The need to reflect intrinsic sustainability

We suggest you read the following downloadable articles:
 "KiwiGrow - revitalising sustainability reporting"
 "KiwiGrow - a New Approach to Sustainable Development Reporting"

Sustainability reporting has become more common among businesses and organisations sensitive to social and environmental responsibilities. In order for these reporting procedures to be recognised, they adhere to guidelines and reporting standards, such as provided by the Global Reporting Initiative. Inevitably, these guidelines and standards come to reflect the larger, global concerns of sustainable development, and minimum standards for social development, simply because it is not possible to provide guidelines and standards for every type of business or organisation. There is thus a lack of guidance on sustainability issues relevant to a particular business or organisation - even allowing for consultancy efforts that aim to provide this customisation. So, reporting comes to serve the wider aims of highlighting concern for global problems, but can be less effective as a device for tracking or managing intrinsic sustainability and improving real performance.

So, there is a need for reporting which starts off with a set of questions that get to the heart of intrinsic sustainablity - the sustainability of the business or organisation itself. As many business managers know, the success and performance of their business may be only marginally related to the parameters that they might be expected to report on if they were to follow available reporting guidelines or certification procedures.

In contrast, in one embracing integrated framework, NZ2100 framework gets to the heart of sustainability issues for your business or organisation. Sustainability is 1:1 congruent with business strength and performance, and the NZ2100 framework provides 28 perspectives on improving performance. For example, company performance may relate to -

• Getting new trainees on board (socially nurturing)
• Providing in-house training (socially nurturing)
• Providing financial incentives for business units (economically supportive)
• Providing better resources and equipment (economically supportive)
• Providing in-house fitness programmes (socially supportive)
• Providing a better physical environment to work in (socially supportive)
• Being open to recruiting and supporting staff from other cultures (culturally supportive)
• Taking up new information technologies (culturally adaptive)
• Starting or fostering a new enterprise or slant on business (economically nurturing)
• Providing staff performance incentives (economically supportive)
• Increasing energy efficiency (economically contributing)
• Getting better at seeing and seizing market opportunities (economically responsive)
• Gaining custom through on-site ecological restoration (environmentally nurturing)
• Providing a niche service that helps people in nature conservation (environmentally contributing)
• Etc.

Thus the NZ2100 framework can stimulate new, creative thinking about how to improve the performance and sustainability of your business or organisation. Not everything needs to go into the annual sustainability report however, but staff and shareholders will appreciate the significance of the approach truly based on sustainability concepts.

In practice, organisations should report separately on (1) the sustainability of their own business or organisation, (2) how they impact on the sustainability of the businesses they work with, and the communities and environment they work within, and (3) on the impacts of their wider relationships, on sustainability of cities, regions, ecosystems, and global systems.

Reporting on the Triple or Quadruple Bottom Line

Sustainability reporting is often referred to as Triple Bottom Line (TBL) or Quadruple Bottom Line (QBL) Reporting. Adopting the NZ2100 framework provides a readymade template for reporting using these approaches. While social, economic and environmental reporting may be familiar ideas, reporting on cultural performance may not. Here it is important to see culture in the widest possible light. An organisation's culture is the total set of learned activities and beliefs of the people within the organisation, and is the basis for their actions. Thus, the culture of a business or organisation consists of the social attitudes, beliefs, values, knowledge, customs, traditions, and modes of communication and expression, on which the business or organisation is founded, and it perpetuates and develops for its own enrichment - or detriment, if culture is overlooked as a business performance factor. Some cultural issues may relate to ethnicity, but the concept of culture is much too broad to be interpreted narrowly in this way.

Reporting with NZ2100

Sustainability reporting using KiwiGrow™ is clearly not incompatible with existing reporting frameworks - it simply increases clarity and relevance, and suggests new reporting areas that may have been overlooked. On this basis, therefore, there is a lot of publicly available information on various indicators to help you get started - and you will have a clear idea of what you want to get out of the reporting system, so it will be less overwhelming to sift through existing information to find the indicators and associated methods that will truly serve your business or organisation. There will, however, inevitably be gaps, and you will find yourself a trailblazer. This is a good reason to join and help build the KiwiGrow™ network and benefit from shared experiences and information resources. Creative Decisons intends to facilitate the process of systematically building tools and methods for use in sustainability reporting.

Further information on reporting is available here at: Certification and Accreditation