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CSR Online Awards 7th Edition

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EU100 rankingFocus on GERMANYFocus on SWITZERLAND

7th edition, October 2017

LundquistCSR Online Awards


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The state of the art of sustainabilityin Europe The CSR Online Awards is Europe’s first and most authoritative research into how companies communicate and engage on sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) online. Our evaluation criteria are based on the input of over 1,850 international sustainability experts and CSR professionals, and take into account the expertise we’ve gained from having ranked thousands of corporate digital channels, from websites to social media.

This digital specialisation allows us to stay at the forefront of sustainability and to grasp the trends that will define the relationship between company and society at large. In this white paper, we present the state of the art of sustainability in Europe, pick out winning digital approaches and identify the companies that are cutting-edge sustainability communicators.This report includes the ranking of 100 leading European companies, the top 30 in Germany and top 50 in Switzerland.

ORDER YOUR CSR ONLINE AWARDS REPORT

The CSR Online Awards Report and Assessments offer a practical and rigorous way of measuring your performance against the best in digital sustainability at an international level. We enable you to find tactical solutions to enhance your digital presence, discover the approaches of winning companies, learn what trends to follow and identify strategic paths for the future.

We hold workshops where you can engage with our experts on all things related to sustainability communications. The workshops are also designed to find ways to foster greater involvement within the company.

Set up a free call to learn more about your company’s performance by writing to us at [email protected] out how we can help you on p.34.

Key numbers of the 7th edition

2541009446.84

companies in all of Europe

points in the assessment protocol

companies in Europe 100 ranking

average score in Europe 100(+3.3% vs 6th edition of the research)

international rankings; Europe 100, Germany Top 30, Italy Top 100, Switzerland Top 50

The Europe100 Podium

1st (73.25 points)

2nd (72.75 points)

3rd (72.5 points)

+63 positions

CSRawards

Best improver

The 7 pillars of our research

Concrete Exhaustive User-friendly Social Integrated DistinctiveOngoing


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Sustainability’s new era

The CSR Online Awards provides a unique vantage point from which to understand how sustainability is evolving in Europe. Because we have chosen to focus our research on the user-stakeholder, we can better understand shifting dynamics between business and society.

In this 7th edition, we have seen the impact of two transformations: one the one hand, the adoption of materiality, integrated thinking and now the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have ensured that the response to social and environmental challenges has become a competitive factor for many businesses and key element for connecting with contemporary society; on the other hand, digital is forcing direct, real-time connections with stakeholders.

In this new era for sustainability, digital has ceased to be viewed as a mere “channel” for communications but the defining environment for engaging with the wider world. As a result, we are seeing the conflation of traditionally separate categories like reporting, engagement and communications into a network of relationships built around shared concerns. The CSR Online Awards today aspires to trace those relationships.

James Osborne, head of sustainability, Lundquist

Attention (finally) turns to the digital stakeholder

Unlocking storytelling to underpin stakeholder trust

p.6

p.9

Many companies are moving beyond a disclosure-driven approach to communications by boosting the use of video, visuals and storytelling, and integrating sustainability into the broader corporate narrative and social media conversation. One in four companies, however, still fails to provide the basic information necessary to underpin trust for the digital stakeholder.

Surprisingly, leadership in sustainability performance (as measured by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index) doesn’t translate into leadership in communications.

Change in average score from 6th to 7th edition (percentage points)

Companies using storytellingWe’ve uncovered three elements of successful sustainability storytelling:

1 it should illustrate the substance of a company’s commitment to critical issues (materiality),2 be coherent across the digital ecosystem (integration), 3 and use a careful selection of the most appropriate digital tools, brought to life through image and video (visuals).

-4.5 +10.2 +21.1

Storytelling on environmental top

ics

Storytelling on social topics

90% 76%

Concrete Integrated Distinctive


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Joining the conversation: the challenge of engagement on social media p.14Sustainability has come of age as a topic of engagement for Europe’s biggest companies and is firmly part of the social media agenda, no longer just a passing reference or occasional campaign. Social and environmental topics have been incorporated into the social media agenda of many major companies: they appear in over a third of Facebook posts and a quarter of tweets. The really good news? These Facebook posts generate on average more engagement than other corporate content, and much more on Twitter.

of Facebook posts by companies over a year are about sustainability topics

of corporate tweets over a year are about sustainability topics

37.8%

26.7%

Full CSR Online Awards rankings (Europe, Germany, Switzerland) p.28

Focus on Switzerland & Best Performers p.22

Focus on Germany & Best Performers p.20

Best Performers Europe 100 & Best-in-Pillar p.18

How we can help you p.34

Who we are & contacts p.35

Methodology: how we carry out the research p.24


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Many companies are moving beyond a disclosure-driven approach to communications by boosting the use of video, visuals and storytelling, and integrating sustainability into the broader corporate narrative and social media conversation. One in four companies, however, still fails to provide the basic information necessary to underpin trust for the digital stakeholder.

