Karen Dearne | July 01, 2008
WITH all the talk of social responsibility reporting and sustainability management, it's easy to be cynical.
What do these things mean, and are they really important?
Richard Boele, founder and director of sustainability consultancy Banarra, says the aim is to help companies become good corporate citizens and then keep them honest by conducting regular audits.
"Businesses are being challenged by changing social expectations," he says.
"Being a good company right now means understanding your carbon footprint and doing what you can to reduce it.
"Some people are pretty cynical, and say this is really just a case of greenwashing.
"In fact, though, our clients are asking us to prove that it's not just greenwashing."
Boele says companies that adopt green garb simply for the sake of looking green may damage their brand more than if they had done nothing.
"Recruitment is one of the prime motivators for sustainability and social reporting," he says.
"It's a very competitive employment market right now and bright young grads aren't asking how much the job pays, they're asking what's the company's environmental impact, and how it really treats its people.
"If you are looking to hire the best people, an organisation needs to be seen as repsonsible."
Corporate sustainability is a niche (advice and assurance services are largely in the hands of the big accountancy firms) but Banarra is punching above its weight, thanks to the robust methodology it has developed.
Banarra's clients includes Westpac, Fuji Xerox, Stockland and Hydro Tasmania. They hire Banarra to rigorously audit their internal systems and public statements against benchmarks such as the AA1000AS Assurance Standard.
They also want to measure progress on issues such as gender balance, flexible working conditions, cultural values and carbon emissions.
"The key here is being credible. I talk about us being in the trust business," Boele says.
"You can't really improve your sustainability performance without building trust in what you're doing."
The first problem, of course, is identifying the issues, and that involves gathering and then analysing a huge amount of data from a very wide range of sources.
Boele stumbled across the NVivo software tool for qualitative research, developed by Australian firm QSR International, a number of years ago when Banarra was developing its audit and assurance services.
"I was working with someone who was doing a PhD in understanding how NVivo was being used in academic research," he says. "I saw it and just thought, that was is exactly what we needed to solve the problems we were having.
"Academics doing a PhD are typically confronted with a bucketload of data and information, particularly in a social science context, where it is qualitative.
"They need to make sense of it." Boele bought NVivo 2.0, and had some training with an expert user, "and it became apparent very quickly that it had the functionality we needed".
Now Banarra has installed NVivo 8.0, "and, if anything, we've just scratched the surface of the potential that it gives us in the sustainability context".
Worldwide, NVivo software is used by police forces, public policy researchers and economists, market researchers and in communications.
In Australia, Econnect uses it to help farmers manage responses to climate variability.
QSR says the latest version allows users to work with and analyse almost any piece of information in any language, including videos, interview recordings, documents, photos, media clips, podcasts and music.
"The software provides a much deeper level of analysis than any other program on the market," QSR chief executive John Owen says.
"You can test theories, identify trends and cross-examine your information in a multitude of ways using its search engine and query functions.
"You can make your own observations in the software and build a body of evidence to support your case or project."
Boele says the improved stability of version 8 is appreciated, "because we pour an enormous amount of information into NVivo, and we do stress the program at times".
Typically, Banarra would collect data from interviews with management, staff and customers, examine internal surveys, review internal documents, such as policies, and meet with outside stakeholders.
Other information from internet-based research on issues and standards, plus reviews of peers' sustainability reports, would also be examined.
Banarra has developed a register of material, or important, performance criteria, and uses these to interrogate the data.
It can also differentiate issues by layering or cutting the data.
The software and methodology is now also used to help develop sustainability advice for clients.
Last year, Banarra conducted a social impact assessment for a mine site in Western Australia.
"NVivo has become a core tool for us," he says.
"Our clients tells us we're competitive with the big players because of the innovative methods we're using."
Corporate social and sustainability reporting has begun to take off locally, particularly among listed companies, and Boele says several hundred firms are producing some sort of environmental or health and safety report.
"Westpac, a client of ours for many years, and ANZ are now in a very competitive position as to which is the most sustainable and responsible bank.
"NAB is also doing its own reporting, so you've actually got the whole banking sector recognising that it needs to be seen to be responsible."