Your top ten sustainability reporting questions answered 

“The transparency enabled by your report can act as a catalyst for delivering consistent progress towards your sustainability goals.” 

From meeting customer expectations to ensuring compliance with upcoming regulations, it’s never been more important for companies to get clarity on their sustainability reporting strategies. 

But with so many technical and organisational challenges to overcome on the road to reporting your sustainability performance, it can be difficult to know where to get started – or what your next steps should be. 

At Nexio Projects, our experts can provide end-to-end support with a range of sustainability and reporting services. These include evaluating the success of sustainability initiatives, measuring your social and environmental impact, and embedding sustainability into your business strategy. 

Read on for their answers to some of our clients’ most frequently asked questions about sustainability reporting. 

1. What steps are required to produce your sustainability report? 

The key to successful reporting is to set clear objectives and establish an effective system for measuring your performance. We divide this process into four stages: 

1. Defining performance goals and KPIs  

2. Measuring performance  

3. Evaluating performance  

4. Reporting 

To define your goals, it’s important to know what reporting framework your company is required to follow. This will depend to some extent on your size and location. 

For example, all listed companies with more than 500 employees in the EU must report under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) from the 2024 financial year. 

However, smaller companies or those outside Europe may have different incentives, such as disclosure requests from customers and suppliers. 

Accurate reporting is all about using data to drive sustainability improvements within your organisation and with your suppliers.  

For example, carbon footprint is a key area of focus for many companies. You can use different methodologies to calculate your climate impact, such as supplier-specific data, average activity data or spend-based data. But whatever source you use, it’s important that it provides the most accurate and reliable representation possible of your organisation’s emissions. 

There are also many challenges when it comes to processing, storing and analysing data. However, with the right systems in place, it’s much easier to make year-on-year comparisons and track improvements. Setting clear KPIs is also critical to accurate reporting 

2. Can you share some best practices for stakeholder engagement?  

Collaborating with stakeholders across your company’s value chain is often important for sustainability reporting, especially when it’s about value chain impacts such as Scope 3 emissions or supplier labour policies. 

However, it’s important to remember that each stakeholder will have a different level of knowledge, awareness and understanding of sustainability issues, analysis and reporting. 

Knowledge sharing should therefore play an important role in your stakeholder engagement strategy. Explain what you’re doing and why, including your sustainability reporting systems and how partners can contribute to continuous improvement. 

You may also find it helpful to discuss the mutual benefits of transparent data sharing and value chain collaboration. 

For example, your suppliers or customers may be obliged to report on your own organisation’s carbon footprint as part of their Scope 3 reporting. This makes it a great idea to proactively set up streamlined data-sharing frameworks so you can facilitate future cooperation. 

In addition, you can emphasise that reporting on your environmental and social impacts is about more than just compliance. Fundamentally, it’s about building businesses where sustainability is a key strategic driver rather than just an ‘add-on’, helping to create a more future-proof economy. 

And don’t forget that sustainability is increasingly a priority for consumers, customers and potential employees. Therefore, companies that demonstrate their commitment to environmental impact mitigation and responsible business practices are better placed to benefit from this trend. 

3. How can you demonstrate your sustainability progress with integrity?  

The key to building trust with stakeholders, suppliers, and customers is to be transparent in your reporting. Stakeholders will understand that working towards greater responsibility is a journey and that there will be challenges along the way. 

Acknowledging and addressing these is an essential step in building trust. You can also build trust by setting clear goals and KPIs to measure your performance. This way, you can demonstrate that your strategies are having a tangible impact. Meanwhile, an integrated data management and reporting platform can help you to consolidate and analyse key information, and monitor your organisation’s progress.  

4. How can we address greenwashing concerns? 

In Europe and around the world, the topic of greenwashing (making false claims about your company’s sustainability credentials) has come under increasing scrutiny from both regulators and consumer groups. 

Indeed, many companies have been called out and even fined for the practice. This can lead companies to be concerned about their sustainability reporting efforts. What’s the best way to avoid accusations of greenwashing? Taking a transparent and data-driven approach to reporting. 

The key is to build your sustainability reporting system around strong KPIs, accurate data and adherence to a recognised reporting framework. By following these principles, you can demonstrate progress towards environmental sustainability that’s backed by evidence.  