There is a central dilemma when it comes to corporate sustainability and digital: the main engine of content generation - the once-a-year reporting process – is unsuited to digital. Reporting serves to collect and publish environmental, social and governance data for a given year, almost always in the form of a book-like document. Digital content, by contrast, needs to be planned with user engagement in mind: it has to be relevant (always) but also combine a mix of visual and textual formats, and capture attention through both rational exposition and emotional engagement. Above all, it has to be inserted into a wider, mobile friendly digital ecosystem.

Of course, it’s convenient to adapt reporting content to the web. It’s been “signed-off” by top management, after all. But that leads to the kind of text-heavy “cut-and-paste” communications we have lamented in previous editions of the CSR Online Awards.

BEYOND “CUT-AND-PASTE” APPROACH

Thankfully, there has been a shift. A greater maturity in the fields of both sustainability and digital communications has led to a better balance between what is presented and how and where it is presented. For the best companies, the focus is on why (what do you want to achieve through communications). Partly because of the shift to responsive website design (when the same content adapts to different sized screens), sustainability information is being pared down and simplified into easier-to-digest chunks and much more thought is going

Attention (finally) turns to the digital stakeholder

to different user-stakeholders beyond a small coterie of report-reading specialists.

The “back-to-basics” approach that ended the fascination with digital as the bright new thing has touched sustainability and CSR too. In this more mature phase, digital has become the primary suite of channels and tools that can be used to achieve a direct connection with customers, employees and other stakeholders.

AVERAGE SCORE HEADS HIGHER

This has resulted in less overkill on content and lower scores in the Concrete pillar (-4.5 percentage points) as CSR or sustainability sections shrink. To be sure, this remains the dominant pillar with companies in our research scoring 65% of the maximum on average. But it’s the only pillar where scores are down.

Overall, the average score has climbed 3.3 percentage points. Driving this improvement is the Distinctive pillar, where the average has almost doubled to 43.8%, and Integrated, where the average is up by about a third to 43.8%. There has also been a modest gain in the Social pillar (up 4.3 percentage points to 43.9%).


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39.6%

33.6%

22.7%

65%

40.8%

46.7%

34.9%

69.5% / Concrete

34.9% / Ongoing

42.3% / Exhaustive

Social / 43.9%

Distinctive / 43.8%

10

0

20

30

40

50

60

70

Integrated / 43.8% 47.5% / User-friendly

6th edition

7th edition

Distinctiveness and integration lead improvement as focus on transparency wanes

GOOD PRACTICE SPREADSBEYOND THE PIONEERS

What is encouraging is that innovative, engaging communications on sustainability topics is no longer the preserve of a few pioneers. Our research shows how it is now much broader, covering all sectors and different levels of maturity with sustainability.

The improvement in Distinctive is led by companies as diverse as Unilever, Deutsche Bank, Iberdrola, SAP and AXA, each looking to get their message across through the use of video, infographics and image. The humble case study has been transformed into social-friendly, visual stories that are better geared to engaging a broader range of stakeholders than dry texts and tables. In various industries, sustainability topics are providing scope for broader thought leadership efforts, which are primed to engage people in Twitter and LinkedIn. See how companies like Munich Re, Zurich Insurance Group and AXA look to lead the debate about social and environmental factors affecting the insurance business while the discussion about sustainable mobility and clean energy is being targeted by companies such as BASF, Siemens, Eni and Philips.

The trend towards greater integration of sustainability in the business has changed communications priorities too. Corporate responsibility and sustainability is becoming part of the wider corporate agenda and useful for translating abstract ideas about culture and values into practical, human experience. The areas where CSR and sustainability are mentioned the most is in relation to the company presentation (94% of companies make some reference to CSR in the “About us” section and half reference sustainability when presenting the business strategy) and in employer branding/careers sections (in relation to diversity and employee engagement in particular). Storytelling and thought leadership is increasingly a cross-cutting activity and not only about CSR or sustainability.

MOBILE FRIENDLY OR CONTENT-LIGHT?

To be fair, some companies have simplified too much and favour websites that are so slim and focused on mobile-friendly storytelling that basic disclosure is sacrificed. This is one of the main pitfalls of companies shifting their focus from desktop towards mobile users – two-thirds of the websites we assessed were responsive and only 6% weren’t fully accessible from mobile: companies


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What do people want online?

Leaders in online transparency(Concrete and Exhaustive scores combined as % of max.)

