Greenience: Eco-Pragmatist: 5 Steps to Getting Started with Corporate Sustainability Reporting

Companies of many different sizes, in many different industries, are engaging in Corporate Sustainability Reporting. The level of reporting runs the gamut from a single web page outlining sustainable business practices, to formal G3 Application Level A+ GRI Reports. For many companies, there is a fundamental question that is tripping them up: "Where do we start?".

If your company is stuck at "Where do we start?", here's your answer: "Start ANYWHERE!"

While certainly valuable, it's not even necessary to have a clearly articulated Sustainability Strategy - you can work on that either along with your initial CSR Reporting effort - or use your CSR Reporting initiative as 'pre-work' for developing your Sustainability Strategy.

Here's a list of five steps to get you started on 'starting anywhere':

Ideally, engage the right stakeholders from across the company. Who are the 'right stakeholders'? Start with the ENTIRE executive level team - ALL areas of your business are part of this. If for some reason you're unable to accomplish this - you've clearly got some education and awareness building to work on, but don't let that stop you. Proceed with the stakeholders you are able to bring to the table. It's not uncommon for a company's initial reporting to come from just one or two functions - most typically Environment, Health & Safety and/or Facilities. Again, while it's the 'getting started' that's most important - it's equally important to continue to work on engaging any lagging stakeholders.
While there are specific reporting guidelines available from more than one source, it doesn't really matter - you can literally spend less than an hour brainstorming the areas of your business and relevant items to include in your initial reporting. If even that sounds intimidating - here's an accelerator: What are your different sources of energy usage?
It's OK that you don't have all the answers - here are some considerations for handling 'not having the answers':

It's acceptable to state in your reporting that you don't have the answers,
You can state that the goal for your next report is to work toward finding the answers,
Start working to identify the various sources of data you require,
Compile your data and structure your report in a way that makes sense to your organization (you can utilize frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative to help)

Publish your initial findings online - they will serve as a launching point for your continuing focus. Publish a single web page if that's all the content you have. You don't need to build out an entire 'subsite' devoted to your CSR Reporting (although many larger companies are doing just that). You can also compile a more formal 'printable' report and provide it as a PDF download on your company website. Whatever you do, DON'T publish a printed version of your CSR Report (it's very poor CSR etiquette).
Go back to Step 1 and repeat. Now you'll have a baseline to drive the stakeholder discussions.