How to Choose Case Studies for Your Corporate Sustainability Report

HOW TO CHOOSE CASE STUDIES FOR YOUR
CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

SSC Blog

How to Choose Case Studies for Your
Corporate Sustainability Report

Let’s be honest, sustainability
reports can be…dry. Simply
reporting facts and figures will
make even the most stalwart reader
begin to yawn. To combat reader
fatigue, it’s critical that your
sustainability report tell a story.

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Here are some of the stories that your
report might tell:
 A scrappy entrepreneur starts up his
new company by building sustainability
into the core of business operations.
 A company grapples with worldwide
economic uncertainty and struggles to
understand what sustainability *really*
means to its decision-making
processes.
 A company commits to achieving true
sustainability based on eco-system
accounting, and measures for the first
time its contextual impact on the natural
world.



Using your sustainability report to tell
a story is an advanced practice —
many organizations can’t identify their
story, let alone talk about it publicly.
(This is where the help of a
sustainability consultant can help!) It’s
not completely an either/or
proposition, however.



One easy way to begin the storytelling
process is through the use of case
studies — a short “snapshot” that
doesn’t have to neatly fit into the rest
of the reporting format. So if your
organization is most comfortable
following the standard (and often
boring) format of the Global Reporting
Initiatives, there is still an opportunity
to add a bit of flash and interest
through the use of strategically placed
case studies.
But how do you choose a good case
study? We’ve pulled examples from
our 2011 Sustainability Report to
demonstrate some of the options:


Explore a Third Party Standard and
Its Impact

Chances are good that your company is
using a third-party standard or guideline
in your sustainability work. If you are a
manufacturer, you may be using the ISO
14001 standard for environmental
management systems. If you are a
bank, you may be using the IFC
Performance Standards.
You might belong to the UN Global
Compact, or use the OECD Guidelines
for Multinational Enterprise, or apply
the Global Reporting Initiative’s
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines to
your sustainability report. Choose
Check out one of our examples here!
one, and share what it means for your
organization.


Talk About an Organization that
You Support

Most organizations have some sort of
charitable giving, employee
volunteerism, or in-kind support.
Rather than just reporting on the total
dollars donated, why not share a little
bit about one of the organizations or
causes that you support?

Pro tip: have one of your employees
write the case study (e.g. “Why I
Volunteer”) — or have the organization
you support write the case study (e.g.
“Why The Hotel Company is an
Important Supporter of Domestic
Violence Prevention”).


Write About Your Workforce
Development Initiatives

It’s a secret among sustainability
professionals that the REAL audience
for your sustainability report is your
employees. (Ask first-time reporters
where the unexpected benefit was and
they will nearly all say that it was a
boost in employee morale and
engagement.) Why not take an
opportunity to highlight one of your
workforce programs?



Highlight One of Your Products or
Services

While a sustainability report will
usually include a high-level overview
of the work that your organization
does, most reports don’t take the
time to dive deeply into specifics. But
if you offer a particular product or
service that has a positive
sustainability impact (or has been
improved to reduce its negative
environmental impact), take the
opportunity to explore it in more
detail through a case study. If you
can quantify the impacts, all the
better!


Highlight One of Your Products or
Services

Remember: a case study doesn’t
necessary need to be tied to a
particular sustainability metric.
Instead, think of a case study as a
sneak peek for readers, a glimpse
into the stories of sustainability
that make your journey
meaningful.
Click here for examples of case
studies seen in our own
sustainability report!


Read this blog entry and more by visiting the SSC
website today:
Strategic Sustainability Consulting Blog

What are your thoughts? Join the
conversation on twitter @jenniferwoofter!

How to Choose Case Studies for Your Corporate Sustainability Report

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