89%

31%

84%

Our user surveys show interest in formal reports has plummeted as people look more for information online. What they value most is to understand sustainability approach and strategy, priority (material) issues, targets and progress, and case studies/stories about projects that translate commitment into action.

of respondents cite reading a report as a priority when visiting a website (vs. 84% in 2009)

Source: CSR Online Awards survey

forget that the primary function of a corporate site is to provide information and disclosure about strategy, performance and operations. This information underpins trust for corporate audiences, as we have found in our CSR Online Awards user surveys.

We saw evidence of this in the greater proportion of companies failing our “core” test, which looks for basic ESG information – from policies to data – as well as other priority elements such as news updates and contact information. To qualify for a full ranking, companies must score a mere 40% in this test. Yet we were forced to eliminate almost one in four companies at this point in the research, a deterioration from about one in five in the previous edition.

Including the very few companies rejected for not having a structured reporting process, 75% of our initial panel of companies qualified for a full ranking, down from 77%.

SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSARE BEHIND THE CURVE

A novelty in this edition of the research was to examine not only Europe’s biggest companies but also its sustainability leaders as determined by RobecoSAM, which compiles the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. Almost a third of the companies we looked at were mentioned in RobecoSAM’s 2016 Sustainability Yearbook as having the best scores in their industry.

Surprisingly, leadership in sustainability performance doesn’t translate into leadership in communications.The advantage of these companies is negligible compared with the other companies in the ranking.Even on the “Core” test, there’s little to set them apart.

In fact, sustainability leaders might be seen to be behind the curve in terms of digital communications because they fall behind in the Distinctive pillar (scoring on average 40% of the max compared with 45% for all other companies). The DJSI top performers do better than the rest in the Ongoing pillar (37% vs. 34%) and are particularly strong in User friendly (52% vs 46%). This latter outperformance is the result of these companies paying greater attention to accessibility of their reports in digital channels by investing in mobile-friendly online or hybrid versions of their reports (many of them integrated reports). Look at Electrolux, SCA, Unilever and Philips as examples.

Going backwards: more companiesfail “Core” test of basic online disclosure

21%

24%

6th edition

7th edition


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THREE ELEMENTSOF SUCCESSFUL STORYTELLING

Since the last CSR Online Awards, there has been a blossoming of digital storytelling. The fact that scores in the Distinctive pillar have almost doubled indicates how rapidly companies have turned to these techniques, using text, image, infographics and video to show what they are doing rather than describing dry, impersonal processes.

Storytelling isn’t a nice-to-have but should underpin stakeholder trust. The professionals and experts we have listened to over years of surveying tell us that “stories” can play a key role in understanding how a company tackles challenges in practical terms. When we asked what they expect in terms of communications about a company’s most material issues as compared with less pressing topics, respondents want to understand better how those issues relate to the business strategy but also to see evidence of action through stories, examples, case studies and interviews.

We’ve uncovered three elements of successful sustainability storytelling:

1 it should illustrate the substance of a company’s commitment to critical issues (materiality),2 be coherent across the digital ecosystem (integration),3 and use a careful selection of the most appropriate digital tools, brought to life through image and video (visuals).

Storytelling has been a buzzword in corporate communications, especially when it comes to CSR and sustainability. But what does it really mean in this context? Thanks to our research, we have uncovered trends and winning techniques.

Unlocking storytelling to underpin stakeholder trust

Materiality

Visuals

Integration

80%

76%

63%

90%of companies have storytelling on their sustainability strategy, governance and ethics

of companies have some form of storytelling on environmental issues

of companies use text, image or video to talk about their context and critical issues

of companies have stories of some sort on social topics

What stories are companies telling?


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TELL STORIES ABOUT WHAT MATTERS

“Focus on what matters” was the mantra of the Global Reporting Initiative when it launched its G4 guidelines back in 2013. Breaking with a one-size-fits-all vision was a watershed moment. The ensuing materiality assessments – and stakeholder engagement – unlocked communications. Companies understood that CSR communications is not just an exercise in making information available online but building stronger stakeholder relations.

As we have found, stakeholders expect not only a focus on what matters but a laser-like focus on what matters most, the handful of issues that really make a difference. Hooking this expectation to digital storytelling allows companies to connect with stakeholders at an emotional level, not just engaging them with rational explanations.

In our research, 84% of companies presented their priority topics online, with about half of these explaining how issues relate to their business. Half of companies explain their materiality process. In terms of storytelling, it’s significant how much companies talk about their sustainability context and sector trends (almost as much as they do about the environment): six out of 10 use text to address broader topics (stories, articles, interviews, etc.) with two out of 10 doing so through video (see Syngenta, Novartis or SAP).

INTEGRATING INTO THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM

Stories are useful not only for the emotional connection they bring but also for the way they can deployed around the digital ecosystem, in corporate, local, social, or internal channels.

