Now available - New guide for public and private sector managers: "Carrots and Sticks for Starters", a joint report from UNEP and KPMG's Global Sustainability Services.

... Carrots and Sticks for Starters gives an overview and analysis of current trends and approaches in mandatory and voluntary standards for sustainability reporting and corporate responsibility as promoted through initiatives with reporting requirements. Listing over 100 initiatives and legislative requirements found in OECD countries and the emerging market economies of Brazil, India and South Africa, the publication provides a valuable update and guide for govermental officials and managers in multinational corporations. The full report can be accessed by clicking on Carrots and Sticks, launched at the GRI Sustainability Conference in Amsterdam, October 2006.

Public officials are starting to discover how sustainability and social responsibility poses new challenges to all organizations. The current ISO process to develop a new standard on "Social Responsibility" has all types of organizations, both private and public, in mind. Within the UN system, UNEP is supporting the introduction of measures such as environmental management, sustainable procurement and sustainability reporting through for example the UN interagency Environmental Management Group. UNEP DTIE has introduced its own sustainability reporting system, using the GRI Guidelines and its public sector supplement (more below). Public sector reporting is being advanced by the new Centre for Public Agency Sustainability Reporting in Melbourne.

To facilitate debate on the role of government in both reporting on its own operations and advancing reporting by others, UNEP occasionally hosts meetings with representatives from public authorities. From 30 - 31 May 2005, we hosted a "Sustainability Reporting: Public Policy Trends" workshop in cooperation with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in Paris. The meeting served to assess new trends in reporting policy and legislation in selected OECD and emerging market countries and progress made by public authorities introducing sustainability reporting on their own operations. Our aim was to facilitate:

• improved understanding of public initiatives to advance sustainability reporting, including the experience gained in various countries / regions with different forms of legislative, regulatory and voluntary approaches;
  
  
• conclusions on ways of improving the usability of sustainability reporting, including the link with financial reporting and the link between micro (e.g. company) and macro (e.g. national) level reporting; and
  
  
• shared learning experiences on introducing sustainability reporting in the public sector (local, national, regional, international organisations).

Conclusions from the meeting are available in the meeting report (PDF - 63 KB). As follow up, we have published in 2006 the new report Carrots and Sticks for Starters (see above) with KPMG.

Developing a sustainability reporting system internally since 2004, UNEP DTIE went through a process that involved: Agreement from top management; creating an internal sustainability team with focal responsibilities and leading the process of deciding on approach (including the boundary question); identifying key challenges and responsibilities, supported by a survey of employees and external stakeholders; identifying key indicators; collecting data on key indicators for Year I; organizing and analysing data; formulate conclusions and identify objectives, targets for Year II; finalizing and printing the first sustainability report in the format chosen (web-based) and presenting its content outside to other UNEP Divisions and organizations for discussion and feedback.

Below is our first, "Work in Progress" UNEP DTIE 2004 - 2005 Sustainability Report. It presents our start-off, something we share publicly to enable dialogue and learning along with other public agencies, interested organizations and our stakeholders.

UNEP DTIE 2004 - 2005 Sustainability Report (PDF - 3MB)

When downloading and printing our sustainability report, do consider printing it double sided, two pages per sheet, on recycled paper. Every contribution helps.