Assurance of sustainability reports is an evolving concept that encompasses several distinct approaches. Since our first corporate citizenship report, covering the year 1999, we have included external stakeholder perspectives as a way to introduce independent voices and viewpoints to the report.
For our 2004/5 report, we formalized this approach by working with Ceres and SustainAbility, an independent think tank and strategy consultancy, to create a Report Review Committee to assist in the development of the report and to increase its usability and relevance. Findings of the 13-member committee were published in the report.
For our 2005/6 report and the current report, Ceres convened stakeholder committees. The committee reviewing this report met twice; once to review and comment on the materiality analysis, and once to review and comment on a nearly final draft of the report.
We have found these external reviews to be valuable and have tried to respond to the committees' recommendations. We believe we have made progress in several areas highlighted by the 2004/5 Report Review Committee. We have strengthened our reporting on sustainable mobility and human rights, and we continue to work to enhance our reporting against goals and coverage of public policy issues.
We view this kind of stakeholder assurance as distinct from third-party verification of data or other information in the report, which we have not sought. However, much of the data in this report have been reported to government agencies and verified internally or externally.