Best practice is about deploying content so as to get the most reach and impact on stakeholders. Today that means paid, earned as well as owned media, which makes integration in communications essential. Integration not only with regards to the core business but also with the overall corporate narrative.

In leading companies, it’s become hard to define the boundaries of sustainability storytelling as it becomes embedded across websites, magazines, blogs and online reports. A story works because of its business impact or relevance for the audience, not because it is somehow labelled as “sustainability” or “CSR”.

Why a focus on material topics matters in digital

How is sustainability integrated across company websites?

Our CSR Online Awards survey shows materiality – the identification of sustainability topics that matter to a company’s business and stakeholder perceptions – has become an important lens for understanding a company’s commitment.

Getting a sense of priorities is one of the top three elements that respondents in our survey said they look for, alongside the strategic approach to sustainability and targets and progress. Two out of three respondents said they are “frustrated” or “very frustrated” when sustainability is presented in isolation from the core business (their No. 1 source of frustration).

Looking outside the traditional “sustainability” or “responsibility” section of the corporate website, 94% of companies mention sustainability/CSR in “about us”, usually as part of the explanation of the business strategy (50% of companies) as well as when presenting values or the approach to business conduct; in terms of employer branding, companies are most likely to talk about CSR in relation to diversity & inclusion or employee initiatives.

By contrast, one in four companies makes no mention of sustainability in the “investors” pages (those that do generally do nothing more than present the sustainability report).

Integration of sustainability into corporate storytelling is on the rise, however, with half of companies publishing sustainability stories around the website, commonly in a dedicated section.


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Best performers in integration(Highest scores in Integrated pillar, % of max.)

83%78%76%

VISUAL STORIES

There are many reasons for adopting a visual communications strategy. Many studies tell us that presenting content in visual form helps the brain to process information, makes messages more convincing and aids memory. From a practical point of view, visual elements such as images, videos and data visualisation are helpful in increasing engagement in social media.

But even though these advantages are widely known, visuals struggle to gain sufficient prominence in sustainability communications. This may be because communication is still tied to the reporting process and encumbered by the large volume of text and data that it produces.

Social topics are favouritefor visual storytelling

The encouraging statistics on storytelling in the CSR Online Awards are mostly due to text-based content - stories, case studies, articles, interviews, etc. Only a minority of companies are consistently using visual communications as part of their sustainability communications. Good use of images and infographics is almost as rare as video.

Almost six out of 10 companies (57%) are using video to talk about social topics, much higher than on their environmental commitment (about three in 10). In fact, we judged visual storytelling on social issues to be of a much higher standard than on environmental topics, governance or wider trends. About a quarter of companies were rated “good” or “outstanding” for their use of video on social topics with top performers including AXA, Deutsche Bank and SAP.

About 20% of companies use video to talk about their context and industry issues while 17% do so on strategy, governance and ethics.

Best performers in distinctiveness(Highest scores in Distinctive pillar, % of max.)

81%77%73%

71%


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FOUR EXAMPLES TO INSPIRE YOUR STORYTELLING

BASFThe German company focuses its online magazine “Creating Chemistry” on the ways its products can help create a sustainable future, investigating topics such as resources, the environment and climate, nutrition and quality of life. The magazine combines short-form and interactive, long-form articles that let users explore not just what the company is doing but wider trends that are driving innovation in the sector. BASF also uses a range of visual elements to examine topics like digitalization in its “Company” section.

UnileverStories inform much of Unilever’s communications to provide a varied, easy-to-read account of its action. The company combines textual explanations of its approach with images, initiatives and comments from its managers; it has mapped its farmer programmes globally; it provides infographics on progress and videos to explain its flagship initiatives. The big picture is captured in a scrolling presentation of its Sustainable Living Plan that sits as a special page in front of the corporate website sections.


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Deutsche BankAs the bank’s responsibility and culture have taken centre stage in the past years, the company has responded by going beyond mere words to show how it works, including a suite of infographics on topics ranging from diversity to palm oil. The bank uses strong images and personal stories to highlight flagship initiatives Born to Be (youth engagement) and Made for Good (entrepreneurship). Its #EconomyStories video series examines the transformation of society and the economy.

ShellThe oil company’s website has evolved to have a magazine-like look, breaking out of the traditional structures. It has launched “Inside Energy”, what it calls a digital channel for the energy curious. While the stories examine changes to the company’s business and sector, they are also used to shed light on its sustainability commitment. The website also lets users explore videos about social and environmental aspects of its operation (“Sustainability in Film”), a selection of its YouTube videos. Looking to new developments, Shell highlights innovations in the energy space in its #makethefuture campaign.


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In past editions of the CSR Online Awards, it was left to a few leaders and early movers to make systematic use of social media for CSR and sustainability, often opening specific Twitter handles and Facebook pages to try and coalesce a community around their sustainability programme.

