Bill Baue, socialfunds.com
"Current forms of [measurement and] reporting can verge on the meaningless as they are both too simple and devoid of context."
Rob Gray and Markus Milne, 2004
Don't Miss Our Next Workshop on
Context-Based Sustainability
Corporate Sustainability Management: A Context-Based Approach
Sept 20-21, 2012 in Burlington, VT
Context-based sustainability (CBS)
There is a growing consensus, we think, that the time for context-based sustainability in corporate sustainability management may have come. And none too soon, mind you. After all, the concept has been firmly ensconced in the Global Reporting Initiative’s guidelines for sustainability measurement and reporting for more than a decade now. What exactly is context-based sustainability, or CBS, though?
Supply Chain Sustainability 2.0
Most sustainability managers are quite familiar with the story of how Walmart used its influence to drive improvements in the social and environmental performance of its suppliers. But were these improvements really about sustainability performance at all? Not really. Instead, they were mostly about eco-efficiency. Think of this as Supply Chain Sustainability 1.0, and get ready for Supply Chain Sustainability 2.0!
A public plea to GRI: enforce or explain!
In April of this year (2011), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announced its Report or Explain campaign, in which it called upon companies around the world to either report on their sustainability performance or explain why they don’t. We support that campaign, but would also like to see GRI fully enforce its own reporting guidelines or explain why it doesn’t. Of most importance is the ‘sustainability context’ requirement, which GRI clearly does not enforce.
more >......................................................................... GRI/CSO Responses
Are you using context-based metrics yet?
If you’re not using context-based metrics (CBMs) in your organization’s sustainability program, you’re not measuring sustainability performance, per se. Instead, you might be measuring eco-efficiency, citizenship, philanthropy or what have you, but not sustainability performance. In order to measure sustainability performance, impacts must be measured against norms, standards or thresholds that are context-based. Let us show you how!
"If it is possible for a company to score favorably under a particular sustainability doctrine, and yet still be functioning in ways which, if universally applied, would put the sufficiency of vital capital resources and human well-being at risk, then the doctrine itself fails on its face and should be rightly rejected."
Mark W. McElroy, 2012