Online reporting keeps the impact down

Several major companies have started using the internet to square a circle on their corporate communications, getting their message across on their environmental and social performance, without burdening the environment with too many weighty printed reports. Cable and Wireless neatly captures the point of this by calling its 1999/000 CER Making an Impact, while EMI Group has used the transfer of its full report to the Web as an opportunity for putting out a snappy-looking little printed call to action targeted specifically at its staff, Could this be you? Another good example is BT, one of the standard bearers in the reporting field since it first started communicating on its environmental performance back in 1992. Its environmental report 2000, entitled Commitment Delivers Results, records “a very successful year for our environmental programme” in 1999, the highlight being the achievement of ISO14001 certification for all its UK operations.

The second annual sustainability report from TXU Europe - yes, published in full on the internet with only a summary version going out in paper form - gives details of reductions achieved last year in office electricity, road fuel, NOx and SO 2 pollution, and total greenhouse gas emissions (down by 16%). The report also sets out the company’s sustainability principles and social policy, intended as a framework for responsible triple-bottom- line decision-making.

A further crop of reports has been hitting the doormat in traditional form, typically proclaiming their scrupulous choice of recycled, recyclable and biodegradable paper stock. Notable among them is the For Today and Tomorrow report for 2000 from United Utilities. This is the first time United Utilities has combined its social and environmental impact reports in one publication. The company was able to post it out in August with an accompanying letter celebrating having won the overall Impact on Society gong at the previous month’s Business in the Community (BITC) Awards.

Cable & Wireless, 020 7528 2000;  www.cwplc.com
BT, 020 7356 5000; www.bt.com/epr2000
EMI, 020 7355 4848;  www.emigroup.com/enviro
TXU Europe, 01473 553401;
www.txu-europe. com/sustainability
United Utilities, 01925 285000; www.unitedutilities.com
BITC, 0870 600 2482

29 May 2001