Corporate Social Responsibility A new way to communicate with stakeholders

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Corporate Social Responsibility - A new way to
communicate with stakeholders?

• Philip Dewhurst
• Director of Corporate Affairs, BNFL

10 February 2004
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Developing a reporting programme for Corporate
Social Responsibility

• Why do we report on CSR?
• How we do report on CSR?
• Our experience
• Best practice

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Why?
INCREASING EXPECTATIONS OF GOOD CORPORATE
CITIZENSHIP
BUSINESS PERFORMANCE
STAKEHOLDER EXPECTATIONS AND PRESSURE
Economic Stakeholders
Social Stakeholders
Environmental Stakeholders
Companies are increasingly being judged on more
than financial performance
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How we report?
1. Identify Reporting requirements

• How meaningful is the information ?
• How comprehensive is the information ?
  (organisational coverage)
• How consistent is the measurement of the
  information ?
• How accurate is the information ?

• What do our stakeholders want us to report ?
• What do we currently measure ?
• What is current best practice in reporting ?

2. Ensure data quality
Continuous improvement and maturity of reporting
3. Prepare report
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Our experience

• For BNFLs first CSR Report
• What must we report on?
• What should we report on?
• What can we report on?
• Who is it aimed at?
• What do we want to say ?
• What do they want to know ?

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Our experience

• We aimed at internal audience, key decision
  makers
• We wanted to describe what CSR means to BNFL how
  it will be embedded in the company and how it
  will be managed
• We used the National Stakeholder Dialogue, key
  stakeholder research, MORI survey results to find
  out what our stakeholders wanted to know

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Our experience

• KEY ISSUES FROM STAKEHOLDER SURVEYS
• TRUST
• TRANSPARENCY
• DISCHARGES TO ENVIRONMENT, WASTE MANAGEMENT,
  PLUTONIUM AND REPROCESSING, SECURITY AND
  SAFEGUARDS, GLOBAL WARMING (ENERGY WHITE PAPER)

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What should we report on?

• It was recognised that the report must reflect
  the stage of development of CSR within BNFL.
• Report on
• Strategy work on CSR
• Data used for EHS Report and financial report
• Issues
• Report contents
• our commitment
• performance reporting framework( triple bottom
  line)
• issues
• CSR in our business operations and the next step
• Did not use a set reporting format e.g. GRI

IN ORDER TO GAIN TRUST AND DEMONSTRATE
TRANSPARENCY IT MUST BE A TRUE AND FAIR VIEW
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Our experience Verification

• VERIFICATION
• Considered essential in demonstrating
  transparency
• Used Ernst and Young because they are our
  financial auditors (consistency)
• Verification consisted of
• corporate interviews
• site visits
• text verification

Verification ensures that the report is based on
fact rather than myths and legends. It can also
identify areas where the report understates a
companies performance
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Our experience The Next Steps

• THE NEXT STEPS
• feedback form included in report
• footprinting exercise to improve information on
  impact of sites
• expanding the approach to stakeholder dialogue
• increasing the role of verification

ESTABLISHING A PLATFORM OF TRUST
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Issues for the Nuclear Industry

• The industry has a clear role in sustainable
  development
• generation of carbon free electricity
• cleanup of legacy waste (restoring the
  environment)
• However
• Lack of trust of society in industry,
  governments, science
• Society has a range of issues with the nuclear
  industry that they want someone to be accountable
  for
• In order to demonstrate to society that it can be
  sustainable, the industry must
• show that it is effectively managing these issues
• be transparent about its performance

REPORTING IS PART OF THIS PROCESS
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Issues for the Nuclear industry
ISSUES for SOCIETY
Companies
Security
Safety
International Bodies
Who owns them ?
Economics
Industry
Waste Management
National Governments
Pollution
TRUST
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CSR Best Practice

• CSR reporting still relatively new
• Should be an integral part of an organisations
  operations
• Demonstrates that economic, social and
  environmental benefits are all possible at the
  same time.
• Not a fad - it is the way to do good business
• Of the UK FTSE 100 Companies in 2003
• 55 have a full html CSR web section
• 29 produced a printed full CSR report, 14 more
  than last year
• A further 16 produced a printed combined
  environmental and social report
• Research by CGI Brandsense

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BNFL CSR strategy 2003/4