Including suppliers and other stakeholders in this journey also helps to show that you’re presenting a more comprehensive picture of your impacts. This is essential to show that your information is complete and trustworthy. 

5. What factors should you consider when choosing a sustainability reporting framework? 

A reporting framework is a set of specific principles or guidelines that a company must follow to ensure accurate and comprehensive reporting. Over the years, we’ve seen the emergence of several sustainability reporting frameworks – some mandatory (such as the CSRD) and some voluntary. 

Examples of voluntary frameworks include the UN Global Compact (UNGC), IFRS, EcoVadis, CDP and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. Today, four out of five of the world’s largest companies use the GRI framework to report on their sustainability impacts. 

There is also a significant overlap between the GRI Standards and the CSRD. This means that companies already reporting under the GRI framework will find it much easier to subsequently report under the mandatory requirements of the CSRD. This makes the GRI Standards a future-proof choice for your reporting strategy. 

It’s often difficult to know where to start when it comes to assessing the current state of your sustainability reporting. An expert-led gap analysis can help you identify the differences between the standards and your current reporting structure. Highlighting and understanding the gaps in reporting allows you to address them more effectively.  

6. How can you report according to multiple standards or frameworks? 

Companies that use multiple standards and frameworks in their sustainability reporting can face much greater complexity. 

However, the common denominator of all high-quality sustainability reporting is accurate data and effective management. 

Consolidating all of your organisation’s impact data in one reporting platform can, therefore, help to ensure a consistent reporting process. 

This will allow you to report more transparently on your sustainability progress, year after year. So, whether you’re reporting according to the GRI Standards or the CSRD, you can be sure you’re providing the most representative picture possible of your sustainability management. 

7. How can we make the most out of the reporting process? 

Fundamentally, sustainability reporting should be about more than compliance. When the reporting process is well integrated into your operations, it can become a valuable strategic lever – enabling you to target carbon emission hotspots and streamline your efforts to reduce environmental impact. 

This means it can be key to embedding sustainability throughout your business. Since the sustainability reporting process often involves high levels of collaboration, both with colleagues and external partners, it can also facilitate a more holistic approach to sustainability management. 

8. How would you suggest communicating the results of your sustainability report to your sales or marketing teams? 

Your sustainability report can be a key tool for educating the organisation about your sustainability strategy. 

With sustainability playing an increasingly important role in procurement decisions, your sales and marketing teams need to know how to communicate these credentials to potential clients and customers. 

It can therefore be valuable to run targeted workshops to educate these key stakeholders. But it’s not just sales and marketing who need to be involved. From production to procurement, and from SHE to R&D, the insights uncovered by your report can be useful across the business. Share them widely to gain the most benefits. 

9. What if the results of our report are ‘bad’ – should we still publish it? 

Transparency is at the heart of sustainability reporting. So, whether your results are positive or negative, you should always publish them. 

Of course, this is especially true when it comes to mandatory sustainability reporting regulations such as the CSRD. But even if your company’s reporting is currently voluntary, there are still benefits to sharing your results, even if they aren’t what you’d hoped. 

Provided you can show your strategy for monitoring and improving your sustainability performance, thorough and transparent disclosure will pay dividends in terms of trust – positioning your company as pragmatic and forward-looking in its pursuit of sustainability progress. 

10. How can we build on the findings of our report to develop concrete targets that deliver sustainable progress? 

A comprehensive reporting process is the foundation of an effective sustainability strategy. A good report will look at all areas of your business and value chain to create an accurate picture of your sustainability progress. 

But to ensure that you can act on the insights provided, it’s essential to translate the results of your report into concrete KPIs – and to keep reporting on them. 

In this way, the transparency enabled by your report will act as a catalyst for consistent progress towards your sustainability goals. By reporting in line with a recognised framework, you can ensure that your progress can be compared with that of your peers. 

Want to learn more about how to optimise your sustainability reporting strategy?  

Check out our video series Navigating the ESG Reporting Landscape here. You can also read more about sustainability reporting and other key topics on our blog. And if you’d like support with your sustainability reporting, get in touch today!