The Third-Party Opinion Process
Over the many years that Canon has been providing sustainability reports to its stakeholders, the company has worked to develop its approach to reporting and its relationship with stakeholders. Since 2003, Canon has invited a set of external experts to review and comment on its sustainability report. This process aims to provide meaningful, credible external feedback, and aspires to meet international good practice standards.
Via a series of telephone dialogue sessions, the external commentators provided input at several points during Canon's report preparation process. The dialogue provides the basis for a degree of stakeholder engagement with Canon - on reporting, on the company's performance, and on Canon's relationships with stakeholders.
Basis for the commentators' opinions
For the third year running, the external commentators have been asked to use a portion of the Global Reporting Initiative G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines as the basis for developing their opinions, namely four Reporting Principles relating to Defining Report Content*:
- Materiality.
Does the Canon report reflect the company's significant economic, environmental and social issues? - Stakeholder Inclusiveness.
Does the report explain how Canon has responded to the reasonable expectations and interests of their stakeholders? - Sustainability Context.
Does the report present Canon's performance in the wider context of sustainability issues and impacts? - Completeness.
Is the report's coverage sufficient to reflect the company's sustainability impacts and enable readers to assess Canon's performance?
Using these principles as a guideline, the external commentators were asked to assess the extent to which the Canon report meets their expectations in terms of:
- The appropriateness of the content selected for the Canon Sustainability Report 2011
- The quality of the treatment of individual topics in the report
- The overall quality, balance and relevance of the report as a whole
Judy Kuszewski 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 neither Judy Kuszewski nor the external commentators function as assurance providers, but as well-informed, independent sustainability professionals with a keen interest in engaging with Canon and supporting the transparency and accountability of its reporting.
- *Detailed information on the four principles can be found at
What the commentators discussed
During a series of telephone conferences, the two commentators discussed with each other – and with Canon – their reporting expectations, their key areas of interest and their impressions of the draft Canon report.
The main topics of discussion included:
- Using the report better to link sustainability issues with Canon's business. This may involve demonstrating how Canon's products and services provide solutions to sustainability challenges, other than providing just technical benefit.
- Increasing the use and relevance of indicators and metrics to reflect common issues arising in stakeholder dialogue, such as those raised by socially responsible shareholders.
- Increasing dialogue and exchange across stakeholder groups, improving on the outputs of historical stakeholder polling exercises. Inter-stakeholder dialogue can also help to integrate reporting with engagement and sector-based initiatives.
- Further integration between environmental, social and economic impacts, priorities and actions, and reflecting an understanding of how these factors work together in the company. These requests would be considered for the next reporting by the newly established CSR Office of Canon Inc., which promotes CSR activities of the Group.
The full statements from the commentators can be seen at "Third-Party Opinions."
About the facilitator
Judy Kuszewski is a specialist consultant in the field of corporate responsibility. Her career spans 19 years, including eight years with the award-winning London-based consultancy SustainAbility. She has provided advice and support on sustainability accountability and reporting to a wide range of companies around the world, and has been actively involved with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
