Ranking of Austrian Online CSR Reports
Results 2020: EVN - Full Report 2018/19
Rank | Score | Average | Best | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. STRATEGIC APPROACH | 4 | 40.9 | 15.8 | 45.1 |
a. Were the material aspects identified according to the criteria of the GRI standard? | 9 | 7.7 | 6.0 | 9.3 |
b. Does the company take responsibility for its impact along the entire value chain? | 6 | 8.5 | 6.0 | 9.0 |
c. Does the corporate strategy include a management approach to all material topics? | 3 | 8.3 | 5.8 | 9.6 |
d. Are both harm reduction strategies and maximization of benefits pursued? | 5 | 8.3 | 5.6 | 8.7 |
e. Have appropriate structures and processes for sustainability management been set up and sufficiently presented in the report? | 4 | 8.0 | 4.8 | 9.0 |
2. OPEN INFORMATION | 19 | 13.8 | 7.9 | 27.3 |
a. Does the report make clear and complete statements? (Key figures on all material topics, interpretation of development, definition/evaluation of goals) | 14 | 5.1 | 4.8 | 9.3 |
b. Is the report balanced? (positive / negative developments, solved / unresolved problems, etc.) | 29 | 3.3 | 4.5 | 8.7 |
c. Are internal and external stakeholders appropriately involved and are the relevant structures and processes disclosed? | 16 | 5.4 | 4.9 | 9.3 |
3. USER ORIENTATION | 9 | 11.1 | 5.1 | 19.0 |
a. Is the report clearly structured according to the material topics? | 5 | 3.7 | 2.2 | 4.7 |
b. Is the text clear and precise, easy to understand and read? | 29 | 2.0 | 2.7 | 4.7 |
c. Is the visualization appealing and does it support the understanding of the content? | 17 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 4.7 |
d. Is the report user-friendly and are online features sufficiently utilized? (Target group specific approach, optional information, links, timeliness, interactivity etc.) | 4 | 3.1 | 1.8 | 5.0 |
TOTAL RANK & SCORE | 5 | 65.8 | 51.6 | 91.4 |
EVN | EVN |
Recommendations:
Materiality matrix & Stakeholder Analysis: Only conducted every three years, but in fast-changing times they should use already existing dialog formats with SH to do the matrix every year. Would give more relevance for the report topics.
Work in Progress: Show the materialistic topics like in the report connected with the SDGs and measuring tools, but also connect them with a status disclosure to be fully transparent about the process and not-yet-met goals.
Sustainability Strategy: Connect sustainability with the corporate strategy as a whole. This could not only be a huge business opportunity & advantage for the company, but is a requirement for a corporate strategy with sustainability as a value.
Online Features: Report already integrated partly as an own website. Make the report fully visible on the site (not more links to a PDF viewer) and build in interactive elements (like videos or interactive graphs) to increase the user experience.
Target horizon for more transparency and traceability: The definition of objectives in the report is sometimes too vague. The objectives could be presented „SMART“. With a precise indication of the time frame and scope. This would make the goals and their development measurable and make successes or failures visible to the reader. It would be important not only to have a vision for the status in 10 years from today, but also to define short term sub-objectives 1-3-5-years. Smaller time frames help to track developments and progress and increase transparency and traceability.
Interactivity and individual content: In order to meet the demands of the different target groups, it would be time to design your report online in such a way that different target groups can take a closer look at different contents. Following Statistik Austria with the STATatlas (https://www.statistik.at/atlas/schulen/) I would recommend to create interactive graphics and diagrams if necessary and to provide the readers with an additional benefit. On the one hand, this is an enormous service and on the other hand, the interaction with the companies increases the involvement. Furthermore, these interactive models can increase transparency and trust. Interactivity is still very rare in reports and could make the report interesting for new dialogue groups. This opens up completely new possibilities for presenting developments, effects and interrelationships within the company in a lively manner. This makes it possible to reduce continuous text to graphic/playful presentation for knowledge transfer.
The visual language: For the report a photo series with EVN logo was made as props. With this, the company colors could be transported well and shown to different people. Quite nice, unfortunately the content of the pictures does not match the content of the main topics. The pictures seem very posed, not very authentic and very cool. They create a certain distance to the company. Furthermore, meaningless stock images are used. Here I see great potential for improvement. With the right pictures, one could support the vision and make the content visible. Of course the collection cannot be created with a shooting. A lot of work and creative ideas are needed. Meaningful visual giants could support the content and make the project more lively.
External ratings: In the annual report, external ratings, which analyst EVN, are listed. This section offers a place for an extract from these ratings. Content comments, recommendations, criticism or feedback, which is public access, could be included here. In this way, the reader also receives an honest critical opinion about the company. Other interest groups will use external ratings anyway to get an overall picture of the company. In this way one can control the selection of passages and move even more in the direction of transparency. At the same time this shows that the company is open to criticism and takes it seriously.
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