Sustainability is a much-used word – indeed everyone has a claim to it. Paradoxically, this represents one of the biggest obstacles to becoming a more sustainable business community in the long term. Until we have a common understanding and, crucially, a common approach, ’sustainability’ will only be a hot topic for as long as the enthusiasm of individuals is maintained.

Slowly, this is happening: sections of the business community have made great strides towards a holistic definition of the word ’sustainability’, in large part due to the work of groups such as the Global Reporting Initiative and the Corporate Responsibility Index, who have sought to put a measuring and reporting framework around sustainability activities.

However, despite the energy and enthusiasm for the issues central to it, mandatory sustainability reporting across all business sectors is a barely visible goal on the horizon of policymaking in this country.

What’s needed is some hard data on the state of play of sustainability reporting in Australia. When you’re working in the area, it can seem like everyone is a sustainability advocate. But what is the real sentiment across Australia’s boardrooms? What proportion of businesses is engaging in sustainability reporting, or even wants to start?

Only with hard data can we see the gaps, the pressures, the touchpoints where those of us who are pushing for business to take a more responsible approach to our world can target our actions more effectively.

And Australia is about to get those hard data.

As part of a collaboration with Rob Moodie and the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne, and with significant input from St James Ethics Centre, Beaton Research and Consulting and WellmarkPerspexa have just completed the fieldwork for a national survey of over 9,000 business leaders and employees on their attitudes towards sustainability reporting in their organisations. It is the most broad-reaching study into sustainability reporting ever conducted in Australia.

So what’s next? The research team is now entering an intense period of analysis, taking us through the New Year. The findings will be launched early in 2010 and a report will be publicly available.

I’m looking forward to keeping you up to date on the progress of the study on this website – and once it’s released, you’ll be able to download the full report here as well.

This landmark study is a big step towards uniting the business community under one sustainability banner – that taking a long-term view about our people, our productivity and our planet is a fundamental responsibility of all businesses. So how will your triple bottom line measure up when the results come in?

Maia Gould leads the pro bono agenda at Beaton, a world leading B2B research and consulting firm. In 2010, the pro bono element of the firm’s well known Annual Business and Professions Study will focus on sustainability issues in the business community.

Where do you stand?

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