Today, sustainability has come of age as a topic of engagement for Europe’s biggest companies and is firmly part of the social media agenda, no longer just a passing reference or occasional campaign. Social and environmental topics have been incorporated into the social media agenda of many major companies: they appear in over a third of Facebook posts and a quarter of tweets. The really good news? These Facebook posts generate on average more engagement than other corporate content, and much more on Twitter.

WHAT ARE COMPANIES TALKING ABOUTIN SOCIAL MEDIA?

The key to understanding sustainability today is materiality, the ESG issues that matter for companies and their stakeholders. We too used materiality to examine social media content and avoid falling into a narrow definition of what makes a tweet or post “about” sustainability.

We compiled a “dictionary” (in 5 languages) of 200 keywords extracted from the materiality matrices of companies in 10 industries and added recurrent hashtags used by companies. This allowed us to “mine” posts over the course of 12 months and separate those that mention sustainability keywords from those that talk about other topics, from financial communications to sponsorships, recruitment to customer service.

What can big data tell us about how companies are talking about sustainability in social media? For this new edition of the CSR Online Awards, Lundquist teamed up with (www.twig.pro) to analyse tens of thousands of Facebook and Twitter posts to find some answers. Our aim was to see how much companies talk about relevant social and environmental topics and how much engagement this generates. Is sustainability good for dialogue?

28.7%

37.8%

26.7%

Joining the conversation:the challenge of engagement on social media

average volume of Facebook and Twitter poststalking about sustainability

of Facebook posts are on sustainability topics

of tweets are on sustainability topics

Best performers in social media(Highest scores in Distinctive pillar, % of max.)

87%82%80%


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We can therefore see how sustainability-related content measures up in terms of share and engagement.

In terms of sheer focus, the field is still led by a handful of companies with dedicated accounts. Nestlé may have closed its @NestleCSV handle but others continue: Deutsche Post’s Living Responsibility Facebook page; SAP’s Sap4Good accounts on Facebook and Twitter; BBVA’s Banca Responsabile on Twitter. They dedicate almost all their attention to corporate responsibility but often speak to small audiences, a few thousand followers at most.

What stands out is sustainability’s rise as a topic of mainstream accounts with audiences in the hundreds of thousands or millions. It’s not limited to energy companies and others for whom it’s easy to talk about #renewables, #green investments or #climate. We find topics ranging from #circulareconomy to #diversity and from #volunteering to #health coming to the fore in sectors including: consumer goods (sustainability terms found in 66% of posts in RB’s @DiscoverRB page, with 280,000+ likes), food & beverage (49% of tweets from Danone, with 25,000 followers), pharmaceuticals (57% of posts on GSK’s Facebook page, with 250,000+ likes), financials (45% of posts on Allianz’s page, with 1.1m+ likes) and luxury goods (57% of tweets by Kering, with 17,500+ followers).

For some, sustainability has become central to the commercial message and key to engagement with the corporate brand. See L’Oréal’s #beautyforall Facebook page with 2.1m likes and AXA’s People Protectors page with 2m likes (and 90% of posts on sustainability topics). Even Unilever, most people’s benchmark for integrating sustainability into its brands, tweets on these topics over half of the time to its 169,000 followers.

81%(@LOrealCommitted)

63%(@BBVABancaRespon)

90%(@axapeopleprotectors)

83%(@ENGIE)

81%(@LivingResponsibility)

58%(@ElectroluxGroup)

By the numbers

15724,368

7,330

Facebook and Twitter accounts analysed

tweets about sustainability, each getting 17% more engagement on average than other posts

Facebook posts on sustainability, each with 2.6% more engagement on average than other

posts

Who’s talking most about sustainability and CSR on Twitter? (% of tweets containing

sustainability/CSR keywords)

Who’s talking most about sustainability and CSR on Facebook? (% of posts containing

sustainability/CSR keywords)


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LOOKING TO DIALOGUE

While the trend for sustainability content is clear and broad-based, performance varies widely in terms of engagement. The main finding is that sustainability beats other corporate topics in sparking dialogue. Based on almost 16m engagements produced by these accounts over a year, companies are more adept at using Twitter. Each sustainability-related tweet generated on average 17% more engagement than tweets on other subjects; on Facebook, the sustainability advantage was just 2.6%. Not all accounts manage to achieve this advantage, of course, and the positive result is thanks to a smaller number of “virtuous” accounts that get large engagement on sustainability (see box below).

