Sustainability + Corporate Social Responsibility

Hill+Knowlton Strategies has experience developing corporate sustainability programs that address all facets of an organization’s needs. We offer expertise on strategies that make businesses more efficient, initiatives that engage key stakeholders, collaboration with leadership to integrate stakeholder perspectives into operations and the generation of sustainability reports that help organizations communicate their policies and priorities to the public. We also utilize our 360˚ Reputation Monitor system and media monitoring service to analyze the impact sustainability efforts have on company reputation and brand.

Integrated Reporting

Our expertise is not limited to nonfinancial ESG reporting. H+K Strategies also advises companies about their disclosure efforts and helps communicate relevant data to various public audiences through integrated reporting -- the disclosure of a company’s financial and nonfinancial ESG performance in a single document or website.

Global Reporting Initiative

To begin realizing the value of sustainable planning and stakeholder engagement, we recommend organizations that are not yet prepared to move toward fully integrated reports consider producing sustainability reports on an annual basis. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a global network dedicated to the standardization of sustainability reporting, manages what have become some of the world`s most widely accepted standards for sustainability reporting. Known as the GRI Guidelines, these standards can be applied across regions and include indicators for a variety of industries and categories. GRI evaluates reports based on the amount of information provided by a company, not the quality of its practices, offering organizations an excellent opportunity to incrementally enter the sphere of sustainability reporting. At H+K Strategies, our certified experts can assist businesses at every stage of the reporting process.

Benchmarking

H+K Strategies has the background and research skills to quickly asses a company’s performance in relation to competitors and peers. By recognizing strengths, we help clients put their best foot forward and demonstrate leadership in this increasingly crowded space. And by providing an independent perspective, we can identify risk areas that need more attention, and work with clients to develop the programs and policies that turn potential liabilities into assets.

Third Party Engagement and Media Rankings

Stakeholders in the sustainability space have a particular point of view. At H+K Strategies, we understand the tone and transparency needed to communicate with them successfully, building our clients’ credibility with the third parties that can help them achieve their sustainability goals.

We work daily with everyone from investors and media to enterprise customers and suppliers, helping them assess our clients’ sustainability performance. Our work has resulted in significant improvement on ratings and media rankings, including one client who moved up almost 90 places in the Newsweek Green Rankings and landed in the top 50 companies — bolstering the client’s efforts internally and improving the company’s reputation in the environmental community.

Materiality Assessments

Materiality assessments help companies prioritize their efforts so they are spending time and money on sustainability programs that focus business needs and address the concerns of all relevant public audiences.

H+K Strategies helps our clients concentrate on issue areas where they can have the most financial and reputational impact. Materiality assessments help companies use their limited time and resources to address the business markets and public climate most effectively — yielding the greatest possible ROI.