The main triggers for sustainability reporting in China are raising
image, supporting government policies, increased enterprise management
awareness and media pressure, a CSR consultancy has concluded after
studying 20 reports and interviewing more than 40 experts and
professionals.
SynTao, based in Beijing, found that the public, consumers,
non-governmental organizations and local communities had little
influence on whether a company reported. SynTao believed that
sustainability reporting certainly promoted image, enhanced
communications, stimulated CSR implementation, attracted investment,
raised a company’s ability to manage risk and improved performance.
However, it did not seem to enable companies to attract the best
employees or to innovate.
The consultancy said the main factors impeding the development of
sustainability reporting were poor awareness among management and a
lack of stakeholder requests for the information.
SynTao said: ‘We found the Chinese sustainability reports do relatively
well in terms of their presentation of performance, governance and
strategy. Yet, at the same time, we found that Chinese sustainability
reports are not strong in management indicators, nor did they do well
in the areas of accessibility of information and assurance.’
The conclusions are set out in SynTao’s report, A journey to discover values.
