THE SUSTAINABILITY REPORT: TODAY’S ESSENTIAL MARKETING TOOLHow to Write an Environmental Sustainability Report for Small and Medium Businesses

This guide is designed to help you write a simple environmental sustainability report for your business. Whether you are a small business owner, environmental officer, or other interested professional, an environmental sustainability report will enable you to communicate your company’s environmental practices, efforts, and goals to stakeholders and customers. Not only is it good practice that is sure to be appreciated and well-received in today's environmentally aware world, it's smart business.

The importance of an environmental sustainability report

As concern for the environment grows worldwide, it has become increasingly important to the general public that companies conduct business with the environment in mind, adapting environmentally sound practices and committing to company-wide environmental sustainability. Making such commitments and reporting on them can bring many benefits to your business.

Sustainability reporting:» Enhances a positive company brand and reputation » Helps differentiate against competitors and can be

used as a sales tool » Attracts investors » Drives business innovation » Increases employee motivation, morale, and

retention, and attracts talent » Assists in rapid adaption to environmental regulations » Helps your business track progress against

specific targets» Helps reduce risk and improve management practices» Provides a handy reference for company

environmental data

More and more businesses, large and small, are creating sustainablity reports. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), at www.globalreporting.org, provides the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework and recorded a 46% increase of registered reporters from 2007 to 2008. Over 1,000 organizations now report to the GRI standards. CorporateRegister.com, the world’s largest online

The importance of an environmental sustainability report...................................1

Lay the groundwork............2

Determine your content.......3

Design your report..............6

Choose a publishing format................7

Next steps........................... 7

References...........................8directory of sustainability reports, reports that two thirds of the Fortune Global 500 companies produce corporate responsibility reports and showed 3,100 registered reports in 2008.

Like financial reporting, writing a sustainability report requires a standard of care, transparency, and diligence that stakeholders appreciate. A successful sustainability report will demonstrate how your company’s overall sustainability strategy fits and relates to long-term business goals and strategy. It should be representative of your company’s brand and should be written in the same language you use to promote your brand to ensure it can be widely accessible to your stakeholders. The extent to which your report satisfies stakeholder questions and concerns will measure its success, therefore, it is critical that you tailor the report to the needs of your stakeholders.

Avoid disingenuous and misleading statements or implications, often known as “greenwashing.” Greenwashing is the act of misleading others (intentionally or not) regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service. If your report exhibits signs of greenwashing, it may be disregarded by stakeholders as misleading and could result in negative publicity for your business. Check your country’s regulations regarding environmental claims. For example, in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides guidance.

DOING BUSINESS WITH THE ENVIRONMENT IN MIND

Before you begin your environmental sustainability report, make sure you do the following:

» Gather top management and leadership support. Their support is not only necessary for the project to move forward, their level of enthusiasm towards the project could mean the difference between a good report and a great report.

» Determine your audience. Who will read the report? Your audience might include your customers, employees, community members, special interest groups, and investors.

» Gather a cross-functional team of contributors. Ensure you have participation from all areas of your company. Parties involved can include legal counsel, environmental health and safety, and information technology. In small companies, one person may fill all of these roles.

» Determine a reporting strategy. Your strategy can be as simple as following this guide, or it could be expanded to follow a specific reporting standard, such as the GRI.

» Determine the scope of your report and the key issues it will address. Focus on the issues that are most important to your audience or on the areas of your company that most impact the environment.

LAY THE GROUNDWORK

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Here are a number of recommended section headings for your sustainability report, along with brief explanations, tips, examples, and other useful information. Your own report does not have to include all of these headings. Select those that are relevant to your business and your stakeholders.

Be aware of how you communicate your findings in your report, and avoid making sensational claims without supporting data. The best reports are factual, balanced, transparent, and include negative aspects and areas for improvement as well as highlighting successes.

DETERMINE YOUR CONTENT

First pages

1. Cover/title page A strong cover page sets the tone and theme for your report, and should be representative of your company’s brand. While it does not necessarily require professional photography or special graphics, you may wish to incorporate images relating to your business. A cover page is often necessary for PDF or print formats, and could be useful for a Web-based report.

2. Welcome statement A statement from your company's leaders emphasizes the link between environmental initiatives and overall business strategy and management’s commitment to the goals in the report. It is meant to provide strategic and analytic insight rather than just a summary of the report contents. The statement should include: » Strategic priorities and key topics for the short- and medium-term (3 to 5 years) » Broader trends affecting the organization and influencing sustainability goals » Key events, achievements, and failures that occurred during the reporting period » Outlook on main challenges and targets

3. Table of contents A table of contents helps your readers find key sections of your report. Other features, such as Web links, glossaries, and indexes can also help provide further context for the report. Enabling the ability to search on Web-based reports allows readers to locate keywords relevant and important to them.