This may be because more companies use Twitter and find it better suited to the kind of content they have to share – think of thought leadership articles, news announcements and other updates aimed at professional and expert audiences. For sure, a majority of companies are struggling to make sustainability appeal to their Facebook audiences. To help understand these dynamics, we subdivided our dictionary of 200 sustainability keywords into five categories: Environment, Community, Human resources, Economics & governance, and general sustainability/CSR terms. When we compare them, we found that they don’t all get equal attention and each performs differently in terms of engagement.

380+ 14,000+280+ 10,700+

7,700+

7,400+

200+

130+

Who’s getting engagementon sustainability and CSRon Twitter?(Average number of engagements* per Facebook

post with sustainability keyword)

Who’s getting engagementon sustainability and CSRon Facebook?(Average number of engagements* per Facebook

post with sustainability keyword)

How we crunched the sustainability numbers

For this edition of our research, we teamed up with data management firm (www.twig.pro) to analyse how companies communicate CSR and sustainability on social media.

• Over 300 Facebook and Twitter accounts analysed across Europe (157 for the Europe 100 ranking)

• Dictionary of 200 material sustainability and CSR keywords in 5 languages

• Up to 15 points assigned to each company for Facebook and Twitter (based on volume and engagement rates on CSR content) as well as relevance of content on LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram

*Engagement is the total of likes/reactions, comments and shares


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Companies give equal space on Twitter to the environment (25% share of sustainbility-related posts) and community (25%) but slightly more to general CSR topics (26%). On Facebook, environment (30%) and community (29%) dominate with general CSR limited to a fifth of posts, not far ahead of employee-related content (18% of posts on both Facebook and Twitter).

But the generic CSR terms generate less engagement on both social networks with over half of engagement coming from content about the environment or community initiatives. That’s understandable since the “CSR” category is heavy with concepts like “sustainability”, “responsibility”, “impact”, “commitment” and “shared value”. By contrast, environmental topics generate more engagement – especially on Twitter (30% share of engagement but only 25% of tweets) – while HR terms do well on Facebook (21% share of engagement vs. 18% of posts).

For sure, we can’t tell which posts are promoted, which would tend to boost engagement rates. Still, it’s nonetheless encouraging that some companies think it’s sufficiently important to spend money to promote sustainability content.

The takeaway appears to be clear for companies on social media: it’s not about you. The process of corporate sustainability itself and CSR leaves most people cold whereas engagement thrives on content that is about the people (employees, communities, etc.) and places (environment) that each company impacts.

Profile of a top tweetUK-based bank HSBC has used Twitter (167k followers) to talk about its support for LGBT+ rights and policies in favour of greater inclusion, including in banking services. This tweet garnered attention by taking a stand and calling for others to follow its lead. The lender used this image as its profile picture on Twitter.

Profile of a top postFrench insurer AXA uses Facebook (2m likes) to talk not so much about insurance but how people are shifting towards sustainable living, engaging followers by asking them about their lifestyles and preferences. Even if it means replying to a simple poll or voting-by-emoticon. Often there is an implicit connection to the company’s business, in this case how the rise of ride sharing is disrupting car ownership and insurance markets.


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Best PerformersEurope 100

BASF climbs six places to take the top position in our flagship ranking thanks to strong performances in virtually all pillars and coming top of the pack in Integrated. BASF’s value-chain approach to sustainability is reflected in its communications and explored in depth in theWe create chemistry magazine.

Orange clocks up a remarkable gain of 43 positions. The French company not only provides granular detail of its performance but engages its customers on key issues through a network of thematic websites. The Orange foundation Facebook page was a top performer for generating engagement.

Eni gained 13 points to make it to the podium with a website that focuses on showing its commitment through projects in Africa and around the world. The oil company employs a range of content – from stories to images to video – to showcase its work and provides comprehensive documentation on its enipedia resource.

Best Improver

SAP, also best improver in our Germany Top 30 study, gained 63 places to take joint 20th on 52 points.The German company overhauled its website to focus on how its software enables customers to progress on sustainability, told through image and video. Engagement is led by its SAP4Good Facebook and Twitter accounts.

CSRawards1st

2nd

3rd CSRawards

CSRawards


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Best-in-class by pillar

Roche

15.5/16

Orange

16/19

Novartis

13/15

Unilever

10.5/13

Unilever

14/16

Deutsche Post

7/9.5

BASF

9.5/11.5

Hashtags:#web-based #G4disclosure #performance #drill-down #positions

Hashtags:#search #navigation #legibility #mobile #charts #reportformats

Hashtags:#engagement #topics #facebook #twitter #instagram #linkedin

Hashtags:#brands #storytelling #projects #visuals #video #campaigns

Hashtags:#targets #progress #engagement #materiality #governance

Hashtags:#news #blog #newsletter #responsiveness #email #contacts

Hashtags:#product #investors #employees #stories #verbund

Concrete

Exhaustive

User-friendly

Ongoing

Social

Integrated

Distinctive


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Focus: Germany

It’s all change at the top of the German ranking with BASF clinching the No. 1 place for the first time – and also taking 1st place in our flagship Europe 100 ranking – but there has been a wave of change and improvement across the board with the average score climbing an impressive 5.4 points to 46.2 out of 100.

