With investors upping their focus on ESG issues, companies are rethinking their communications approach to better explain the links between financial and non-financial performance.
For those looking for inspiration, a good place to start is the integrated annual report from Polish oil major PKN Orlen: the company won best ESG communications at the IR Magazine Awards – Europe 2017.
‘The main strategy was to create a single, transparent document with all necessary information, so that [readers] would find all the data they require from one source,’ explained the company in its awards submission. ‘It contains a number of interactive tools facilitating access to contents, an interactive GRI Indicators Table, a glossary of economic and industry-specific terms, and an online survey.
The report has not only boosted PKN’s reporting but also helped it appear in sustainable indices, a growing area of the investment universe. PKN today appears in the FTSE4Good Emerging Index and RESPECT Index portfolio, explains the awards submission.
The award for best ESG communications was decided by a panel of judges, comprising senior investors, a former IRO and an IR Magazine journalist. One judge said of PKN’s reporting: ‘Integrated reporting is a big leap and [PKN] has done it with finesse.’
