Digital reporting functionality
This section provides an overview of new digital technologies,
and how the organizations in our sample are currently using
them.
Web 2.0
One of the objectives of our research was to identify if web 2.0
technologies were being used in sustainability reporting yet. Web
2.0 technologies are generally associated with the creation of
online communities and encouraging user-generated content – i.e.
creating a dialogue around common interests.
One of the most surprising findings of our research is that
organizations do not seem to be using web 2.0 technologies to
change users’ experience of sustainability reporting. More
information on this is available in the section of this site From reporting to dialogue.
XBRL
None of the organizations in our survey used XBRL. In December
2008, Banca Monte Paschi di Siena published the first-ever
sustainability report to use XBRL (for more information see
GRI’s website).
Video
Only one (2.5%) of the organizations in our survey used online
video content within the parameters of primary source of reporting,
although 7 organizations (17.5%) did include or provide links to
videos about sustainability elsewhere on their website.
Videos were used for a variety of purposes on sustainability
websites, including:
- giving an overview of the relevance of sustainability to an organization
- profiling innovations
- providing case studies
- sharing stakeholders’ opinions.
User-controlled information selection
A number of organizations used digital technology to help users
focus on the information that is most relevant to them. Seven
organizations (17.5%) let users download individual chapters, while
an additional 4 organizations (10%) allow users to generate their
own customised reports, either through a PDF creation, bookmarking
or print-basket functionality.
Given that many sustainability reports are created for a
non-specific audience group, this technology can contribute to a
more efficient user experience. Specifically selected sections of a
full online report can be bundled together in a bespoke PDF – which
in some instances is a more convenient format for users to archive
and re-read – suggesting that the PDF will continue to play a role
in the evolution of sustainability reporting.
Access to data
Four organizations (10%) had some form of interactive charting or
data generation tool, giving users the opportunity to reconfigure
data on screen. Of these four organizations, three included this
data within the parameters of their primary source of reporting,
while the other provided the tool in the sustainability section of
their website.
Five organizations (12.5%) gave users the ability to download data.
Three organizations (7.5%) let users download data directly into an
Excel spreadsheet; two organizations (5%) let users download data
as a jpeg image. In 3 of these cases, users had access to 5 years
of data; in the fourth, only one year of data was provided.
None of the organizations that provided interactive tools tagged
their data according to the GRI classification, nor made it
filterable based on the GRI classification of indicators.
Flash
Flash is a web-animation application used commonly in websites that
can also be used to build a report in its entirety. In our sample,
it was more commonly used to create smaller panels of content
within an HTML site.
In total, 11 organizations (27.5 percent) used Flash technology in
their reporting. Of these, Flash was used to serve the following
purposes:
It should be noted that Flash it is not always compatible with the screen reading technologies that make websites accessible for visually disabled report users.
- Take a look at: Shell
- Shell’s online sustainability report lets users create their own personalised PDF report and to produce customised charts with a flash-driven data manipulator (which can then be downloaded to an excel spreadsheet). Elsewhere on the sustainability section of their website, Shell provides a range of videos and interactive, Flash powered games on their sustainability website.
- Take a look at: McDonalds
- McDonalds 2006-2008 reporting, released at the end of 2008, was the only report we found to feature video within the parameters of their online reporting. This report is part of a microsite that integrates sustainability communication – and while features such as a video library and blog are easily accessible, the navigation always clearly shows what content is part of the report, and what sits elsewhere. McDonalds also uses Flash to enhance their communication. Their European operations also produced their last sustainability report as an e-book.
Keep reading: The impact of technology on trust