Compared with the previous edition, German scores in all pillars have increased except Concrete (-4% percentage points). There have been marked improvements in Distinctive (+15% percentage points), Social (+14% percentage points) and Ongoing (+11% percentage points). The best improver was SAP, which climbed 21 positions, followed by Merck Group (up 14 places) and thyssenkrupp (up 10 places).

Transparency on sustainability is business-as-usual for the top German companies with companies not reporting or publishing important information online (“core” evaluation) being very much the exception. In all, only 12.5% of companies failed these two tests, comfortably higher than 25% for our Europe 100 ranking.

INTEGRATION IN BUSINESS IS KEY TO INTEGRATION IN COMMUNICATIONS

German companies have embraced sustainability as a defining element in their business strategy and therefore in their corporate identity and engagement strategies. We are finding not only comprehensive and well-crafted sustainability sections but a cross-cutting attention to the social and environmental agenda and bold attempts to engage stakeholders. We see this at work in both consumer-facing companies and in industrial/B2B businesses.

The way German companies are evolving their sustainability communications speaks to the importance of having a joined-up vision of the importance of material issues to the business strategy and to stakeholders. This means sustainability communications is not an after-thought or something confined to a specific section of the corporate website but an opportunity to engage a wide range of corporate audiences about future challenges and current achievements.

Businesses are communicating like this because they are keenly aware of how their future success is connected to social and environmental challenges. It’s the flip side of integrated thinking. The integration we are seeing in leading German companies straddles storytelling, thought leadership and engagement.

BASF, on its recently relaunched website, explains sustainability topics throughout the We create chemistry magazine (without losing sight of BASF’s business) while Bayer has launched a series of long-form articles explaining how the company addresses societal needs with its solutions. Munich Re uses its TOPICS magazine as a space for thought leadership on the role of insurance with regards to megatrends ranging from climate change to digitalisation and Siemens has an area dedicated to important topics to showcase how its industrial expertise is “helping to pioneer a sustainable future”.

ENGAGING AUDIENCES WITH BLOGSAND SOCIAL MEDIA

Corporate blogs, something of a rarity in Europe, are broaching material sustainability topics alongside other business challenges: examples include Deutsche Post’s Delivering Tomorrow, the adidas corporate blog (recently re-launched as the Gameplan A magazine) and thyssenkrupp’s #engineered.

In social media, top performers in the way they are addressing CSR and sustainability with their followers across a broad range of channels are Deutsche Bank, BASF and Bayer.

The companies talking the most about sustainability on Facebook are those that have set up a page targeted at small but engaged audiences interested in these topics - Deutsche Post with its Living Responsibly page and SAP’s SAP4Good page are good examples. Infineon Technologies and Merck both stand out for their ability to generate engagement.

On Twitter, we find SAP4Good again leading the conversation on sustainability topics but also Munich Re, which is especially good at getting engagement from a smaller follower base compared with big consumer brands.

Germany focuses on engaging stakeholders through storytelling and social media

64%Concrete

60%

39%

49%

35%25%

31%

25%

46%Ongoing

43%Exhaustive

39%Social

40%Distinctive

36%Integrated

54%User-friendly

20142016

10

0

20

30

40

50

60

70


21

Best PerformersGermany Top 30

BASF tops the German ranking for the first time, climbing from 2nd and adding over 12 points. The secret to the chemical company’s success was consistency across all pillars, though it should come as no surprise that it was top in the Integrated pillar. A new website helped boost its storytelling capacities.

Bayer jumps two places thanks to a gain of 14.5 points. The Life Sciences company has worked to achieve a balance between the rigours of transparency and communication needs. Bayer was top in the Concrete and User Friendly pillars and has integrated sustainability into its broader digital storytelling.

Henkel returns to the podium for the first time since it was first in 2009 and 2010. The company shows how consumer companies have embraced the sustainability agenda recently and boosted communications. Leader in the Exhaustive and Ongoing pillars, Henkel focuses on impacts across its value chain, letting consumers measure their carbon footprint.

CSRawards

CSRawards

CSRawards

Best Improver

SAP, long recognised for its online reporting, has stepped up its game in sustainability communications, climbing 21 places into 7th position. The software company illustrates progress with ample use of images and video and features stories about how it enables customers to work towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

1st

2nd

3rd


22

Focus: Switzerland

The top of the ranking remains little changed with Nestlé maintaining its dominance in the top spot, beating Roche by a comfortable 8.25 points. Top Swiss companies stand out for the improvement made in moving beyond the once-a-year reporting cycle to engage their stakeholders through social media and thought leadership. However, the performance of Swiss companies generally is undermined by a lack of transparency, an issue that has not improved since our previous edition of the research two years ago.

