CSR Report Assessment and Stakeholder Engagement
| Region(s) | Alberta, Canada |
|---|---|
| In domains | CBSR, Energy Sector, Stakeholder Engagement |
| Participants | Canadian Business for Social Responsibility - CBSR |
CBSR was contracted by a large energy transportation corporation that constructs and maintains oil and gas pipelines throughout North America and in some international locations.
Since 2001, the company has issued an annual CSR report, outlining performance on economic, social and environmental aspects of their business. Various methods have been employed to acquire feedback from stakeholders on the company’s reporting content and process. In 2008,
CBSR reviewed the draft 2008 report and assisted in acquiring feedback from stakeholders on the previous year’s report.
Our approach to this project was to:
(1) Help the company identify and map relevant stakeholder groups. The stakeholder mapping process identified a wide range stakeholders from civil society, government, business, academician and aboriginal groups. Stakeholders were then prioritized to establish a reasonable list of potential interviewees.
(2) Gather and collate feedback from select stakeholders. Nine interviews were conducted, focusing primarily on stakeholder’s perception of the 2007 CSR report. Interviews ranged from 30 – 60 minutes.
(3) Conduct a complete assessment of the company’s draft 2008 CSR report. Using CBSR’s Report Assessment Tool, the draft report was thoroughly reviewed from a perspective of CSR reporting principles (report content) and communication principles (report style).
CBSR also incorporated questions on general CSR perception and performance into the stakeholder interview questionnaire. These questions reveled what stakeholders perceived to be the greatest CSR challenges the company faced, how they viewed the company’s performance on stakeholder engagement and where the company fared compared to other industry players.
The results and recommendations from the Report Assessment Tool were provided in a midterm report, while the stakeholder feedback was featured in the final report in combination with key observations from the Report Assessment Tool. Key findings from the final report were presented to the company.
Recommendations focused on short-term goals to be incorporated in the company's 2008 CSR report as well as long-term strategic objectives for future reports and CSR planning in general. The most immediate suggestions focused on the need for an expansion of the company’s CSR mission and vision and improved contextual discussion of the integration of CSR into its business strategy. This need for context was also confirmed by interviewees, who appreciated the report’s high level and transparency, but felt that some explanation was needed on the materiality of certain CSR issues. Combining the results of the stakeholder interviews with the Report Assessment Tool, CBSR also identified the need to amplify the number social performance indicators, expand the discussion of CSR challenges and shorten the overall report length.
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