North American CSR reports are improving in quality and disclosure, although they still sometimes omit ‘key topics of interest to stakeholders’, say the judges of the continent’s main reporting awards.
The 11-strong judging panel of the North American Awards for Sustainability Reporting, organized by the Boston-based sustainability network Ceres and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, found increasing communication of the links between sustainability strategies and financial performance, a rise in stakeholder inclusion, and documents that were generally more accessible to readers. There was also greater use of target setting in reports.
General Electric received the Best Sustainability Report award. Other winners, from 97 nominations, included the Ball packaging company and the anti-virus software specialist Symantec, which jointly won the Best First-Time Report award, and computer manufacturer Dell, which gained a commendation for its ‘emerging issues’ reporting.
