy so as to achieve stated objectives

Items on the portalSTRATEGY AND EMBEDDING

SUSTAINABILITY• Integrating & Managing

Sustainability• Enabling Sustainability in the

organisation

BURSA MALAYSIA’S CSR FRAMEWORK

• Launched in 2006 for PLCs• Covers 4 focus areas – Environment,

Workplace, Community and Marketplace

• Aim: make CSR integral in business operations

Items on the portal (cont’d)MEASURING AND REPORTING• Process and impact measures• Impact of sustainability on financial

valuation• Accounting for sustainability• Current industry practices• Maturity of sustainability reporting• Overview of sustainability reporting

process• Sustainability reporting• Role of external assurance providers• Assurance standards• Role of stakeholder panels

Items on the portal (cont’d)ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT & REPORTING

• Key environmental issues – climate change; ecosystem management; harmful substances and hazardous waste; water scarcity

Other resources• Explore the tenets of Integrated

Reporting• Report Alert at

http://www.reportalert.info/index.php

• CorporateRegister.com

Other resources• Work of:1.The Prince’s Accounting for

Sustainability Project,2.Global Reporting Initiative3.World Business Council for

Sustainable Development, 4.World Resources Institute5.World Intellectual Capital Initiative6.Carbon Disclosure Project7.Climate Disclosure Standards Board

etc