The Case for Sustainability Reporting: What’s in it for electronic-product companies and their suppliers?

By Cathy Dalton, TFI Environment Communications Consultant

Have you read your company’s sustainability report lately? If creation of such a communication has not been undertaken, yet the company is making honest strides toward becoming lean and green, then perhaps now is the time to consider it.

At a recent dinner, the 19-year-old daughter of friends of mine told me that my generation – the baby boomers – and the corporate culture we built caused the threats now facing our environment, and that her generation is left to clean it up. Her comments struck a nerve. Granted, “better living through chemistry” did explode onto the scene in the post-WWII 1950s, and our consumerism grew into a mode of taking whatever we wanted, from wherever we wanted it, and without thought to the materials being used or their potential damage to the environment.

But, as someone who has been working with corporations for thirty years, I see examples daily of how businesses can be part of the solution, agents of change. Illustrations of this are readily available in the sustainability reporting coming out of electronics manufacturing, including the recent Consumer Electronics Association sustainability report (which we were privileged to write and design).

In a study completed in January 2008 on reader response to sustainability reports, the benefits of looking inwardly and assessing sustainability efforts give good reason to build such an effort into individual companies’ environmental stewardship practices:

* Readers use reports to improve their understanding, benchmark against others, and provide basis for further action.

* Sustainability reports impact decisions by investors, customers, and corporate partners.

* The reports overwhelmingly improved readers’ opinions of the reporting companies.

Furthermore, is it just a matter of time before some governments require sustainability reporting of publicly held companies? As shareholder mindset becomes increasingly influenced by socially responsible initiatives in our personal lives, we anticipate an increasing demand for corporate accountability, driving past “compliance-driven” initiatives toward broader corporate consciousness of environmental stewardship and social responsibility.

For our Environmental Partnership program we’ve benchmarked sustainability indicators such as position on the Zero Waste continuum, Carbon Footprints, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, renewable and non-renewable resources per employee, solid and effluent waste per employee, and correlating cost savings. We’ve also seen how this data, in concert with compelling visuals designed for readability, can deliver competitive advantage through positive impact to business reputation.

Do you have a favorite sustainability report — either inside or outside the high-tech industry? What experiences have you had encouraging your company to report on bona fide environmental benefits? Do you require your suppliers to have such a report?

Posted by Pamela J. Gordon, January 30th, 2009