SustainAbility has worked with Canon for several years to help the company develop its relationships with stakeholders and its approach to assurance in its report. The process attempts to provide meaningful, credible external feedback, and aspires to meet international standards of best practice.
Since 2004, Canon has sought to establish relationships with experts representing two important stakeholder groups, and their comments appear in the Canon Sustainability Report. The external commentators were invited to take part in a telephone conference call during Canon’s report planning, as well as dialogue sessions to discuss impressions of the draft report. This dialogue provides the basis for a degree of stakeholder engagement with Canon - on reporting, on the company’s performance, and on Canon’s relationship with stakeholders in the future.
The commentators have been asked to assess the extent to which the Canon report satisfies their expectations in terms of:
This approach reflects the core principles outlined in the AA1000 Assurance Standard*.
* AA1000 Assurance Standard
URL: http://www.accountability21.net/
The full statements from the commentators can be seen at “Third-Party Opinions.”
The purpose of the statements is to give the readers some information that will help put expectations of Canon in perspective and to help them to draw their own conclusions on how well Canon has and will meet them through this report both now and in the future.
SustainAbility has provided advice and support to Canon with regard to the third-party opinion section, by defining terms of reference for the third-party opinions, facilitating relationships with the commentators and assisting Canon in presenting the results in its sustainability report. Readers should be advised that SustainAbility Ltd. does not function as an assurance provider - that role is for the stakeholder commentators themselves to play, both now and in the future.
