achieving radical transparency
TRANSCRIPT
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Achieving Radical Transparency
Digitally Interlinking Data, Context & Stakeholders
Amsterdam, 17 May 2016Wayne Visser, Vishal Kapadia, Bill Baue, Ralph Thurm, Richard Mills
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Agenda
• 09.00-09.30: Dr Wayne Visser– Introduction: Transforming Corporate Accountability
• 09.30-09.45: Ralph Thurm– Reporting 3.0: The International Multi-Stakeholders Platform for the “Future of
Sustainability Reporting• 09.45-10.15: Vishal Kapadia & Richard Mills
– WikiRate: Data Activation Through Aggregation, Accessibility & Sustainability Contextualization (DATAASC) Project
• 10.15-10.30: Break• 10.30-11.00: Bill Baue
– Convetit: Virtual Stakeholder Dialogue & Interactive Materiality Matrix• 11.00-11.30:
– User Perspectives (academic, NGO & workshop attendees)• 11:30-11:45: Q&A• 11.45-12.00: Summing up & how to get involved
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Transforming Accountability
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Evolution of transparency
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Trends – Corporate Transparency
Trend 1: Explosive sustainability reporting growth – but from an extremely low base
Trend 2: Proliferation of reporting standards – with mandatory disclosure on the rise
Trend 3: Improvement of data quantity & quality – driven by emerging information technologies (IT)
Trend 4: Shift from corporate to value chain data – with traceability becoming the new watchword
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Technology as a driver
The one-size fits all, half-narrative, half quantified sustainability report is looking increasingly out of date.
Sustainability reporting will increasingly build on a database of ESG information and data, packaged in different formats, with different stories, using different communications channels and media, in order to match the diversity of stakeholders’ expectations
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Trends – Sustainability Ratings
Trend 5: Increasing importance of sustainability ratings – as a driver of sustainability performance
Trend 6: Consolidation of sustainability ratings agencies – due to competition & questionnaire fatigue
Trend 7: Demand for more transparency by rating agencies – to counter low levels of trust
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Evolution of crowdsourcing
Value-driven
Values-driven
Technology-focused
People-focused
Shareholder value analysis
People management &
reporting software
Stakeholder needs assessment
Sustainability management & reporting
software
Crowdsourcing platforms &
ratings
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Trends - Crowdsourcing
• Trend 8: Moving social media beyond a marketing channel – to an action research database 19
• Trend 9: Growing use of crowdsourcing as a stakeholder engagement tool – allowing proactive anticipation of issues 21
• Trend 10: Transforming the power of connection into the power of collaboration
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Insights• Insight 1: Hyper-connectivity makes
responsiveness more possible – and less likely• Insight 2: Value-action gaps make stakeholder
feedback more collectable – yet less valuable• Insight 3: The wisdom of the crowd can,
without validation, also become the tragedy of the commons
• Insight 4: The openness of open source is questionable when values are a filter
• Insight 5: Questions remain about the accountability ratings when the guardians are not guarded
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Radical Transparency
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
The GRI Challenge
“GRI believes it’s time to move “beyond reports” and focus on the data produced during the sustainability reporting process. Liberating this data and exploring how this information can then be used to enable better decisions is the natural next step”
- Michael Meehan
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Day 1
Kickoff: Data Trends, Standards & Guidelines
“I am told that the first crop of corporate sustainability reports is now being fed into IBM's Watson artificial intelligence (AI) system …” - John Elkington
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Day 2
Data Liberation, Aggregation & Sourcing
“The ultimate dream would be to make it just as easy to access ESG data as it is to type in a ticker symbol on Yahoo or Google Finance …” – Louis Coppola
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Day 3
Data Contextualization, Materiality & Tagging
“GRI’s mystifying refusal to in any way flesh out or enforce its own Sustainability Context principle …” – Mark McElroy
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Day 4
Data Analysis, Ratings & Engagement
“Instead of having only experts driving research, we are keen to engage everyday people from around the world in this process …” – Milena Marin
Copyright © 2016 Wayne Visser & Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd
Day 5
Synthesis
“WikiRate would need to function both as a central data repository and a dynamic data ecosystem that provides multiple accessibility points to meet stakeholders and companies where they are at…” – Linda Wedderburn