What is the definition of a CSR report? What are its characteristics and why is it important? What examples are there of companies doing it? e-CSR.net decrypts it for you.

What is the definition of a CSR report?

A CSR report (or corporate social responsibility report) is a periodical (usually annual) report published by companies to report their corporate social responsibility actions and results. It is, therefore, a document that synthesizes and makes public all the information on the actions implemented by companies regarding their contribution to the principles of sustainable development.

What is the purpose of a CSR report?

The main intention of a CSR or sustainability report is to improve the transparency of businesses’ activities. The goal is twofold:
On one hand, CSR reports aim to enable companies to measure the impact of their activities on the environment, on society and on the economy (the famous triple-bottom-line). In this way, companies can get accurate and insightful data which will help them to improve their processes and have a more positive impact on the 3 cornerstones mentioned above.
On the other hand, a CSR or sustainability report also allows companies to externally communicate with their stakeholders what are their goals regarding sustainable development and CSR. This allows stakeholders to get to know better what are the short, medium and long-term goals of companies and make more informed decisions.

Official & simple definition of a CSR report

According to the Global Reporting Initiative, a CSR report can be defined as:
“A sustainability report is a report published by a company or organization about the economic, environmental and social impacts caused by its everyday activities. A sustainability report also presents the organization’s values and governance model, and demonstrates the link between its strategy and its commitment to a sustainable global economy.”

Why is a CSR report important? What are its benefits?

benefits definition what is csr report companies
As discussed above, CSR and sustainability reports can be used to achieve both internal and/or external goals. Internally speaking, CSR reports are important since they allow companies to estimate the impact of their activities on the environment, on society and on the economy. Through the detailed and meaningful data collected for the CSR report, companies have a chance to improve their operations and to reduce costs. Not only because they are empowered to optimize and reduce their energy consumption but also as they review their waste cycles and disposal which often leads to product innovation or circular economy opportunities. Finally, as collecting this data requires joint efforts from different departments, employees end up knowing that the company is focusing on CSR and sustainability, which is proven to increase employee retention and decrease turnover (and its costs).
When it comes to external benefits, a CSR and sustainability report can help companies to better engage with their interested parties which may bring some benefits to the table. By letting their stakeholders know about the organization’s short, medium and long-term projects decisions, companies can be better understood which may have positive financial outputs. For instance, it can allow stakeholders to be aware that a specific company is positively contributing to minimize the negative impacts of an environmental hazard or that it is only focused on growing profits for its managers and investors. In this way, consumers can decide whether they want to buy from a brand that protects orangutans by sourcing sustainable palm oil or not, investors can anticipate if companies are aware of the consequences of climate change is and will further have on their value chains and on business continuity, journalists can share best case practices, NGOs can put pressure so that companies review their sustainability policies, etc.

Are CSR reports mandatory?

It isn’t mandatory that companies make their own CSR or sustainability report. Still, directive 2014/95 from the European Union demands large companies to reveal certain non-financial information about how they operate and run their social and environmental challenges. This means that it is mandatory that large public interest entities disclose non-financial information and that large listed companies disclose diversity information.
Specifically, it’s mandatory that these organizations give insights about how they’re taking care of environmental, social and personnel concerns, respect for human rights and the fight against corruption and bribery insider their business and within their value chain. Consequently, concrete data should be given about the policies pursued or active procedure, as well as what the outcomes of these policies, the main risks identified and how they’re being managed. The financial indicators used must also be presented.
This kind of information helps consumers, investors, policymakers and other stakeholders to evaluate the non-financial performance of large companies and encourages organizations to develop sustainable business strategies that can be up to the expectations.
Still, other companies also choose to report their CSR and sustainability information. But how do they know what or how to report?

Standardized vs. personalized CSR reports

benefits examples important definition csr report companies
One of the ways for companies to share their CSR and sustainability policies, both internally, but above all, externally, is to use and follow standards such as the ISO 2600, the global reporting initiative, the integrated reporting or the dow jones sustainability index. Although this kind of CSR report is good to obtain certifications such as B-Corp, Dow Jones or FTSE4GOOD, they usually end up turning into long and very detailed documents. The fact that a third-party, with authority in CSR matters, gives certifications to these companies is undoubtfully a strong proof that these companies CSR and sustainability practices can be trusted. Nevertheless, because of being too long, these often aren’t good ways of presenting information – for instance, many common consumers just want to get know some sustainability highlights of companies.
Another way that a company can present its CSR report is by creating a personalized, one-fit-template. In this way, companies can brief their stakeholders with the highlights of their sustainability strategies, letting them know about the risks and opportunities involved, the policies that are being undertaken and the outcomes achieved so far. Nevertheless, since it doesn’t respect any specific structure, this approach has the downside that readers must the more critical about the information they are offered. Because if companies present data without showing how they got their numbers, or talk about initiatives that don’t seem to be integrated with a global strategy, they might trying to show that they have CSR and sustainability concerns, when in fact, they don’t have them and just want to show off.
In order to find the best of both worlds, many companies end up doing both types of report. In most cases, they start by gathering the information and building a standardized report following the guidelines of, for instance, global reporting initiative or dow jones. In the end, they take the main points, create an appealing design and advertise their own personalized CSR report from which, in many cases, the most curious people can find an index that is linked to the main (complete) report.

Examples of companies with good CSR reports

 
Images credits for Shutterstock on CSR report definition, CSR report benefits & CSR examples