Posts Tagged ‘GRI’
VfL Wolfsburg Score Football CSR Winner
It may have taken a while but VfL Wolfsburg are the winners!
Back in October 2010 I wrote a post called Not a Premier League CSR Report about the state of non-financial reporting in football, especially in the UK. At the end of the post I urged / hoped / challenged / pleaded with the industry to step up to the penalty spot by producing a credible report. VfL Wolfsburg have scored first.
The post was spurred at the time by a couple of so-called CSR reports by Manchester City and Aston Villa (and an earlier attempt by Chelsea). Manchester City’s in particular was much more of an interactive animation experiment by a communications team than a genuine report with little credible detail.
The German based team playing in the Bundesliga recently kicked out their ‘Moving Together’ sustainability report, and it was GRI certified (Level B)! I should also point out that a couple of other teams (SC Corinthians Paulista and Djurgarden Fotboll) have also produced GRI based reports, but neither of these was certified externally.
I applaud all three teams for taking what was a bold step, and especially Wolfsburg for going into extra time and opting for external verification. In an industry dominated by a culture of defensiveness (no pun intended this time) it was a brave decision to be a pioneer for openness. I wonder if Wolfsburg’s approach is linked to their parent organisation Volkswagen?
Congratulations to all involved at Wolfsburg, and very worthy recommendations to SC Corinthians Paulista and Djurgarden Fotboll.
Now, who will be the first to score an ‘A’ rating from GRI?
Integrated Reporting Gets Closer
“The world has changed – reporting must too.”
When the economic crisis hit many more than a handful of people became harbingers of CSR and Sustainability doom, how wrong they were. Not only has the disasters at the hands of financiers and governments cemented the responsibility agenda at the heart of mainstream business philosophy, it specifically lit the fuse on a new group with one thing on its mind.
Today the International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC) launches it’s ‘landmark approach to corporate reporting‘, and calls for feedback on their Discussion Paper called Towards Integrated Reporting - Communicating Value in the 21st Century.
The IIRC is a group of global businesses, investors, academia, civil society, UN leaders and His Responsible Highness The Prince of Wales (see video below) aiming to update the way businesses demonstrate their accountability.
What is Integrated Reporting you ask?
Integrated Reporting brings together material information about an organisations strategy, governance, performance and prospects in a way that reflects the commercial, social and environmental context within which it operates. It provides clear and concise representation of how an organisation demonstrates stewardship and how it creates and sustains value. An Integrated Report should be an organisations primary reporting vehicle. Read the rest of this entry »
2011 – A Good Year for CSR Communications in Europe
Time for a quick update on my movements in the world of CSR.
After a couple of years talking with all those friendly sorts at 3BL Media, sharing blog posts, tweets, Skype conversations and even yours truly sat in front of a video camera for 3BL TV, we decided it was time to announce our formal engagement.
Whilst Coethica continues to grow with all involved taking more on, I will be spending the majority of my time in 2011 as European Director for 3BL Media, bringing their impressive communications platform to this side of the Atlantic.
For those who read this blog who don’t know 3BL Media, they’re the leading CSR and sustainability communications distributors. Yes, there are others out there, you know who they are but I’m not giving them any search engine kudos here, but I’ve been constantly impressed by the team at 3BL, and in particular with their ethos, focus and vision.
I’ve been fascinated for some time by the proliferation of American CSR content online and this is my way of helping Europe readdress the balance. Should I mention the Ryder Cup here? Maybe not a good idea.
So, if anybody out there in the blogosphere wants great CSR and sustainability content in all forms of media (video, audio, articles, press releases, blog posts for bloggers, news sites, networks etc) or you need to get your company’s message out the widest authoritative and engaged audience, from anywhere in Europe, I’m your man.
3BL only very recently announced a new partnership with the Global Reporting Initiative, you really should see the CSR Report special edition videos for Reuters (latest: CSR and Sustainable Retail video below), and there is much, much more coming along the pipeline soon via the USA office.
Just wait until I get started – it’s going to be fun!
Come and join the 3BL Media family yourself by checking out the links below:
I guess there will also be a few more communications related posts heading this way as I climb up the learning curve of media distribution.
It’s a good job 3BL’s corporate colours match the shirt in my avatar 
Go and say hello to Greg Schneider, Cindy Esposito, Doug Fulton and all of our growing Trans-Atlantic 3BL family.
Not a Premier League CSR Report
This is a very public challenge to the football industry.
Who will be the first professional football club to produce a credible non-financial report? I’m hoping to use this post to appeal to the intensely competitive nature of sport to raise the Corporate Social Responsibility / Sustainability bar to the dizzy heights of mediocrity.
‘High, wide and handsome’ is a cliché used by football commentators to eloquently describe a very badly executed shot at goal and its resultant trajectory, obviously missing by a substantial margin. It just so happens it describes football’s attempts at CSR and reporting. Read the rest of this entry »
Green Business Blog Carnival #4
Hello to week #4 of the Green Business Blog Carnival, a fun fair of green business news travelling across the blogosphere helping to spread the good word.
Below you’ll find links to some great content on this week’s sustainable business related topics from respected bloggers.
Let’s get on with the show…
Hitting hard at the Test Your Strength is David Wheat Science In Action – Often debates about climate policy come down to ”My experts can beat up your experts”. This research shows that there are objective measurements that can reveal which experts are more expert, and therefore should be given more weight in guiding policy. (Not that policy is driven by experts–it’s politics.)
In the House of Mirrors is HaraBara Green – Big quantities are sometimes hard to grasp. When you hear that millions of gallons of crude are spilling in the Gulf, how much is that really? Professor James Corbett of the University of Delaware has done the math in a creative way. Your could drive your car for 100,000 years on gas made from the oil spilled so far.
Carrying his Goldfish is Jeff McIntire-Strasburg at Sustainablog – St. Louis-based Practecol just launched its line of “eco-frugal” products designed to help consumers save money and the planet. Read the rest of this entry »
