ABBOTT STRATEGIES
5178 Agate lane
Victoria, B.C. CANADA
V8Y 2L9
Tel: 250-888-9406
Web: abbottstrategies.com
Email: rob.abbott@shaw.ca
We want to hear from you – your thoughts about business strategy and sustainability, questions you’re trying to answer, ideas you want to bounce off someone. Think of us as a resource to help you learn more and do more.
In framing any decision, do the following:
- Think about your children – take the long view.
- Protect natural capital.
- Don’t wait for someone else.
- Don’t wait for regulation.
- Encourage others to follow.
- Talk about what you’re doing, and why.
- Don’t be "top down" or "bottom up", be both.
- Encourage, and reward, your colleagues and stakeholders.
- Swim upstream.
Less is More in Sustainability Reporting
The emergence and (tentative) mainstreaming of sustainability has helped unlock new sources of innovation and opportunity for business – to say nothing of helping to reduce humanity’s footprint on the Earth. That ‘s the good news. The bad news is that in the rush to demonstrate their sustainability credibility, many companies are spending too much time and money on sustainability reports groaning under the weight of too many “metrics” and “indicators”. By way of example, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines – an influential set of sustainability reporting tools – suggest up to 81 indicators! Even the Balanced Scorecard, the most influential strategy measurement template of the past decade, recommends 20-25 measures. These one-size fits all efforts don’t really speak to or “fit” anyone. Worse, tracking too many measures may cause managers to lose sight of the few that really drive the achievement of strategic objectives. Hence, less is actually more when it comes to measuring and communicating sustainability performance.