4. Introduction and organizational profile Introduce the company’s areas of business, the industry, the number of employees (or other size indicator), and any other details that would help someone understand your company. Describe the business’ environmental strategy and goals and provide a summary of the report’s contents. Link these sections to overall business strategies and objectives (i.e. market share, profitability). Include a section in the introduction clarifying issues such as the scope, dates, and measure of the report to address questions and prevent confusion or misinterpretation of your report early on. Your organizational profile should include: » Primary products and services offered and markets served » Operational structure, including divisions, subsidiaries, and joint ventures » Countries of operation » Nature of ownership and legal structure » Net sales, revenues, and total capitalization in terms of debt and equity » Awards received during the reporting period

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KEY TERMSANDRESOURCES

Corporate Register – The world's largest online directory of sustainability reports.www.corporateregister.com

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – Network-based organization that has pioneered the develop-ment of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework. www.globalreporting.org

Greenhouse Gases (GHG) Protocol Initiative – Widely used GHG accounting tool, which allows understanding, quantifying, and management of GHG. www.ghgprotocol.org

Body

The GRI provides some excellent guidance on how to scope your report and measure the importance of issues within that scope. In general, try to prioritize the significance of your environmental issues (or potential issues) based on the impact they have on your company, on the environment, and their importance to your key stakeholders.

1. Operations This section considers the significant environmental achievements of your environmental sustainability strategy and reports on the impacts of your business activities, such as manufacturing, internal procurement, office space, and resource consumption. Typical aspects of this section are environmental compliance and management, resource usage statistics, and waste production.

Detailed guidance on measuring and documenting environmental performance indicators can be found in the GRI Indicator Protocols Set for Environment.

Suggested content topics:

» Environmental compliance and management systems: Discuss and report your audit results, non-compliances, fines, and environmental management systems related to your operations.

» Energy and climate change: Discuss and report electricity usage, combustible fuel, renewable energy usage, and energy and greenhouse gases (GHG) reduction practices. Associate energy usage with GHG, and report the direct and indirect emissions. Information in this area can be gathered from heating and electricity bills or by contacting your energy supplier directly. There are several ways of compiling GHG statistics, from direct measurements to calculations based on a common GHG reporting protocol. Your country’s environmental protection government agencies may have GHG calculators to assist you with metrics.

» Waste management: Discuss and report your practices related to non-hazardous and hazardous waste disposals and preventing and managing accidental spills. Discuss your business’ recycling practices, if applicable. If a certain waste stream, such as cardboard, is significant, you might consider addressing it in more detail. Key performance indicators in this area can include total waste generated, waste diversion rates, and waste audit results. Information can be gathered from waste balance sheets from your provider of waste services or from your property management company. Consider consulting your internal billing and accounting systems or procurement departments to gather information in this area as well.

» Water: Discuss and report water usage, wastewater discharge, and wastewater management practices. Information can be gathered from water bills, water meters, and organizational estimates.

» Air emissions: Discuss and report air emissions releases by type, and any toxic releases if applicable. You can choose to report GHG releases here or in your energy and climate change section.

» Internal procurement practices: How do environmental sustainability concerns influence purchases of internal supplies and equipment, such as office paper and computers? Discuss your purchasing policies or considerations towards sustainability.

» Products/service: Discuss the materials/ingredients used in your products, manufacturing processes, and other environmental impacts associated with the creation and use of your products and services. Be sure to mention how you are mitigating those impacts.

» Information technology: Discuss your efforts towards establishing an environmentally responsible IT infrastructure. This could span from data center efficiency to optimizing your printer fleets. See the sidebar on page 7 of this report for HP resources to help you with these efforts.

» Other: Relevant topics may include transportation, property management, and packaging.

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2. Other environmental impactsThis section covers environmental impacts over which your business does not have direct control, but that can be influenced by your business’ actions or the efforts of your management. These impacts typically result from the actions of your suppliers (resulting in an “embedded” environmental impact), and your customers or clients (affecting the environmental impact caused by your product after it leaves your property). Partnerships with suppliers, retailers, manufacturers, or with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and foundations outside of the company are other areas you may want to report on. It is important to outline your targets and goals in this section as well.

» Supply chain: How are environmental sustainability concerns affecting your choice of suppliers? How are you attempting to influence the environmental performance of your suppliers?

