Enterprises are subjected to increasing pressures to present reports on their effects on the society, and the manner in which they manage such effect. These reports carry different titles, like environmental and/or social reports, or sustainability reports, which are considered more comprehensive than the environmental and/or social reports, since they comprise the enterprise’s economic effect, and an evaluation of the sustainability of the enterprise’s operations and products with respect to social development.
 

Usually, an analysis to the inclusions of reports, concerning economic, environmental, and social issues, is carried out, and the report includes notifications on the economic performance, and the standings, accruals, productivity, creation of employment opportunities, making use of external resources, research and development, investment in training, among many other aspects of human capitals, which are all quantitatively measurable.

Environmental issues include the effect of production operations, products, and services on air and earth, biological diversification, and human health. Social issues include health and safety in workplaces, employees’ satisfaction levels, charity efforts undertaken by the enterprise, workers’ rights, diversification of work force, relationships with suppliers, while in many cases, the focus on disclosing social data is mainly limited to internal purposes only, along with reporting on employees-related data, their health, and safety, as well as surveys on employees, more than reporting of data which include issues of the local community and the community as a whole.

Only few international initiatives aim at setting frameworks and indicators for report preparations which can assist in unifying required information. These initiatives include the Global Reporting initiative, Sustainability Reporting which was prepared by the Global Business Council for sustainable development. This project led to the formation of a reporting database on the internet to guide member institutions in gathering the sustainable development reports. The user can find guidelines concerning the preparation of reports, observing and measurement, besides listing reports on the best practices, basic reports produced in three languages that are related to ethical and social issues, in addition to environmental, health and safety issues.

Participants in the Global Compact are required to present a periodical report on the advancement level achieved in executing the ten principles, and their participation in partnership projects which aim at supporting the developmental goals of the United Nations.

When preparing sustainability reports, the following should be considered:

• The scope of the report shall conform with the size and nature of the enterprise.

• The report shall include information on the enterprise’s objectives, and on performance regarding material issues related to social responsibility.

• The report must accurately and completely demonstrate the performance of the enterprise in respect to social responsibility, including all its achievements and failures, and means of treating such failures.

• The report shall be produced in different formats, depending on the nature of the enterprise, the needs of respective parties, and may include an electronic and/or paper version. The report can be used as an independent document, or as a part of the annual report. 

Through dialog with concerned parties, the enterprise may benefit from directly receiving information on the opinions of concerned parties; the enterprise must try to negotiate with such parties for the purposes of: When preparing sustainability reports, the following should be considered:

• Assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of the content, media, and communication. This way it can be improved to reach the required level.

• Setting priorities for future communication content.

• Securing the process of external verification of information presented in the report from concerned parties in case such approach is used for verification

• Determining the best relevant practices.
  
  
   

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