Sustainability Reporting Program

URL: http://www.sustreport.org

OUR NEW LOOK

John Chenery, our Communications and Design specialist, has just redesigned our home page to give it a fresh new look.

We think it is easier to read at a glance. The new layout, which follows current principles of web page design, gives a quick snapshot of who we are and what we do. Our major links are lined up on the left side of the page, where most sites put their index. We will keep posting new material on the right part of our page.

Please let us know how you like the new layout.

SOME NEW FEATURES

Corporate Environmental and Sustainability Reporting

Last year we put a special focus on the role of business in making sustainable development happen. We created a Sustainable Business page. With sponsorship from Alcan Inc., Mary MacDonald and Kim Peters conducted a major piece of research on how a number of large companies in Canada and abroad are doing in reporting on performance from an integrated, sustainability perspective. The Review of Corporate Sustainability Reporting can be found at, http://www.sustreport.org/business/report/intro.html.

Late last year, we collaborated with David Wheeler of the Schulich School of Business at York University to hold a meeting of corporate experts on environmental and sustainability reporting. That led to Canada’s first summit on Corporate Environmental and Sustainability Reporting, held at the Sheraton Centre hotel in downtown Toronto in May. The conference drew 76 people from Canada and abroad, including those responsible for reporting in some of the biggest corporations. The report of that conference, which provides some important insights into the state of corporate reporting, is available on our web site.

Comparing sustainability performance

Every year for at least a decade, Canadians have been watching the annual release of the United Nations Human Development Index, a scale on which we ranked number one for years. An increasing number of indices are ranking countries on their environmental and sustainability performance. We have created a page to link to these reports.

THANKS TO FORMER SRP TEAM MEMBERS

The Sustainability Reporting Program wants to thank three people who have been working for us recently:

Kim Peters, who has been one of our key people, moved from being our Program Manager to become the Local Agenda 21 Program Officer with the International Council for Local Environmental Activities in Toronto. Fortunately, Kim is staying with SRP as a member of the advisory committee. (Mary Pattenden, one of our founding members, recently left ICELI to become Director, Special Projects with Pollution Probe, another of our founding organizations.)

We also want to thank two of our recent research assistants, who were graduate student assistants from the York University Faculty of Environmental Studies. Michelle Fernando was with us from October 1998 until last December. Ms. Fernando was involved in many of our projects and meetings. Zaheer Abbas Karim was with us for the winter and spring of 2001. He did a major piece of research on sustainable transportation.

UNDER DEVELOPMENT

Updates in content

Great Lakes sustainability report

The Great Lakes region holds the bulk of Canada’s population, industry and fresh water. It is one of the major industrial centres for the United States. For years, governments, businesses and more than 30 million citizens around the basin have been struggling to keep their demands within the limits of this natural resource. This spring, we began developing a Great Lakes sustainability report, a project we have been discussing for some time with Environment Canada’s Great Lakes Environment Office and the York Centre for Applied Sustainability. The work was supported by a contract from Environment Canada. This section will be expanded in coming months. It can be found at, http://www.sustreport.org/lakes/index.htm

Transportation and sustainability report

One of the most difficult sustainability issues is transportation. Our demands for bigger and faster cars keeps growing even as our air quality suffers from smog and our exhaust pipes pump more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Zaheer Abbas Karim, our most recent graduate student assistant from York University, did extensive research on transportation issues and trends. Watch our web site for the results.

Affiliation with the York Centre for Applied Sustainability

The Sustainability Reporting Program was created in 1998 in close collaboration with the York Centre for Applied Sustainability, part of York University. Last year, we entered discussions about becoming a program of YCAS, which would us provide SRP with a clearer identity, an administrative support structure and a non-profit status. The link with York would also give SRP access to new funding sources, particularly government research grants. We hope to conclude the linkage in the near future.

COMPLIMENTS FOR THE SRP

It’s always great to receive unsolicited compliments. Here are some recent ones:

American Society of Civil Engineers
The American Society of Civil Engineers requests permission to place a link to your Web page (<http://sustreport.org/>) from the Web page of its forthcoming revised site (<http://www.asce.org>).

Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants
Michael, I was talking with Ron Nielsen today and he made me aware of your website. I have now visited it and find it very rich and helpful in content - a valuable resource for many organizations.
Alan Willis, Project Director, Canadian Performance Reporting Initiative, Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants

Eartheasy
I have been reviewing your website and want to acknowledge the work you've done. Your site is huge, both in content and concept. You have developed a resource for students, professionals and policy makers that is comprehensive, accessible and most essential. Sustreport.org is easy to get around, the content is convincing by its unbiased presentation, and backed by a solid pedigree.
Greg Seaman - Eartheasy web site, http://www.eartheasy.com/

Global Reporting Initiative
I took a look at your web site and would like to commend you on such a thorough resource.
Mark Brownlie, Global Reporting Initiative Interim Secretariat, http://www.globalreporting.org/

FUNDING

As always with a non-government organization, funding remains a constant challenge. Over the past year we have had funding from a wide variety of sources, including: the Laidlaw Foundation, our original sponsor, Environment Canada, Alcan Limited and DuPont Canada Inc. The May 18 summit on corporate reporting, which was mainly organized through the Schulich School of Business and the Sustainable Enterprise Academy at York, drew funding from the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, Industry Canada, Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte & Touche.

The SRP has recently made an application for funding from a foundation, and a proposal to develop information on indicators for a national organization. We are also part of a proposal with the York Centre for Applied Sustainability for work in communicating research in sustainable development.