Interest in non-financial reporting is growing. In 2015, 37 organizations submitted their social reports to the competition organized by the Responsible Business Forum. Over the last 8 years, 200 non-financial reports have entered the competition in this field. As of January 1, 2017, an act regulating the preparation of such documents in Poland will come into force.
In August 2016, the second social report of the Raben Group in Poland was published. It was created in accordance with international guidelines for reporting data in the area of sustainable development – Global Reporting Initiative version G4, at the CORE level.
The most interesting facts and figures included in the Raben Group’s social report for 2015 are:
• 9 training hours per year per Raben Group employee,
• 3,767 pallets transported for charity as part of cooperation with Food Banks,
• 100 new low-emission Mercedes EURO6 class trucks at the company’s disposal,
• 27.05 liters of diesel/100 km was the lowest average monthly fuel consumption,
• 183 ideas and needs reported by stakeholders during dialogue sessions,
• 1,500 trees planted as part of the e-invoice = higher culture campaign,
• 1,184,400 fruit and vegetable sets received by Raben Group employees every day as part of promoting healthy eating habits,
• 94.4% was the waste segregation rate,
• 90% of drivers are equipped with mobile devices that facilitate and shorten the delivery process,
• 50% is the share of e-invoices in the total number of such documents issued.
– In line with our CSR vision, we want to set sustainable trends in the industry that bring additional benefits to the environment. Market competition is increasing. To meet the challenge this year, we prepared our abridged version of the social report on ecological paper that grows after being watered. We encourage stakeholders to read the report, plant it, and see what grows from it – comments Marta Szymborska, PR and CSR Manager at Raben Group.
– Non-financial reports prepared based on international non-financial reporting standards, including primarily the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines, present a number of important pieces of information about the actions taken or solutions adopted by companies in various areas of their operations. They concern areas that have a direct or indirect impact on the results achieved by the enterprise. Preparing a report based on the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines, as well as subsequently subjecting the data presented in it to an independent audit, is a double challenge for an organization. Firstly, in reports built based on GRI guidelines, stakeholders do not only read about interesting social initiatives undertaken by a given company. GRI, in a way, forces the use of specific indicators and the presentation of data and information that allow for the assessment of how the organization manages its impact on the broadly understood external and internal environment. Secondly, independent verification of non-financial information presented in the report imposes a certain discipline on the organization in the area of collecting data for the report and its subsequent publication. In this context, one should look with appreciation at companies that decide to have an independent audit of the data presented in their reports. In this way, they send a strong signal to their stakeholders that the report contains a reliable message about important aspects of the company’s operations. They focus on transparency in the sphere of activities, which in many cases are just as important as the current picture of the company’s financial situation – comments Jacek Kuchenbeker, Senior Manager in the Risk Management Department at Deloitte.