More than half of company annual reports present corporate responsibility (CR) as disconnected from the overall business operations and strategy.

Latest research on annual reports from Black Sun found that although almost all companies report on CR, only 39% of FTSE100 companies link CR to their overall business strategy in their annual report. Even fewer, 12%, included CR as a strategic business objective or priority for their business.

Although 52% of companies made a commitment to CR in their management statements, this commitment was seldom evidenced throughout the report. These companies referred to as ‘disconnected’ insist that CR is an integral part of their business or strategy, although all reported is contained in a separate standalone section, often at the very end of the report.

Smaller categories of companies included ‘underpinned’, where companies demonstrate how their commitment to CR underpins their business and ‘integrated’, which only accounted for 6% of the sample group. These were the very best examples of companies demonstrating a link between CR and business strategy, operations and performance throughout their report.

Sallie Pilot, Director of Research and Strategy at Black Sun commented, “In the future, operating in an environmentally, socially and economical way will be an essential component of a successful business strategy and critical to building and maintaining trust and a company’s credibility. Our research ‘Talking the talk or walking the walk?’ examines if companies are demonstrating their CR commitment effectively and moving towards integrating CR information within the annual report. Those companies that are considered to be leading the way have been highlighted within the report.”

For further information and to request a copy of the full report please contact Sarah Myles: [email protected]