SRI World Group, Inc., a leading provider of social investment and corporate responsibility information services, today announced the launch of OneReport (www.one-report.com). This new global electronic reporting network enables companies to more efficiently report their social, environmental, economic and corporate governance information to investors, the financial community and other stakeholders. Over 50 multi-national companies from around the world, including 22 Fortune 100 companies, participated in the development of OneReport.
"OneReport will help DuPont distribute its corporate sustainability data in a common format for analysis and ratings," according to Dawn Rittenhouse, Director of Sustainability at DuPont. "OneReport will also save us time and money," continued Rittenhouse.
"Shell is proud to be a founding member of OneReport, which we see as a promising way to help companies report more transparently, consistently and efficiently on their environmental and social performance," said Mark Weintraub, Director Sustainable Development Strategy, Policy & Reporting at Shell. "We believe it can develop into a powerful tool to help the financial community recognize and more accurately assess how companies are managing their non-financial risks and capturing the business opportunities from sustainable development."
Over the past 10 years, specialized corporate research firms and other organizations have been using social and environmental surveys to collect much of their data. While these surveys have helped to provide important insight into corporate sustainability, their growing numbers, complexity, and overlap have created a headache for companies trying to manage their reporting in a systematic manner. This problem is commonly known amongst companies and the research community as survey fatigue.
OneReport is the first true solution to survey fatigue, said Jay Falk, President of SRI World Group. In addition to streamlining the reporting process, OneReport will reduce the overall cost of reporting sustainability information to the marketplace, he added.
OneReport is the worlds first reporting system that seamlessly connects publicly traded companies with the firms that research corporate social and environmental performance for institutional investors. More than 20 research firms worldwide have made a commitment to collect sustainability data through OneReport. These firms cover over 4,000 companies in 25 countries and will use the data to construct stock indexes and create institutional-level research products that are used to help make investment and proxy voting decisions.
OneReport offers companies online data and knowledge management capabilities that facilitate the reporting process. For example, OneReport enables companies to collect, review and approve a wide range of sustainability data from different departments and facilities. Companies can also use OneReport to establish an audit trail, thereby making information on sustainability policies, programs and performance metrics more readily audited and easier to report in future years.
In addition to reporting to research firms, OneReport can also be used to create reports based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. The tools featured in OneReport help companies understand the scope of GRI reporting and identify data that can be included in their GRI report. AccountAbilitys AA1000 Assurance Standard provides the basis for additional functionality that will assist users in determining the extent and quality of assurance of the data. Data distribution services offered through OneReport disseminate the data to research firms and other organizations via the Web or through standard or customized XML data feeds.
Many companies have been demanding greater "materiality" from the research community. In response to this trend, OneReport features a feedback system that will help improve the relevancy of data requests on an ongoing basis. OneReport should provide a flexible platform for companies to deliver material information about their sustainability performance, a crucial piece of the accountability puzzle going forward, according to Simon Zadek, CEO of London-based AccountAbility.
