Today Sun took a big step forward (if I do say so myself) and published a mid-year update to our most recent CSR report. As any reader of this blog knows, my favorite topic these days is CSR reporting and my mission to answer the questions of why, how, when and for whom do we do it. This mid-year update is motivated by a desire to increase our transparency as well as by a desire to help us get some answers to these questions. How does this help us answer the "why, how, when and who" of reporting?
* First of all, it helps remind us that a primary reason we report is to be held accountable. More transparency enables better accountability, both internally and externally.I hope you'll check out this update and, most importantly, provide your feedback using the public comments feature at the bottom of the page. We are doing our best to hold ourselves accountable - this is an important component of that - but we also hope and expect our stakeholders will hold us accountable, too. This is part of the "Share" component of Sun's "Innovate Act Share" strategy.
* This mid-year update also gives us an opportunity to consider going outside the "traditional" reporting framework that prevails among companies today, namely the annual CSR report that comes out three to six months after all the relevant data has been collected. It's kind of an experiment, I suppose.
* By updating outside the bounds of our regular reporting schedule - fiscal year (July 1 - June 30) data published in a late-October report - we can strengthen our internal processes. How? Well, we can make sure that the data we collect for our CSR reports is baked into our everyday processes, rather than just compiled in a mad dash at the end of the fiscal year. That matters because it means the goals we set and the metrics we put in place to track our progress have a better chance of becoming a regular part of our how we do business.
* We get to gauge - and engage - our audience. The way it works now, you hear from us once a year in late October. Sometimes we hear from you. But with this mid-year update, we are hoping to spark more of an ongoing dialogue. We are hoping that this update, coupled with the comments feature in our 2008 CSR report - something we'll carry forward into future reports - will spark more of a conversation with and among the people who care about Sun, our values, and how we do business.
![[This is a Roller site]](http://blogs.sun.com/csr/resource/images/roller-logo.gif){kind=logo}
Sun's mid-year update and the reasons behind it are compelling. We at Timberland have been issuing quarterly performance updates since early 2008 and agree that more frequent reporting holds us more accountable for our CSR goals. Not only has the rigor and time spent on our quarterly disclosure enabled Timberland to produce better quality data, but we've also leveraged quarterly reporting as a tool to drive improved alignment between the CSR team and Business Units (many of whom are responsible for implementing programs that help us achieve our goals). Integrating CSR within the business is a critical step for our own credibility and it also helps empower employees who might not think of CSR as part of their day jobs. While we still have a ways to go with these integration efforts, I am confident that we are on the right track.
When it comes to external stakeholder engagement, I'm not yet ready to declare we're close to realizing our goals. Like Sun, Timberland's frequent reporting is hosted online so we can provide stakeholders easy access to data; the infrastructure also gives stakeholders opportunity to immediately post comments and questions that Timberland staff will respond to - see www.timberland.justmeans.com and www.earthkeeper.com if you are interested. Shameless self-promotion aside, we haven't had too many of our "regular" CSR stakeholders join these conversations online. Why is this so? Are the more traditional forms of engagement like face-to-face meetings and/or individual phone conversations more productive? Are we all too busy or perhaps overwhelmed by the changing dynamic of web 2.0? And what about the promise of two-way dialogue? I don't think our model is perfect, but if only one part of the equation shows up, how can we make good on our goals to leverage feedback to create sustainable change within our organization?
I certainly value the relationships and regular interaction we have with CSR practitioners - whom we rely on heavily and are proud to be in partnership with. However, I'd like to hear directly from this audience regarding online engagement - what's enticing vs. what's challenging? How do we make these models more user-friendly or attractive? Let us know so we can all learn together!
Posted by Beth Holzman on February 23, 2009 at 07:38 AM PST #
support of louzhu,louzhu work hard
Posted by http://www.uggshelf.com/Products.html on October 14, 2009 at 08:58 PM PDT #