For this exercise, you need to imagine that you have been asked to produce a particular document on behalf of the (fictional) company named in the Case Study document.

The Case Study document provides the information you will require, to in-fill the fields of the various ‘material topics’ to be covered in the report. It is highly likely that most incidents mentioned in the Case Study will best fit just ONE of the 9 material topics provided for Assessment 3.

Everything you put into the report, should be designed to place the company in as good a light as possible. The document admits where an unfortunate incident occurred under a material topic heading. However, you should not dwell on the bad things, simply state them, and go on to explain the Management Approach to such topics. This includes any special steps taken by the company to correct the problem; plus standard company procedures and policies that are in place to deal with such issues.

Usual rules of report writing apply. Language should be impersonal throughout. No use of first-person language (I, me, we) or of second person language (you).

Suggested Template for Assessment 3: Sustainability Report using the GRI Reporting Guidelines

Your assignment should have a report-like structure:

Overview (if using):  Briefly state that this is the GRI Sustainability Report for Company X (name case study company). Use a few sentences to describe the main business and market for the company.

(Alternatively, place this information at the end of the Introduction, below).

Introduction:

[Any report introduction generally includes some Background information to provide context for what follows. There should be a section that mentions Methodology. This means the methods taken to gather information, and to analyse it.]

Background:  Provide a short discussion (1-2 short paragraphs) that mentions the three varieties of sustainability impacting a business.  Use these paragraphs to show that you have been doing reading on the topic of Business Sustainability.  Provide some reasons why modern businesses should care about their sustainability record, and why they should decide to provide a Sustainability report.

[What you write here allows you to use some in-text referencing, to demonstrate background reading undertaken for this assessment.]

Methodology: Provide a short (1-2 paragraph) discussion of the GRI reporting standards. Support the discussion using in-text citations, to show your background reading on GRI reporting.

[Your methodology should mention the GRI Global reporting standards for Sustainability; what they are and why they are used. You might choose to list the 9 material topics for your report – or leave this to emerge across the report].

Body:

The main portion of your report should be divided across three sections, one section for each type of sustainability covered:

Economic Sustainability

Provide a short paragraph discussing the notion of Economic Sustainability: what it is, and the sorts of issues a company might confront under this heading. Use in-text citations to demonstrate your own research into this topic.

Next: describe a relevant case study fact against each of the three material topics you were given:

1. Disclosure 201-4 Financial assistance received from the government
2. Disclosure 203-1 Infrastructure investments and services supplied

• Disclosure 204-1 Proportion of spending on local suppliers

Also provide some description of the Management Approach to the issue.  This can include:

• Existing company documentation that relates to the topic;
• Particular initiatives or actions the company has undertaken, in response to the reported event(s)

This portion of your report could be conducted in tabular form. Something like:

Environmental Sustainability

Provide a short paragraph discussing the notion of Environmental Sustainability: what it is, and the sorts of issues a company might confront under this heading. Use in-text citations to demonstrate your own research into this topic.

Then: cover material topics[1] and management approach (see Economic Sustainability section above).

Social Sustainability

Provide a short paragraph discussing the notion of Social Sustainability: what it is, and the sorts of issues a company might confront under this heading. Use in-text citations to demonstrate your own research into this topic.

Then: cover material topics and management approach (see Economic Sustainability section above).

Conclusion:

Make a few closing statements about the sorts of issues faced by the company in the current reporting period. End by stating that Company X looks forward to providing a more positive GRI report for the next reporting period.

[1] NOTE: The three material topics to be covered under each heading are provided with the main Assessment 3 instruction sheet.