Sustainability and environmental reporting

As part of its sustainable development strategy the Government encourages both companies and public bodies to disclose their sustainability and environmental performance via their annual reports and accounts.

The purpose of this web page is to provide examples of good practice and sources of further information on sustainability and environmental reporting from private and public sector.

Please find below further information on:

Stand alone Sustainability Reports
Sustainability Reporting within Annual Report OFRs
DEFRA Environmental Reporting Guidelines and Environmental KPIs
IFAC Environmental Management Accounting Guidelines
PWC and Environment Agency booklet on Environmental Reporting for the Public Sector
Further Useful Links

1. Stand alone Sustainability Reports

ACCA UK Awards for Sustainability Reporting highlights organisations which have demonstrated good practice (you may also find it useful to refer the winning organisations' latest reports). The aims of these Awards are:

to give recognition to those organisations which report and disclose environmental, social or full sustainability information
to encourage the uptake of environmental, social and sustainability reporting, and
to raise awareness of corporate transparency issues.

2. Sustainability reporting in OFRs

Recent good examples include:

BT (external)
EMAP (external)
Novo Nordisk pp. 52-53 succinctly summarises key financial and non-financial data (external)
The Environment Agency has undertaken research specifically relating to environmental disclosures in Annual Report and Accounts, focussing on OFR's. The Environment Agency website contains its latest annual report and also its studies of Environmental disclosures within the statutory Annual Reports and Accounts of FTSE All-Share companies.,

3. Defra Environmental Reporting Guidelines - Key Performance Indicators

This guide covers how organisations can use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to manage and report their environmental performance. It also sets out which environmental impacts (i.e. which KPIs) are most significant for which business sectors. For 79% of UK business there are 5 or less significant KPIs that all bodies should use to report their environmental performance. The Environmental Reporting page of the DEFRA website includes a link to the Environmental Reporting Guidelines - Key Performance Indicators.

4. IFAC Guidelines on Environmental Management Accounting (EMA)

Working with the UN and Governments from across the globe the IFAC have recently produced the definitive guidelines on EMA. President Graham Ward says "Our goal in issuing this document is to reduce confusion on this important topic and to provide a framework and set of definitions that is comprehensive, yet as consistent as possible with other existing environmental accounting frameworks with which EMA must coexist".

5. A PWC publication supported by the Environment Agency

'Reporting your relationship with the environment: Best practice reporting from the 2005 Building Public Trust Awards (public sector)' a PWC publication supported by the Environment Agency. This has been made available in 2006 for bodies who enter the CIPFA and PWC competition for public reporting.

Building Public Trust Awards

6. Further Useful Links

Emissions Rights Worked Examples
Further information on the kinds of information to be provided in the OFR in respect of environmental and social and community issues can be found on the DEFRA website.
The Prince of Wales has established his Accounting for Sustainability Project to develop systems that will help both public and private sector organisations account more accurately for the wider social and environmental costs of their activities.
CIPFA has launched a Sustainability microsite to raise awareness amongst CIPFA members about the development of the topic area. The site will communicate current developments and relevant information to members.
ICAEW also have links to information on Corporate Responsibility, including their document, Sustainability: the role of accountants