Reporting is a means to communicate performance and achievement as well as to better manage the company. As a minimum requirement, companies must report their financial performance to shareholders. With increasing focus on CSR performance, SMEs must now also consider reporting their performance in managing occupational health and safety, environmental and social issues.

Benefits of reporting

• Provides an opportunity to review the performance of your company and further creates extra motivation for improvement
• Displays diligence
• Enhances the corporate image of the company as being open and responsible
• Improves the competitiveness of the company because investors and creditors now look for companies with good CSR records

Types of reporting
CSR reporting can be as simple as having a dedicated section in the company brochure, website, annual report, and/or by providing stand-alone reports. These stand-alone reports are usually called environmental reports, health, safety and environmental (HSE) reports, social responsibility reports, or sustainability reports, depending on the issues they cover.

How to get started:

• Start with reporting the most pressing issues. These are often the issues under heaviest scrutiny by clients or regulatory authorities. Also, they are usually the 'high risk' areas of your companies' business.
• Identify your target audience. Of course this will include your external stakeholders (eg clients). But don't forget your internal audience who could be the management, board, shareholders or employees.
• Establish appropriate key performance indicators. Different audiences will need different indicators for the same piece of information. For example, shareholders will look at energy consumption or per unit of production, while green groups will look at the total consumption.
• Establish a system to collect data and review performance. This is part of the monitoring and review phase of a management system.
• Decide the appropriate reporting channel(s) and levels of details for each target audience group. For instance, information in the company brochure should be different from the information provided for existing clients.
• Build appropriate feedback channels for stakeholders to tell you what they feel about your performance. This can be as simple as a reply slip or an email address.

Source of information:

• Hong Kong Business Guide to Sustainable Development webpage on 'Transparency and Reporting' - links to reporting guidelines and directories
• Sustainability Reporting Guidelines by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) - the most widely adopted sustainability reporting guideline, with a comprehensive list of environmental, social and economical indicators
• EPD webpage - contains a cyber helpdesk, guidelines and directories of local and overseas environmental reports