Corporate Social Responsibility - A new way to communicate with stakeholders?

Philip DewhurstDirector of Corporate Affairs, BNFL10 February 2004

Developing a reporting programme for Corporate Social Responsibility

• Why do we report on CSR?• How we do report on CSR?• Our experience• Best practice

Why?

EconomicStakeholders

Social Stakeholders

Environmental Stakeholders

STAKEHOLDER EXPECTATIONS AND PRESSURE

BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

INCREASING EXPECTATIONS OF GOOD CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP

Companies are increasingly being judged on more than financial performance

How we report?

•What do our stakeholders want us to report ?

•What do we currently measure ?•What is current best practice in reporting ?

•How meaningful is the information ?•How comprehensive is the information ? (organisational coverage)•How consistent is the measurement of the information ? •How accurate is the information ?

•How accessible is the report to stakeholders ?•Is it a true and fair view of performance ? (Can the report be verified ?)

2. Ensure data quality

3. Prepare report

Continuous improvement and maturity of reporting

1. Identify Reporting requirements

Our experience

For BNFL’s first CSR Report

What must we report on?

What should we report on?

What can we report on?

Who is it aimed at?

What do we want to say ?

What do they want to know ?

Our experience

We aimed at internal audience, key decision makers

We wanted to describe what CSR means to BNFL; how it will be embedded in the company and how it will be managed

We used the National Stakeholder Dialogue, key stakeholder research, MORI survey results to find out what our stakeholders wanted to know

Our experience

KEY ISSUES FROM STAKEHOLDER SURVEYS :

TRUST TRANSPARENCY

DISCHARGES TO ENVIRONMENT, WASTE MANAGEMENT, PLUTONIUM AND REPROCESSING, SECURITY AND SAFEGUARDS, GLOBAL WARMING (ENERGY WHITE PAPER)

What should we report on?

It was recognised that the report must reflect the stage of development of CSR within BNFL.

Report on– Strategy work on CSR– Data used for EH&S Report and financial report – Issues

Report contents – our commitment; – performance reporting framework( triple bottom line); – issues; – CSR in our business operations and the next step

Did not use a set reporting format e.g. GRI

IN ORDER TO GAIN TRUST AND DEMONSTRATE TRANSPARENCY IT MUST BE A TRUE AND FAIR VIEW

Our experience: Verification

VERIFICATION

•Considered essential in demonstrating transparency

•Used Ernst and Young because they are our financial auditors

(consistency)

•Verification consisted of :

•corporate interviews

•site visits

•text verificationVerification ensures that the report is based on fact rather than “myths and

legends”. It can also identify areas where the report understates a companies performance

Our experience: The Next Steps

THE NEXT STEPS–feedback form included in report–footprinting exercise to improve information on impact of sites

–expanding the approach to stakeholder dialogue–increasing the role of verification

ESTABLISHING A PLATFORM OF TRUST

Issues for the Nuclear Industry

The industry has a clear role in sustainable development :–generation of carbon free electricity–cleanup of legacy waste (restoring the environment)

However–Lack of trust of society in industry, governments, science –Society has a range of issues with the nuclear industry that they want someone to be accountable for

In order to demonstrate to society that it can be sustainable, the industry must –show that it is effectively managing these issues–be transparent about its performance

REPORTING IS PART OF THIS PROCESS

Issues for the Nuclear industry

ISSUES for SOCIETY

Companies

Industry

NationalGovernments

International Bodies

Safety

WasteManagement

Security

Economics

Pollution TRUST

Who owns them ?

CSR Best Practice

CSR reporting still relatively newShould be an integral part of an organisation’s operationsDemonstrates that economic, social and environmental

benefits are all possible at the same time. Not a fad - it is the way to do good business

Of the UK FTSE 100 Companies in 2003*:– 55 have a full html CSR web section– 29 produced a printed full CSR report, 14 more than last year

– A further 16 produced a printed combined environmental and social report

*Research by CGI Brandsense

BNFL CSR strategy 2003/4