Goldenbee Index on CSR Reporting in China 2015 Reveals the Findings and Provides Suggestions

On December 3, 2015, China WTO Tribune released GoldenBee Index on CSR Reporting in China 2015on the Eighth International Conference on CSR Reporting in China (hereinafter referred to as GoldenBee Index).
Gefei Yin , Vice President of China WTO Tribune introduced that the GoldenBee Index consists of total 46 indicators ,including 3major series of integrated index, stakeholder index, and category index, and 7 sub-series.Based on the motoring and assessment of materiality, completeness and other four dimensions of CSR reports in Chinese mainland, it summarized the overall state of China CSR reporting.
This index aims to observe the developmental trajectory, features, tendency and the evaluation rules of CSR report in China. It provides reference for the people from all walks of life to grasp the present situation and the trend of CSR report in China, helps corporations writing higher quality CSR reports ,and provides new tools for the society to make exchange on CSR report.
The Main Findings of the GoldenBee Index
1. The overall quality of CSR reports has been steadily improved and the number of high-quality reports has been increasing year-on-year.
The GoldenBeeIndex has five ranks, namely, the starting, the developing, the improved, the good and the excellent. From 2010 to 2015, there is an increasing trend on the numbers of the good and the excellent reports, from 50 pieces in 2010 to 215 pieces in 2015.
2. The CSR reports of central SOEs position a leading role on quality and continue to improve.
The CSR reports of central SOEs are better than those of other enterprises on quality. In 2015, the comprehensive indexes of central SOEs, SOEs, state-controlled enterprises, foreign-invested enterprises and enterprises of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are 1899, 1391, 1256, and 1555 respectively. In 2015, the comprehensive index of central SOEs has risen by 1.6% over the same period of the previous year.
3. The employees, community and government are the three focused stakeholders in CSR reports.
From 2009 to 2015, the relevant issues concerning the employees, community and government score over 0.35 points on average. The government-related issues in 2011 and 2014 scored 0.53 points on average, the highest one, while  issues on other stakeholders were below 0.30 points.
4. The index on Chinese Environmental Information Disclosure (CEID) surges by 10.8% year on year.
Generally speaking, the environment index has been increasing from 2009 to 2015, with a growth of 10.8% from 2014 to 2015. There is also an increasing trend inthe index coverage rate of environment management, environment-protection awareness and ecosystem-protection issues.
Compared with those in 2010, the coverage rates of indexes of these three issues have risen by 35.0%, 54.0% and 32.8% respectively in 2015.
5. The CSR management information disclosure gets more attention.
From 2013 to 2015, the coverage rate of CSR management information disclosure index has been increasing annually. Furthermore, in 2015, 32 CSR reports disclose the compiling procedures and 78 reports disclose important issues, the recognition and orders of stakeholders, and other information.
6. Industry organizations and government-related departments are the driving forces for the releases of CSR reports.
From 2009 to 2015, China Federation of Industrial Economics (CFIE) provides a platform for enterprises to release their CSR reports for 7 consecutive years, with a total of 421 CSR reports released.
In 2015, the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China (CNCA), Taizhou Civic Enhancement Committee Office, Shanghai Civic Enhancement Committee Office, Enviroment Protection Angency of TEDA, CFIE (China Federation of Industrial Economics) and China National Coal Association (CNCA) have released 591pieces, 271pieces, 67pieces, 224 pieces of CSR reports respectively.
7. The CSR reports of foreign-invested enterprises surge by 104.2% year on year, with over 50% from Japanese and American enterprises and increasing quality of the reports.
In 2015, GoldenBeeIndex accessed 98 foreign-invested CSR reports, 32 of which are released by foreign-investedenterprises based on Japan, accounting for nearly one-third. 19 of them are from US-invested enterprises, accounting for nearly one-fifth. The reports from Japan- and US-invested enterprises make up 52.1% of the total foreign-invested enterprises.
From 2009 to 2015, the comprehensive index of foreign-invested enterprises has been increasing. Compared with that of 2014, it grows by 27.1% in 2015. It is because the comparable comprehensive index has increased by 153.4%.
8. The proportion of English CSR reports is less than 8%. There is a big fluctuation on the CSR reports that make reference to the international standard. The international level of CSR report needs to be increased.
From 2010 to 2015, the English reports make up less than 8% of the total. In 2015, only 7.6% of the reports have English version.
From 2010 to 2015, there is an increasing trend onthe proportion of CSR reports that make compilation conformance to the Guidance on Sustainability Development Report (G3.1, G4), UN Global Compact and ISO 26000, Guidance on Social Responsibility Report 2010, but it didn’t reach a high level. 2015 witnesses the highest one.
In 2015, the reports based on the above three standards account up to 260 pieces, accounting for 25.2%.Among them, 92 reports, or 8.9% of the total, refer to the Guidance on Sustainability Development Report( G4).
9. Non-business organizations are highly motivated on releasing CSR reports, but it is still in the initial stage.
GoldenBee Index gathered 128 non-business reports in 2013, 764 in 2014 and 786 in 2015,respectively accounting for 8.4%、34.1% and 34.7%. Because the system has not been mature, the participants in different years vary a lot and it has not formed the normal system to release CSR reports.
For instance, in 2014, Shanghai Civic Enhancement Committee Office promoted 416 non-business reports to be released. In 2015, CNCA promotes 591 reports to be released.
The Suggestions proposed by the GoldenBee Index
I.         To dock with the national standard series of social responsibility and improve the quality of CSR reports.
The national standard series of social responsibility will be put into practice in January 1st, 2016. We should take this opportunity to comprehensively improve the quality of CSR reports.
1. To apply GB/T 36001-2015 Guidance on Social Responsibility Reporting to make enterprises get a better understanding of CSR and standardize the principles, procedures and methods of Social Responsibility Reporting. By CSR, enterprises can disclose the process and result of CSR activities to stakeholders.
 
