On Wednesday 21 April 2010, Beaton Research and Consulting, in collaboration with The Nossal Institute for Global Health and WellmarkPerspexa, will present the findings from Australia’s most broad-reaching study into business sustainability.

The research

• Scope: A national survey of more than 10,000 leaders and employees of Australian businesses
• Aim: To identify the stimulus for and obstacles against businesses engaging in sustainability reporting

Initial findings

The research profiles the attitudes of more than 10,000 leaders and employees of Australian businesses towards sustainability reporting and their experiences with this emerging initiative. While the formal report is still being finalised, the initial findings make for compelling reading. We’ve identified that there are, and will be, significant supply chain pressures on all businesses to demonstrate their sustainability credentials, and that organisations that currently think sustainability reporting is irrelevant to them will be getting a wake-up call in the not too distant future. There are also extremely interesting implications for small-to-medium sized enterprises, professional associations and professional service firms, who are less likely to have yet adopted a formal approach to sustainability reporting.

An in-depth report summarising the research findings will be available on this website from Thursday 22 April 2010. The findings will also be publicised at a public launch to be held at The University of Melbourne on April 21. A panel discussion will feature:

• Dr George Beaton, Executive Chairman, Beaton Research and Consulting
• Dr Rebecca Sheils, Director of Research, Beaton Research and Consulting
• Andrew MacLeod, CEO, Committee for Melbourne
• Alex Malley, CEO, CPA Australia
• Professor Rob Moodie, Chair of Global Health, The Nossal Institute for Global Health and Chair of the National Preventative Health Taskforce
• Professor Craig Pearson, Director, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute

Alex Malley’s talk will be particularly interesting – CPA Australia is the first professional accounting body in the world to produce a sustainability report that was both independently assured and checked by the GRI. The experiences of CPA Australia in breaking this new ground will be invaluable to organisations thinking of making the move.

The launch is invitation only and places are strictly limited; however, if you are interested, please contact Lynda Dean at Beaton on (03) 9829 0000 to check availability.

In the meantime

For those who want to act now, a useful resource is the Good Business Register. The website is managed by St James Ethics Centre, the hub for the GRI and United Nations Global Compact in Australia. Their resources are essential reading for anyone interested in best-practice sustainability reporting.

And while you wait for the findings, you may also like to comment on how you feel about sustainability reporting. Are you experiencing pressures from clients and other stakeholders to demonstrate your commitment to sustainability? Are sustainability credentials affecting your supply chain? Is sustainability reporting on your organisation’s agenda? If not, why not?

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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