Every two years we review how our members are progressing against their SBC Member Commitments and implementing sustainability within their organisations.
This year, we also assessed 43 sustainability reports against the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Reporting Matters (RM) framework.
The report highlights the broad trends we’re currently seeing in reporting and some of the best practice examples of the different criteria from across the membership. These findings are valuable for all of us to go further, faster, together.
Download the report (PDF)
About the Member Review
Pravin Sawmy, our Membership Manager, talks about the Member Review process and what we found.
Message from Mike Burrell, Executive Director
Sustainability is all about people, communities, the environment and economy. We know that the best businesses are good for people, communities, the environment and economy.
With the impact of Covid-19, and as we drive towards to a zero-carbon future, mainstreaming sustainability and actively demonstrating sustainability within the New Zealand business community has never been more important.
That’s why, every two years, we review how our members are tracking against their Member Commitments* to demonstrate that they are acting on their sustainability strategies and ‘walking the talk’. We also analyse the quality of our members’ reports, and how sustainability is being implemented.
We’ve reviewed the sustainability activity of 95 members, and assessed 43 member reports with a new benchmark. We used, for the first time, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Reporting Matters framework. This internationally recognised framework provides benchmarking and customised feedback, supporting members to navigate the complexities of the corporate reporting landscape.
Thank you for taking the time to participate in the review. This report will continue to be a valuable tool in accelerating your sustainability journey.
It will also be valuable for all our members.
Mike Burrell
Executive Director
* See Appendix 1: SBC member commitments
Highlights include
- Many members are setting emissions reduction targets, and there is an increase of reporting on Scope 3 emissions.
- Applying sustainability to procurement systems continues to be a challenge for many members. This includes determining who has responsibility for this work within a business, and how to apply sustainability to different categories of goods, services, and activating improvement throughout the whole value chain.
- Most of our members’ reports and microsites are accessible and welldesigned, with clear reporting on partnerships and collaborations, and many showed a balanced approach to including commentary about challenges as well as successes.
- Some members are showing more sophisticated approaches, such s applying life-cycle analysis to products and adding sustainability criteria to supplier contracts.
- With very few exceptions, there is a lack of detailed information and insight about how and why a company is aligning its strategy and targets with the Sustainable Development Goals.
