Later this month we will be publishing a new paper entitled ‘The Future of Reporting: From Routine to Strategic
The future of sustainability reporting is an ongoing debate, fuelled by increasingly demanding and diverse audiences and competing business priorities. Although the number of companies publishing sustainability reports continues to grow globally, practitioners find the reporting process challenging, fraught with a minefield of standards, audiences, formats, and stakeholder expectations.
This is made all the more complicated by an ever-changing reporting landscape. Trends that are re-shaping the landscape include: the integration of business and sustainability strategy; the ubiquitous use of social media; and the pressure to report more rigorous, expansive data whilst having concise, engaging narratives. These trends, along with increasing pressure to justify the cost and effort invested in the reporting process, are driving some dramatic and innovative new approaches.
We believe that in the next decade, reporting in its current form will look very different. Our research suggests that we will witness a transformation in the ways companies communicate and connect with audiences. We are calling this the shift from routine to strategic reporting.
In our upcoming paper, we explore why and how some companies are moving away from the status quo of tried-and-tested, technical reports to using reporting as a strategic means of connecting with audience and the wider business implications.
The paper will be published on the 26th May and will be available on the resources page of our website.
If you would like to be notified when the paper has been published, please email mail@corporate-citizenship.com