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The 'how to' guide
The 'how to' guide
The aim of this guidance is to provide organizations with a simple approach to making this connection between strategic direction, financial performance and environmental and social considerations, and is broken down into the following three key steps:
The identification of material sustainability issues and description of how each of these impact on the organization's strategic objectives.
The evaluation of action taken to address each material sustainability issue and the identification of KPIs to measure performance.
A balanced assessment of progress against agreed targets and towards intended outcomes.
The guidance is followed by three worked examples – for a supermarket, a property investment company and a water and wastewater company. These examples highlight different ways that connected reporting can be applied in practice.
Use the menu on the left-hand side to navigate through the online version of the guidance, or click here to download a pdf version (367 KB, PDF)
Examples of reporting in practice
Using our international network of A4S Forum members, we sought good examples of the key elements of connected reporting applied by companies in their reports, in an attempt to identify emerging good practice in this area. We received nominations covering 71 organisations from 18 different countries. In our review of nominations, we primarily focused on annual reports, but also considered information contained in corporate responsibility / sustainability reports, where applicable.
While the nominations did not demonstrate application of all aspects of the connected reporting guidance, we have selected examples which represent the way in which companies are currently applying individual elements.
For each example highlighted in the three key steps of the guidance, we have explained why it has been selected and how the organization could develop their reporting further.
We are keen to keep aware of good practice in connected reporting. If there are better examples than the ones identified below, that would be useful to include here alongside the guidance, please contact us.