Question

Gringotts is currently one of the few Australian listed companies that have not published an annual corporate sustainability report. Since the sustainability report is voluntary and no executive team member is keen on bureaucracy, it is difficult for them to believe that Gringotts should report its sustainability initiatives. But you think there are good reasons to do this, and you want to convince them to look at it the way you do.

Answer 1

Gringotts should report its sustainability initiatives as doing it will serve several significant purposes and will only benefit the company and its stakeholders in the long run.

First of all a corporate sustainability report will enable the company to measure its economic, environmental and social performance and then communicate it better to its stakeholders. On the basis of this the company will be in a better position to set its goals and hence will be able to manage change in a more effective manner.

This report will detail the company’s competitive positioning based on non-financial parameters and its different initiatives with regards to social, natural as well as human capital. Positive initiatives in this area will make the company more flexible a user of different resources and hence it will be in a better position to deal with changes that will come along when it is using limited resources available to it.

The report will also allow the company to properly communicate its positive initiatives to its different stakeholders. This communication will increase the brand equity of the company in the eyes of the consumers as the will start regarding the company as a responsible entity that is aware of the need to being a responsible user of resources and of the need to give back to the society. This increased brand equity will help the company to increase its competitive positioning in the long run.