We have been reporting on our environmental and social performance since 1997 because we know it matters to our stakeholders and to our business success.
REPORTING FOR DIFFERENT AUDIENCES
We use our Sustainability Report, supported by our Responsible Energy website, to provide the general overview of our environmental and social performance worldwide. For customers, suppliers and staff, our Sustainability Review provides a short summary of this performance. For investors we report on our approach to managing environmental and social risks and opportunities in our Annual Report and 20-F. We also co-operate with the producers of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, FTSE4Good and the Carbon Disclosure Project, and other organisations providing information on environmental and social performance to investors. Individual Shell operations may also report on local activities and issues.
REPORTING ON WHAT MATTERS MOST
Good environmental and social reporting must focus on the issues that are most important to our stakeholders as well as to us; that is why we use an established and auditable content selection process (see below). We further refined our process in 2008 to include the feedback we received from our External Review Committee. We report on 10 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), developed in consultation with external stakeholders, that measure and track our main environmental and social impacts.
ALIGNMENT WITH EXTERNAL GUIDELINES
On the Shell website we describe our contribution to the Millennium Development Goals and our efforts to support the UN Global Compact.
We continue to use the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) G3 guidelines for our sustainability reporting. GRI confirmed our A+ level for the 2008 Report.
We also follow the guidelines of the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association and are supporting the GRI’s work on guidance for the oil and gas industry.
ASSURING OUR REPORTING
We continue to use an External Review Committee of experts to check that our Sustainability Report is balanced, relevant and responsive to stakeholders. The Committee’s wide-ranging challenges and advice are based on their extensive knowledge of the issues and their first-hand experience of working with us.
Over the years we have developed a range of internal controls to help assure the accuracy of the facts in our Sustainability Report. These controls include audit trails for all the data and statements included in the report, approved by senior managers. Senior business leaders must confirm the accuracy and reliability of their HSSE data, and we have statistical checks in place to detect errors. We have also begun working with Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance Limited, an external verifier, to develop further checks on our greenhouse gas emissions data.
THE WAY FORWARD
With stakeholder requirements and cost pressures both continuing to rise, we are intensifying our search for ways to report better and to further streamline and simplify our reporting process.
STEP 1
Ask readers what matters most to them, using surveys, interviews and media reviews. Also take account of topics that are important for society but attract less media attention.
STEP 2
Use our internal risk management systems to determine which environmental and social issues most affect our business strategy.
STEP 3
Combine the results. Allowing for legal restrictions, we include all the highest-priority topics in our report. Those at the next level of importance are covered on our website.
STEP 4
Check with stakeholders, and our External Review Committee, that our coverage of these topics is balanced and complete.