The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty a fad, argued the president of the bank advising Henry Ford not to invest in such new fangled nonsense. The media, predictably myopic, argued similarly when The Body Shop International published its Values Report in early 1996, the worlds first, externally audited, sustainability report by a publicly listed company.
So started my reflection on the short history and (hopefully) long and productive future of corporate sustainability reporting, published by the Centre for Corporate Governance in Africa along with UNEP and other friends in a report entitled Making Investment Grade: the Future of Corporate Reporting, just launched at Rio+20. Edited by ex-UNEP Cornis van der Lugt and South Africa-based Daniel Malan, the volume is full of goodies for those interested in the life and times of corporate sustainability reporting. My short piece is continued below.
Read the full article by Simon Zadk by following the link.
