Sustainability narrative in a corporate website is now standard practice for the majority of companies. It appeals and speaks to a much broader range of stakeholders, from journalists, customers and suppliers to prospective investors and recruits. In the age of growing employee and shareholder activism, corporates are increasingly aware of how sustainability consideration is indispensable in building employee and customer trust, attracting new talent and evidencing long-term thinking and resilience to investors in the fast-changing market environment.
In the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, the investment community will also pay close attention to those proven to be adaptable and resilient and who have a long-term sustainable strategy. The best practice sustainability section on a corporate website needs to explicitly address these stakeholder expectations through well-structured and insightful information, moving from just articulating commitments to evidencing actions and quantifying progress.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, over 80% of companies now provide insight into approaches and policies and almost 70% use case studies to evidence their commitments. However, only 40% set out sustainability issues identified through a materiality analysis, and around 25% go the extra mile to detail the process. This is a missed opportunity as materiality is key to a more meaningful and credible sustainability story, allowing the audience to assess whether the company focuses on the areas where they can have the most impact.
There is a slight improvement in target-setting (55%), with 43% providing a timeframe amid the growing momentum for net zero commitments. Yet, only around 40% disclose historical performance data and even fewer leverage interactive features to illustrate it. Going forward the focus will be inevitably on quantifying the progress, and more innovative features like personalisation and data visualisation could be leveraged to facilitate a transparent, consistent and comparable data disclosure that differentiates leaders from laggards.
Our analytics data also indicates that the sustainability audience tends to look for evidence of how a company’s sustainability agenda fits into the wider corporate story. However, only half of companies currently link their sustainability narrative to a purpose and 20% link to a business model, highlighting more could be done to integrate sustainability into the corporate narrative.
Black Sun is a global stakeholder engagement and communications partner to some of the biggest brands and businesses worldwide. Today, it has never been more important for organisations to focus on purpose, sustainability and wider value creation and to build and maintain trust with their stakeholders. As advisors, storytellers and digital innovators we help our clients to engage with the audience that matter most, to build enduring relationships and to spark positive change through inspiring and authentic communications.
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