Procter & Gamble has tried to tackle the problem of American bias in its sustainability reports by handing the control of their editorial content to offices outside the US.
The company, which has its headquarters in the US, has produced its second sustainability report in the UK. Next year’s version will also be edited outside the US, though no decision has yet been made on where.
This year’s report editor, Chris Smith, who works at P&G’s corporate sustainable development unit in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, said the move had been agreed after some stakeholders complained that last year’s debut sustainability report was ‘too American’ for a multinational that has operations in more than 70 countries and employs some 110,000 people worldwide.
P&G staff from the US, Brussels, Japan and Venezuela helped to produce the company’s second report.
The idea of a ‘revolving’ editorial seat was one of a number of changes prompted by stakeholder feedback and recent revisions to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines.
The GRI was set up in 1997 to design globally applicable guidelines for sustainability reporting. P&G is one of the companies which has been piloting the guidelines and used them to compile its latest sustainability report. P&G’s first report was based on the 1999 version of the guidelines.
‘We hope we have learned a lot from our stakeholders since the production of last year ’s report, but this is only the beginning,’ said Smith.
‘We like working with the GRI guidelines and there are many other things we would like to try. Moving the editorial chair around was just one of them.’
The report, which is posted on P&G’s web site, shows the company increased donations to the community in North America to $28.3million (€32m) in 1999/2000, up by 2.6 per cent compared with the previous year. The company also gave $1.25m to a conservation charity, The Nature Conservancy, for work in Brazil. It also gave three per cent of revenue from its sales in Romania to equip 160 schools there with computers.
P&G markets around 300 brands of consumer products in more than 140 countries and had a £39billion (€65bn) turnover worldwide in 1999/2000.
During the past financial year it has published a new set of values and a code of conduct and issued guidelines on sustainability for those who sell its products. The company’s fabric and home care unit began work on a ‘sustainability business model’ that may eventually be used throughout the company.