How Companies Communicate and Engage on Sustainability
As sustainability becomes an increasingly strategic priority, business leaders have been introducing new practices to communicate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. For many companies, sustainability reporting represents an important avenue for engaging with investors, customers, and employees on these matters. Despite its growth, reporting on social and environmental issues remains a relatively new practice and poses a number of questions and challenges to business leaders in charge of overseeing sustainability.
This KnowlEdge Series features the co-authors of Sustainability Matters 2013: How Companies Communicate and Engage on Sustainability, a report highlighting critical matters related to the disclosure of sustainability information.
Audience: Corporate directors and senior managers in charge of sustainability issues—including chief sustainability officers, general counsel, corporate secretaries, and investor relations officers.
PART ONE: Sustainability Metrics and Communication Strategies… view details
22 April, 2013 12:00 PM EST [12:00] | (1 hr)
What sustainability practices should be included in a report and how should they be measured? Companies can track and measure hundreds of social and environmental practices, but often struggle with choosing what is material to their business and what meets stakeholder expectations. How does the scope of a company’s sustainability agenda shift depending on its industry and value-chain position? What differences exist in how companies define and communicate sustainability? Part I of this series explores how companies choose to focus their sustainability communication efforts, and sheds light on the issue of materiality by identifying those practices which are most frequently included in sustainability reports.
Speakers
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Amy O’Connor
Amy O’Connor is an associate professor and the director of graduate studies in the department of communication at North Dakota State University in Fargo. She received her Ph.D. from the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University... Full Bio |
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Michelle Shumate
Michelle Shumate is an associate professor in the department of communication studies at Northwestern University and the director of the Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact at Northwestern. She received her Ph.D. from the Annenberg School of C... Full Bio |
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Cory Searcy
Cory Searcy is an associate professor and director of the industrial engineering program at Ryerson University. He is also as associate with the International Institute for Sustainable Development. His research interests include corporate sustaina... Full Bio |
PART TWO: Sustainability Standards and Stakeholder Engagement… view details
25 April, 2013 01:00 PM EST [13:00] | (1 hr)
What sustainability standards (e.g. GRI, UN Global Compact, ISO 26000) should companies consider adopting? How do these standards differ and what value do they offer? How do companies choose to engage on sustainability issues with their stakeholders? Part II of this series looks at examples of different stakeholder engagement approaches and variations in level and scope of engagement, and discusses the need to more clearly explore and develop linkages between existing, and sometimes competing, sustainability standards.
Speakers
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Camilla Maclean
Camilla Maclean is a Teaching Fellow in Industrial Relations and Organizational Behaviour at Warwick Business School, UK. She holds a PhD from the University of Warwick. Her research interests encompass CSR and decision-making processes, ethics, S... Full Bio |
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Andreas Rasche
Andreas Rasche is an Associate Professor of Business in Society at the International Centre for Governance and Public Management (IGPM) at Warwick Business School, UK. He holds a PhD (Dr. rer. pol.) from European Business School, Germany and a Hab... Full Bio |
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Lorenzo Patelli
Lorenzo Patelli is an assistant professor at the School of Accountancy of the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver. Prior to joining Daniels, he taught at Benedictine College and previously at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the... Full Bio |
Series Hosts
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Thomas Singer
Researcher, Corporate Leadership The Conference Board Thomas Singer is a researcher in corporate leadership at The Conference Board. His research focuses on corporate social responsibility and sustainability issues. In addition to his work at The Conference Board, Singer serves as an independent cons... Full Bio |