Information required at board level and to be published, on environmental and social policies

Information required to be supplied at board level would depend on the cmpany’s ongoing attitude to environmental and social issues

Type A Company
Company that the view that environmental and social issues are of no concern

1. The company would therefore only be interested in ensuring that current legal requirements were met and that the cost of adverse publicity was avoided.

2. An individual should become responsible for monitoring social and environmental developments and advise the board if or when the company was required to take additional steps.

3. Disclosure would be kept to a minimum, and would concentrate on practices that were of benefit to the community at large, rather than those that may be of interest to competitors.


Type B Company
Company who are environmental and socially responsible as there is a substantial interest amongst consumers and investment fund managers

1. The company may report on environmental and social issues as part of its competitive strategy.

2. Information required would then increase significantly.

3. A study would need to be conducted into what was considered to be best practice.

4. This would identify the investment requirements of the ethical investment funds and the current thinking on environmental and social issues by the various pressure groups, such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace.

5. The company then establish a formal code of challenging targets (such as 95% of packaging used should be made of recycled materials) to be achieved on these environmental and social issues and report on how these targets were being met.

6. This report could be included as part of the normal reporting package.

7. Areas in which the company was particularly successful and which were not commercially damaging (such as a change in product design) could then be included in the Annual Report.




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