Feature
Issue No. 10 - April/May 2003
Automotive Industry Towards 2010
by Yvonne Sneddon
Since the World Summit in Rio 10 years ago leading corporations have played a significant role in the sustainable development debate.
Either because they scented opportunity-or because they learned from bitter experience the damage that can be done when you misread community attitudes to social and environmental issues-companies have focussed on the value they can create by considering broader social and environmental issues.
Sustainable development and/or triple bottom line reporting is about harmonising these often-competing aspects and looking forward to identify long-term growth opportunities.
Regulators, customers, investors and financial analysts are now using sustainability reporting in their decision-making. Non-financial information is becoming more rigorous.
Publicly listed companies are being inundated by questionnaires on their social and environmental performance and are being judged by the time it takes them to respond in addition to the quality of their response.
You have all seen increasing demands for information on:
- vision, values, principles
- governance structures
- objectives
- past and present performance compared to peers
- targets
- management systems and actions you are taking to meet them.
What counts of course is whether your company's report reaches its target audience and creates acceptance and confidence in your activities and behaviour.
To address this Deloitte has created a scorecard to give our clients guidance on the content relevant to their reports and the principles and characteristics that make the report believable and credible. Specifically, the scorecard assesses how well a report:
- identifies the relevant issues and stakeholders
- addresses relationships with key stakeholders
- communicates management commitment and strategy
- quantifies actual performance
While the scorecard concentrates on individual company reports, there is real value ...
