News

Professor Graham Hubbard’s (Adelaide University) recent research paper suggests that much of the information in CR reports from large companies is not material, not assured, not comparable and provides favourable, rather than balanced reporting. The paper contains recommendations for how to improve sustainability reporting and suggests likely possible future trends that might occur.

The paper was formally launched by Professor Hubbard at the CR Debates held in London on March 27th 2009 (organised by CorporateRegister.com), and can now be downloaded here

Reports from 30 large global companies in three industries were compared on disclosure as opposed to performance on a range of key cross-sectoral CR issues. This approach was supported by the Disclosure Index: a new tool from CorporateRegister.com, developed in conjunction with Professor Hubbard.

The Disclosure Index, which is still in development, is designed to interpret the range and depth of disclosure on CR issues to provide a basis for comparison across companies. In the absence of consistent and comparable performance data, disclosure represents a significant proxy for an organisation’s engagement with CR.

Please direct any questions to Professor Graham Hubbard, Adelaide University graham.hubbard@adelaide.edu.au or Paul Scott, CorporateRegister.com info@corporateregister.com

Posted on April 29, 2009 at 11:40am.