Engaging Stakeholders Program
Since 1998, SustainAbility’s Engaging Stakeholders Program has provided a unique forum on corporate accountability, reporting, disclosure, and stakeholder engagement.
The Program membership represents a small, select community of committed corporate members, comprised of executives and practitioners who seek a frank exchange with SustainAbility’s team and like-minded peers.
Stakeholder trust and confidence in the world of business has suffered severe blows in the wake of corporate malpractice. Improved transparency and accountability is instrumental to restore this trust. Our Program's focus on reporting and stakeholder engagement provide businesses with opportunities by building reputation and brand equity, creating market differentiation and value, and improving staff recruitment and retention.
In addition to raising corporate standards, the Program has the ambition to equip participants with the compelling arguments, evidence and best-practice tools to succeed as internal change-agents and reach their ambition for a more just and sustainable future.
Benefits
Consulting and Feedback
Members value the Program’s one-on-one coaching and consulting which provides them with the opportunity to improve the efficiency and performance of CSR-related activities. A dedicated liaison from SustainAbility works with each member, providing a window into SustainAbility’s expertise in stakeholder engagement and reporting, and providing ad hoc consultancy throughout the year.
Members gain access to the Learn from the Leaders database. This online, searchable database contains hundreds of best practice examples of sustainability reporting.
Each year, members receive feedback on their sustainability reporting. Members choose the type of feedback most relevant to their reporting needs:
- The Pre-Publication Review gives invaluable expert guidance and headline feedback to enable fine-tuning and learning for the future.
- The Report Assessment rigorously identifies strengths and weaknesses in current reporting and highlights areas of focus for strategic improvement. It is based on SustainAbility’s time-tested methodology and is benchmarked to the results of numerous other assessments.
- Other focused Strategic Analysis provides in depth evaluation of specific issues or stakeholder groups. This offering is currently being leveraged to move the focus beyond traditional sustainability reports.
Member Interactions
Members also gain access to a unique network of peers dedicated to sustainability. They have opportunities every year to engage with this privileged network:
Workshops are held in the Americas and Europe each year. Run over one to two days, the workshops encourage member companies to debate current challenges and share recent innovations with their peers. Recent topics have included: future skills for CSR professionals in 2012, issue identification and prioritization (materiality), engaging mainstream investors, implementation of the GRI G3 Guidelines, novel approaches to assurance, the business case for sustainability reporting, and the paradox of reporting on innovation.
Our Virtual Seminar Series provides succinct hour-long discussions on a specific topic. These seminars provide opportunities for Member Companies to explore timely issues and challenges. It is also the medium by which SustainAbility provides customized presentations of its most recent research reports and publications.
Member Surveys explore practical questions related to reporting and stakeholder engagement. They provide practitioners with insight on peer initiatives as well as a rough benchmark against which they can gauge their own activities. Recent surveys include “The Nuts and Bolts of Non-Financial Reporting” and “Stakeholder Engagement – Behind the Scenes.”
Current Members
Members become part of a group of business leaders who have a serious commitment to becoming leaders in the fields of stakeholder engagement, sustainability reporting and sustainability as a whole. The following link will take you to a list of current members.
Program members are able to access information such as roundtable proceedings and accompanying presentations via the Engaging Stakeholders members' area of the SustainAbility website.
For further information and membership costs, please contact:
Jean-Philippe Renaut
Engaging Stakeholders Program Manager
Tel +44(0)20 7269 6928
renaut@sustainability.com
