Learn from your experiences. Take a stark look your previous reporting and consider which areas need to be developed. It is this feedback that you can build into the content gathering process. If a particular section last year looked a bit too vague, challenge your content owners to dig deeper and elevate that interesting content.
In our research we found that over 94% of brands used the cliché “we are committed” as a catchall for anything, whether it is a concrete commitment or not. Make sure that you’re using the word “committed” to reflect the real meaning of the word. Better yet, couple it with the quantitative and qualitative evidence to demonstrate how your commitment translates in practice. Doing so will build trust in your reporting and your brand.
If you find that there isn’t enough substance to support your claim, shift towards more transparent and balanced language to paint a realistic picture. Honesty really is the best policy.
Unify reporting language
As an agency who pioneered annual reporting decades ago, we have read and written our fair share of reports. With sustainability reports, we often find a disconnect between different writing styles depending on the author of the section. It can go from highly technical jargon-filled language in one chapter, to cliché-ridden prose the next. There is a need to unify reporting language.
One way to achieve this is by having one owner that oversees the different sections of the report. We know that taking a cursory view is difficult when dealing with the tight deadlines. But taking the time to review the report as a whole will enable you to spot inconsistencies and remedy in time.