» Partnerships and sponsorships: Are you working with any NGOs, community groups, or other companies towards a common goal beneficial to the environment? What have been the outcomes?

» Customer outreach: How are you spreading the message of environmental sustainability to your customers and influencing their daily actions? Are you offering programs, services, or resources to help your customers use their products or services in an environmentally responsible manner?

» Employee practices: Discuss your efforts to influence employee environmental responsibility at home and in the office.

3. Goals and performance indicatorsInclude the operational goals and approaches you have taken in environmental sustainability, followed by performance measures to allow for comparison and tracking (see Figure 1). This tells the reader where you are now and where you want to be. Bold, aggressive goals demonstrate a strong commitment to long-term environmental management strategies.

4. Additional sectionsThis document focuses solely on environmental sustainability reporting. You may wish to include information on other aspects of your company’s social responsibility efforts in your report, which could include volunteer activities, social investment, employee benefits, and business policies around ethics. Some reports will also include a section on the economic performance of the company. For detailed guidance on how to write these types of sustainability reports, the GRI provides thorough direction.

Having a section dedicated to environmental or sustainability awards your organization has received is another way to communicate your achievements.

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Figure 1: Including a separate performance and goals section in your report allows for easy viewing and browsing. Provide at least three years of performance data if possible.

Fig ure 0: Having a separa te performan ce and goals section in your report allows for easy viewing and browsing . We sugges t having a t least thre e yea rs of perfor mance data shown if pos sible.

Fig ure 0: Having a separa te performan ce and goals section in your report allows for easy viewing and browsing . We sugges t having a t least thre e yea rs of perfor mance data shown if pos sible.

DESIGN YOUR REPORT

Engage your readers with a visually appealing layout. Include actual photographs that illustrate and support sections of your report, but avoid using irrelevant “green” imagery that does not relate directly to your report’s content. Color coding and/or visibly dividing sections will make navigation easier, while careful attention to layout can reduce wasted pages.

Use graphics to convey and enhance your message (see Figure 2). If you want to showcase significant reductions in certain sections of your business, graphs, tables, and highlight boxes draw reader’s attention to these areas (see Figure 3).

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Fig ure 0: Lef t: HP’s produc t reu se an d recyc ling rates ove r a four -year period are shown using a graph. Rig ht: HP’s greenhouse gas redu ctions and other key da ta points are hig hligh ted in a separate box . Below : HP’ s pac kaging per product and tot al w eight of packaging used from 2005 - 2008 is presen ted in a simp le ta ble.

Fig ure 0: Lef t: HP’s produc t reu se an d recyc ling rates ove r a four -year period are shown using a graph. Rig ht: HP’s greenhouse gas redu ctions and other key da ta points are hig hligh ted in a separate box . Below : HP’ s pac kaging per product and tot al w eight of packaging used from 2005 - 2008 is presen ted in a simp le ta ble.

Figure 2:

In this graphic found in HP’s Global Citizenship Customer Report 2008, HP highlights its green IT initiatives through a graphical representation of an office, which presents the information in an engaging way.

Figure 3:

Top left: HP’s product re-use and recycling rates over a four-year period are shown using a graph.

Top right: HP’s greenhouse gas reductions and other key data points are highlighted in a separate box.

Below: HP’s packaging per product and total weight of packaging used from 2005 – 2008 is presented in a simple table.

THE HPCREATIVESTUDIO

Create Your Own Sustainability Report – Download a professionally designed template for your report that will help you organize your content, add images and graphics, and enhance readability.www.hp.com/create

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CHOOSE A PUBLISHING FORMAT

Determine the most effective method to distribute your report to your stakeholders. It is ideal to have more than one option of distribution, as different users will have different preferences. The size of your report will also influence its formats, which could include:

» Electronic PDF (most common format; can be e-mailed, posted to Web, saved to reusable USB drive)

» Printed as a brochure or booklet (It is recommended that you use paper that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), as well as paper with a high percentage of post-consumer recycled content.)

» Web-based report (Flash, HTML)

Your report can also be supported by other media types, including:

» Visual media (video, online photos)

» Press releases

» Presentations (speaking engagements, PowerPoint)

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Now that you’ve written your report, be sure to develop a communication plan to distribute your report to your stakeholders. It is important that you take full advantage of your investment into the report by effectively communicating it.

After you have communicated your report to your stakeholders, there are three more steps you should consider that will assist you in writing progressively better sustainability reports well into your company’s future:

1. Measure progress over time. This means setting goals, possibly years in advance, and collecting accurate, relevant data.

