Framework and Tools for Environmental Management in Africa

10 Sustainability Reporting

Chapter 10 Sustainability Reporting Introduction Sustainability reporting can be viewed at global, continental, sub-continental, national , sub-national and company level. The notions of sustainability and sustainable development are generally taken to reflect environmental, economic, social and technological spheres; whereas at the corporate level, these spheres are enveloped within the principles of good corporate governance. These include the elements of equity, accountability and transparency. As an emerging phenomenon, sustainability reporting guidelines and initiatives are evolving at all levels. At a corporate level, sustainability reporting encompasses the now widely accepted concept of triple bottom line reporting; focusing on environmental, social, and economic sustainability, as well as good corporate governance. Since reporting at this level traditionally covered economic and/or financial matters adequately, this chapter seeks to highlight and elevate the other, previously neglected elements of reporting including environmental and social dimensions. This chapter presents the fundamentals and applications of these two previously neglected dimensions in reporting and analyses how they have been addressed, particularly at national and company specific levels to sustain Africa’s natural resource heritage. Therefore, the following five sections are critically examined in the chapter: global and national sustainability reporting initiatives; a historical perspective of sustainability in business; company level sustainability reporting guidelines; a global overview of sustainability reporting; and sustainability banking in Africa. Global and National Sustainability Reporting Initiatives This section considers global and national sustainability reporting guidelines and initiatives. Focus is on the following initiatives: the United Nations Indicators of Sustainable Development Framework of 2001; and Yale university’s Environmental Sustainability Index and Environmental Performance indices where work started in 2000. Each of these initiatives will be considered briefly in turn in the next sections. Framework and Tools for Environmental Management in Africa 164 United Nations Indicator Framework Work on the UN programme to set indicators for sustainable development was commissioned by the United Nations Commission of Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in 1995 (United Nations Division for Sustainable Development 2001). This resulted in the publication of a book, Indicators of Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodologies, in 2001. Its purpose was to stimulate and support further work, testing, and the developing of indicators at national government levels. Indicators can provide important guidance for decision making in a number of ways (United Nations Division for Sustainable Development 2004). They can transform physical and social science knowledge into manageable units of information that permit informed decision making in environmental governance. Indicators also assist in measuring progress towards achieving stipulated sustainable development goals. They can provide early warnings where environmental disasters might occur, thereby preventing social and economic losses. No set of indicators can be final and definitive, and are adjusted over time. As early as 1992, the UN’s Agenda 21 called for the need for national governments to draw up indicators to measure their progress towards achieving sustainable development (UN 1992). The 2001 UN indicator framework for measuring sustainable development draws on four pillars of sustainability: social, environmental, economic and institutional (United Nations Division for Sustainable Development 2001), identified in the earlier work on indicators by the Commission on Sustainable Development (United Nations Division for Sustainable Development 1999). Such indicators were grouped as the driving force, state and response characteristics. Driving force denotes human activities, processes and patterns that impact on, either positively or negatively, and shape, sustainable futures. The state indicators give a measure on the condition of sustainable development. Response indicators represent societal actions targeted at moving towards achieving sustainability in various sectors (United Nations Division for Sustainable Development 2001). Although the themes and sub-themes from the indicators were designed to guide national governments , the first three pillars have been widely used to develop themes and subthemes for company level sustainability indicators and reporting initiatives. One hundred and thirty-four indicators were developed between 1996 and 1999, and administered on a voluntary basis to twenty-two countries (United Nations Division for Sustainable Development 1999). The pilot-testing country feedbacks and subsequent work on the indicator framework suggested forty-six key thematic indicators across the four pillars mentioned earlier (Table 10.1). Sustainability Reporting 165 Table 10.1: Key Thematic Indicator Areas Social z Education z Employment z Health/water supply/sanitation z Hounsing z Welfare and quality of life z Cultural heritage z Poverty/income distribution z Crime z Population z Social and ethical values z Role of women z Access to land resources z Community structure z Equity/social exclusion Environmental z Freshwater...