Every organization has a person – or group of people – at the helm. They might be the CEO, director, president, or founder. Whomever they are and whatever their title, it’s important you show your readers that they’re on board with the strategies, goals and aspirations laid out in the sustainability report.
The statement doesn’t need to be long, but it does need to be personal, genuine, and purpose-driven.

For the sake of clarity and engagement, including summaries in your sustainability report is crucial. The first summary you need to think about is one the outlines the main ways your organization intersects with sustainability issues you’re going to cover in the report.

In a report produced by a furniture manufacturer, this summary might include a section describing the ways you source materials and your strategy for moving to more environmentally friendly options. In a report produced by a shipping and logistics company, this summary would probably need to cover the emissions of your vehicle fleet.
No two summaries will be the same since no two organizations are the same.

A clear sustainability strategy.

Every sustainability report needs a section that outlines the organization’s strategy for achieving its sustainability goals. Without one, your report will read as aspirational rather than action-oriented, and this doesn’t inspire confidence or drive improvement.
Specificity is the name of the game. Here’s an example of what not to write: ‘we will look for ways to cut transportation emissions’. This reads as both vague and noncommittal. Instead, you could write: ‘we will decrease our transportation emissions by investing in more fuel-efficient vehicles’.

Clear targets in each of the main issue areas.

In your sustainability report, you’ll want to provide clear and attainable sustainability targets that are in line with your sustainability strategy and cover all of the areas detailed identified as important to your organization.
Like the strategy itself, these should be as specific as possible. To exemplify the level of specificity you should aim for, here’s an example: ‘we will cut our transportation emissions by 1% annually over the next 5 years by phasing out the older vehicles in our fleet for newer models’.

A representation of your performance against industry standards.

This section is will likely represent the majority of your report. In the planning stage, you will have identified a set of standards to base your report on. In this section, you’ll compare your company’s performance to these standards.

There isn’t a ‘correct’ way to go about this, but there are a few things to keep in mind.

• Comprehension is king. You need to present the data in a way that facilitates comprehension and engagement. This means making the data as accessible as possible through well-designed charts and infographics.
• Failures aren’t failures. You need to remember that purpose of this exercise isn’t to boost your ego – it’s to drive improvement. Your failures represent areas for improvement and need to be included.

Find and define your purpose

The credibility of your report will be determined by several factors – how comprehensive it is, how professional it looks, your organization’s reputation… the list goes on.

Including an assurance statement from an independent provider is a simple and reliable way to boost the credibility of your report. An assurance report acts as confirmation that your report is accurate and that your company is in line with regional, national, and international regulations.

Hopefully, you found this article on the essential contents of a sustainability report helpful as you begin to write your report for 2021/2022. If you know what goes into a sustainability report, you’re on the right track to producing a great one!