Purists would claim that ‘CSR is about doing good when no one knows’, negating the need for a proper and structured report. In an ideal world without stakeholders that maxim would hold true.

To withhold information of CSR initiatives defeats the purpose of doing CSR in the first place.

CSR Reporting or Sustainability Reporting provides stakeholders with quantifiable data on each and every aspect of the CSR programmes which affect them.

The linear progression of CSR toward sustainable development brings the inevitable fact that CSR/Sustainability Reporting will form the basis of future business decisions.


CSR, its advocates say, will have to form an integral part of a company's strategy and its core values.

Companies will find they can ill afford not to embrace it and, by the same token, can ill afford not to communicate how they embrace it.

Over the last few years, we have seen a discernible and growing trend for investment preferences to be increasingly geared toward ethical or socially responsible investment in line with personal moral, ethical and religious values.

This in turn serves as a catalyst for CSR to adopt and disclose their CSR policies and performance


Corporate responsibility reporting in industrialised countries has clearly entered the mainstream.

We have observed an increasing professionalism in the form of new global reporting standards, standards that can be used to provide assurance on corporate responsibility reports.


Organisations have spent significant amounts on revamping operations and adopting these CSR practices.

Companies have recognized and understood the business case for good CSR but all these have gone to waste because of lacklustre CSR reporting.

Effective CSR reporting should not be about volume, but should enable stakeholders to make informed decisions relevant to their interests. A key issue for many companies is how to decide what they should report - what are the really significant or material issues for users, rather than what they can report.

<