2. To apply GB/T 36001-2015 Guidance on Social Responsibility to clarify the boundary, range, method and procedures of CSR so that the CSR compilation has a solid foundation in practice.
3. To apply GB/T 36002 Guidance on Classifying Social Responsibility Performance to produce a CSR system meeting enterprises’ needs and standardize the social responsibility performance which enterprises should disclose to the stakeholders.
II. To disclose much more information on responsibility management ideas and measures and give full play to the management value of CSR.
Following the development trend of CSR reporting in the world, enterprises should let CSR reports compilation comb the management procedures and enhance the disclosure of management approaches. They should disclose how they manage the economic, environmental and social impact related to their issues, including the policy, promise, long-and short-term goals, responsibility, resources and specific actions of the issues.
1. To meet the demands and expectation of stakeholders and let them understand the ideas and measures of social responsibility performance.
2. To make clear the advantages and shortages in enterprises’ management and continue to improve their management.
III. To keep in line with the international advanced enterprises and increase the disclosure of issues on consumers, supply chain, partners and others.
Based on  the disclosure of information on stakeholders such as employees, community and environment,  the enterprises should strengthen the disclosure of fair marketing, consumer health and safety, sustainable consumption, product and consumer information and privacy protection in terms of consumers;In the aspect of supply chain, pay attention to disclose procurement principle, supplier qualification and supplier social responsibility management information;In terms of partners, they also should pay attention to disclose the information on transparency, property rights, innovation and development.
IV. To support stakeholders to engage in preparing reports compilation and enhance the materiality of reports.
The enterprises should have Deeper understanding on the important value of stakeholders’ engagement, and create conditions to encourage and support the stakeholders to engage in the preparation of corporate social responsibility report.
1.        To carry out the stakeholder communication through the stakeholder communication meeting, telephone interviews, questionnaire, public opinion analysis, expert panel and so on, make stakeholders to engage in the whole process of the report compilation so that they can understand the requirements and arrangements of reports compilation.
2.        To selectthe most relevant issues onenterprise strategy, stakeholder concerns and the background of sustainable development through the wide engagement of stakeholders, and further enhance the materiality of the reports.
V.To keep up with the development trend of the Times and promote the internationalization level of the reports.
The enterprises should comply with the new development trend of economic globalization, adapt to the requirements of the national strategy landing of Road and Belt Initiative, and actively promote the internationalization level of the CSR report.They should strengthen the docking with the international advanced enterprises, pay attention to overseas stakeholders’ expectations and demands, and improve the content and forms of CSR reports.
1. To release the English version report, release the local version CSR report in the operation region for some enterprises, and expand the scope of the report.
2. To release country report on social responsibility report or overseas CSR reports and strengthen the exchange with the local stakeholders.
3. To take GRI G4, ISO 26000 and other international social responsibility standards and guidelinesas references and build foundations for report to participate in the communication and dissemination in report compilation process.
 
VI.To release special report on key projects or major responsibility fulfillments, and enhance the influence and reputation of the enterprise.
The presentation forms of the CSR report should develop intomore diversification.Based on the release of the traditional integrated annual social responsibility report, the enterprises should actively try and release  special reports.
1. To release the special reports on key project during business operation, and major projects to systematically introducethe annual progress of the projects, the responsibilities practices, and the created comprehensive value,and improve enterprise's influence in particular stakeholder groups.
2. To release the special reports on major responsibility fulfillmentby combining with the enterprise annual development of responsibility fulfillment and social hot issues and fields, and improve enterprises’ influence in certain special field of responsibility fulfillment.
VII. To continuously innovate onthedissemination channels and ways of CSR reports by embracing new mobile Internet era.
The "popularization" of the report readers becomes the new requirement for CSR report disclosure.enterprises should take the initiative to embrace mobile Internet era, make the content be enjoying, form be "H5", and the dissemination be "mobile".
1. To actively innovate on the report forms and channels by paying attention to the media habits of the audience, such as the H5 version of CSR report or the video report.
2. To releasethe highlights and sparkle of social responsibility practice through the social responsibility monthly, quarterlyand other the way, maintain normalization of information disclosure behavior, and improve the social responsibility viscosity of the public.
VIII. To call for theFortune China 500 release social responsibility report, and play the leadingdemonstration value of leader enterprises.
Fortune China 500 enterprises are the backbone of social and economic development, and the most important representativeof national image.The society hasthe responsibility and obligation to promote the process of social responsibility report release.
1.To enhance the Fortune China 500 enterprises’ understanding ofsocial responsibility, strengthen the exchange and study in social responsibility, draw lessons from the experience on social responsibility report compilation from international first-class enterprises, andclarifythe release schedule of social responsibility report.
2.To make the relevant departments or industry organizations  build learning, training, communication and publishing platform for the social responsibility report, and provide system supportFortune  China 500 companies.
3.To propose totake the release of social responsibility report as one of the conditions to select enterprises to be a listed Fortune China 500, encourage the candidates ofFortune China 500 to disclose social responsibility report; To release social responsibility report or CSR country report, and strengthen the exchange with local stakeholders.
4.To take GRI G4, ISO 26000 and other international social responsibility standards and guidelinesas references and build foundations for report to participate in the communication and dissemination in report compilation process.
In addition to the study of the overall corporate social responsibility report in China, GoldenBee Index also has conducted special research on the CSR reports ofcentral SOEs, foreign-invested enterprises in China, mining, automobile, electric power, building, information and communication technologies, banking, real estate industry and other industries, non-business organizations, SOEs in Guangdong province etc.according to the attributes, industry category and regional categoryof the report subject.