{"id":1810,"date":"2012-12-03T17:58:35","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T17:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=1810"},"modified":"2012-12-03T17:58:35","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T17:58:35","slug":"why-tell-lies-in-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/why-tell-lies-in-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Why tell lies in reports?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>It&#8217;s not news that there are false claims in sustainability reports.\u00a0 Nevertheless, a recent post caught my eye.\u00a0 A post on SustainableBusinessForum.com by Elaine Curtis noted that the lying can be huge.<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Labor Indicators: 86% of companies claim they report and only 11% actually do.<\/li>\n<li>Human Rights Indicators: 62% of companies\u00a0claim they report and only 20% actually do.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>Then Elaine asks <em>Why tell lies in reports? <\/em> and suggests<\/div>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>The reports are prepared in an unprofessional and sloppy way, without due attention to the detailed GRI protocols.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Company reporters, or their outsourced consultants, never read the protocols and simply don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s expected of them in reporting against each indicator.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Companies are competing for the GRI A Level &#8220;accolade&#8221; and don&#8217;t mind if they cut a few corners along the way.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Companies are being deliberately deceitful in order to achieve a reputation boost, without due consideration of the consequences of being found to be making false claims.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Companies don&#8217;t think anyone will notice &#8211; no-one reads reports.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Companies don&#8217;t care if anyone notices &#8211; the main thing is that they published a report.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Companies don&#8217;t think it matters &#8211; what&#8217;s a little inaccurate detail here or there? Hey. We are reporting. Isn&#8217;t that good enough?<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All common sense.<\/p>\n<p>You could fairly infer that the same companies cut corners on their environmental performance and, especially where it really counts, financial reporting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sustainable Business Forum:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/sustainablebusinessforum.com\/elainecohen1\/71661\/false-claims-sustainability-reports?goback=.gde_2827692_member_189522929\">False Claims in Sustainability Reports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s not news that there are false claims in sustainability reports.\u00a0 Nevertheless, a recent post caught my eye.\u00a0 A post on SustainableBusinessForum.com by Elaine Curtis noted that the lying can be huge. Labor Indicators: 86% of companies claim they report and only 11% actually do. Human Rights Indicators: 62% of companies\u00a0claim they report and only &hellip;<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/why-tell-lies-in-reports\/\" class=\"more-link pen_button pen_element_default pen_icon_arrow_double\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Why tell lies in reports?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,28,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-philanthropy","category-responsible-investing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hwcd-tc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1810"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1812,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions\/1812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}