Good CSR report design contributes to effective report communication

On December 1, the Panel “The New Trend of CSR Report Communication” was held during the 10th International Conference on CSR Reporting in China, more than 100 participants joined the discussion, and shared impressive cases.
 
At the beginning of the panel, Zhuang Wei, Chief Creative Officer of GoldenBee Sustainable Brand Communication, shared the latest research output Visual Image Design of The Sustainability Report. The report elaborates on the design of CSR reports from a professional perspective. Taking the CSR reports published by the Global 500 in 2017 as the research object, the report analyzes nine aspects, including report cover, format, texts, color, etc., to explore the latest trends of report design.
 
After sharing report design, six representatives from State Grid Corporation of China, Sinopec Group, FAW Group Corporation, LKK Health Products Group, China Huadian Corporation and China National Nuclear Power Company, respectively, discussed about topics including “Should CSR reports be disseminated among particular groups or in the whole society?”, “Does report design really matter?”, “Will e-version reports finally replace printed ones?” and “Should the dissemination start together with or after report compilation?”.
 
For the dissemination of CSR report, the panelists expressed that enterprises should combine general social dissemination with the targeted dissemination. Good responsible dissemination needs enterprises pay attention to both the public and stakeholders to achieve effective information transfer.
 
Regarding the topic “Does report design really matter”, every panelist agreed that it is necessary to put efforts on report design. Because every enterprise has its own style, a specific and good design concept is needed to improve readability and promote the report to be well-received.
 
About the issue of e-version and printed-version report, consensus were reached that e-version will not replace printed-version. E-version report will reduce the use of paper and make the breadth of information dissemination even more unprecedented. However, this does not mean that e-version report will completely replace printed report. Some people are still used to read printed document as it really plays an important role in their daily life.
 
Moreover, everyone believes that dissemination of CSR report exists in every moment, and it is important to strengthen stakeholders’ engagement from preparation of report to post-publication dissemination while giving full play of their roles for better communication and effective dissemination.
 
In the end, six panelists also shared their successful practices and stories on report communication, called for enhancing corporate responsible communication to benefit employees, stakeholders, enterprises and the public, and expressed the best wishes for next ten-year CSR report communication!