2. Ask for feedback from stakeholders and other interested parties, and consider their recommendations

as you write your next report. Their opinions will be instrumental in ensuring your future reports are increasingly relevant and effective.

3. Learn even more about your own company by comparing your competitors’ reports to your own, looking

for gaps or weak areas. Adjust your strategies accordingly.

Improving your environmental sustainability reports over time ensures that your report becomes a tool to drive positive, ongoing changes and continued strides towards sustainable business practices throughout your company.

No matter what type of business you are in, taking a proactive approach to environmental sustainability is not only a sound business decision, it’s smart strategy that will help you compete and succeed in today’s global market. A sustainability report is an important outward testament to your commitment and should be considered a crucial component of any company’s business strategy and marketing efforts.

NEXT STEPS

HP Carbon Footprint Calculator for Printers Estimate how power-saving technologies, efficiency features, and device consolidation can lower your energy usage.

HP Creative StudioOnce you have finished writing your sustainability report, log on to HP’s Creative Studio to download a design template to lay out your report professionally. While you are there, check out the other projects and designs you can easily customize yourself.

HP Eco Highlights Products Browse HP’s list of leading products with environmentally-friendly features.

HP Green Action Plan for Office Printing Uncover ways to increase efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of your printing.

HP Global Citizenship Report HP’s award-winningexample demonstrates how a large enterprise uses a sustainability report to communicate to stakeholders, partners, and customers. HP's approach is to report not only on environmental sustainability, but also on economic and social sustainability topics, including human rights, privacy, ethics, and social investment.

HELPFUL RESOURCES FROM HP

© 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

4AA0-4128ENCA May 2010

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REFERENCES

(CBSR) Canadian Business for Social Responsibility. “Innovations in Reporting.” Spring 2009 Goodcompany Newsletter. Accessed 14 Aug. 2009. www.cbsr.ca/resources/cbsr-newsletters/spring09-reportingawards

Colbourne, Richard. Addison. “Successful Design in CSR Reporting – Part 2”. Environmental Leader, 24 June 2009. Web. Accessed 14 Aug. 2009. www.environmentalleader.com/2009/06/24/successful-design-in-csr- reporting-part-2-of-a-series

CorporateRegister.com. “Global Winners & Reporting Trends” March 2009. Accessed 8 Dec. 2009 http://www.corporateregister.com/pdf/CRRA08.pdf

(Environmental Leader) Environmental Leader staff. “GRI Touts 46% Increased Use of GRI Guidelines In Sustainability Reporting”. Environmental Leader, 16 July, 2009. Web. Accessed 2 Dec. 2009. www.environmentalleader.com/2009/07/16/gri-touts-46-increase-use-of-gri-guidelines-in-

sustainability-reporting

(GMA & PWC) Environmental Leader staff. “Companies That Report Sustainability Data Enjoy Higher Gross Margins.” Rev. of The Food, Beverage, and Consumer products Industry - Achieving Superior

Financial Performance in a Challenging Economy - 2008, by PricewaterhouseCoopers and GMA. Environmental Leader, 11 June 2008. Web. Accessed 14 Aug. 2009. www.environmentalleader.com/2008/06/11/companies-that-report-sustainability-data-enjoy- higher-gross-margins

(GRI(a)) Global Reporting Initiative. “Sustainability Reporting Guidelines” (Version 3), Accessed 2 Dec. 2009. http://www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/ReportingFrameworkDownloads/G3GuidelinesIndividu-

alDownloads

(GRI(b)). Global Reporting Initiative. “Indicator Protocol Set Environment (EN)”. (Version 3), Accessed 2 Dec. 2009. http://www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/ReportingFrameworkDownloads/G3GuidelinesIndividu-

alDownloads

(GRI(c)). Global Reporting Initiative. “Count me in – The reader’s take on sustainability reporting” 2008. Web. www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/3F57ACC8-60D0-48F0-AF28-527F85A2A4B4/0/CountMeIn.pdf

Kolk, Ans (2004). “A decade of sustainability reporting: developments and significance.” International Journal Environmental and Sustainable Development. (Vol. 3, No. 1). Web. Accessed 3 Dec. 2009.

www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/1D6B336D-E4D4-4B3F-B141-D3B27A3B9EE4/0/KolkDecadeOfSus-tainabilityReporting.pdf

(Terrachoice) “ The Seven Sins of Greenwashing." Terrachoice, 2009. Web.Accessed 14 Aug. 2009. http://sinsofgreenwashing.org

Thank you to Nicholas Cloet and Jonathan Fung, HP environment and business analyst interns, for the extensive research, writing, and information-gathering that initiated this document.

I N T E L L I G E N T L Y