THE SWISS HEADACHE:BOOSTING TRANSPARENCY ON SUSTAINABILITY

The biggest worry for Swiss companies is a failure to close the gap with the rest of Europe in terms of transparency on environmental, social and governance topics. While sustainability reporting is standard practice for the biggest Swiss corporations, we rejected 13 companies for not having a structured reporting process in place – a quarter of the listed companies we considered in Switzerland (we only add non-listed companies to our research if they are reporting on sustainability). Another 20 firms failed the “core” test, meaning that we “failed” 58% of the biggest Swiss companies for lacking basic transparency.

There has been no progress on this front in two years. Although we expanded our coverage in Switzerland slightly (adding 4 extra companies), the failure rate was flat compared with 57% previously and the number of companies that stubbornly refuse to adopt sustainability reporting remains at 1 in 4 among the top 50 listed companies.

JOINING THE CONVERSATION:SWISS COMPANIES IMPROVE IN ENGAGEMENT

For the 24 companies that made the cut to the full evaluation, improvements are at hand. The average score jumped 3.8 points to 40.9 out of 100. The best improver was unlisted Firmenich, which climbed 24 positions to 14th, and there were notable improvements in the top 10 by Zurich Insurance Group and ABB (both up 8 places), and by COOP (up 10 places).

Overall, there has been a slight decrease in the Concrete pillar (as we have found in other countries) but this is amply offset by gains in Social (+18 percentage points), Distinctive (+10.4 percentage points) and Integrated (+8.8 percentage points).

There seems to be a concerted effort by the best Swiss companies to use digital to build an open and regular relation with stakeholders. Compared to our benchmark of top European companies, Swiss companies fared best in the Ongoing and Social pillars where what matters is using digital to generate dialogue and to show responsiveness to questions, comments and the wider debate.

Novartis was the clear leader in this regard: it achieved the highest score for use of social media out of all Swiss companies – check out its Facebook page, which generates three quarters of its total engagement from posts with sustainability keywords. Other companies worth mentioning are Syngenta (@Syngenta) and Nestlé (@Nestle) on Twitter – almost half of their posts talk about sustainability topics. Barry Callebaut (@BCgroupnews) is best at engaging even small audiences on Twitter about sustainability – these tweets get twice as much engagement as the rest of the chocolate company’s posts.

There are interesting examples of the way sustainability is being addressed as part of the wider corporate agenda: Zurich blends its top sustainability topics (flood resilience, environmental risk, insurance and society) into its “Industry Knowledge” thought leadership section while ABB talks about different aspects of sustainable business in its blogging platform “Conversations”.

Clariant and Sonova should be commended for their openness to feedback via email: not only is it simple to get in touch with the right people but they responded to our test emails in 20 minutes and 7 minutes respectively.

Companies excluded for lack of transparency(% of companies assessed)

Swiss Top 50 ranking Europe Top 100 ranking

58% 25%


23

Best PerformersSwitzerland Top 50

1st

2nd

Nestlé maintains its dominance in Switzerland, unchallenged for the top spot since 2010. The leader in Exhaustive and Integrated pillars, Nestlé’s packed website is clear and accessible. It successfully takes the Creating Shared Value approach into the social media conversation.

Roche jumps three places to take the podium for the first time since 2009. The user-friendly website balances high-level clarity with a granular level of detail (Roche was top performer in Concrete). It highlights the role employees play through stories.

3rd Credit Suisse, a consistent top performer in the Swiss ranking, slips one place and holds its 3rd position by the smallest margin. The bank focuses on explaining its impact as a financial institution and tells stories about its commitment to topics such as microfinance and disaster relief.

CSRawards

CSRawards

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Best Improver

Firmenich races up the Swiss ranking, climbing from 38th place to 14th spot with an increase of well over 30 points, an encouraging sign from a non-listed company. With navigation guided by high impact images, users can explore environmental and sourcing efforts from around the world.

CSR Online Awards 7° Edizione

24

1How we carry outthe research

Methodology

The CSR Online Awards, now in its 7th edition, is a research project examining how European companies use key digital channels – their corporate websites and social media accounts - to inform and engage stakeholders.

The study is unique in the way it incorporates the point of view of external stakeholders. Our evaluation protocol is refined at each edition not only based on sustainability trends and our experience in digital communications but also through an engagement process. Since the first edition of the awards in 2007-2008, we have involved more than 1,850 sustainability professionals and CSR experts in a series of surveys in order to make sure the research reflects the interests and the real needs of stakeholders. Over 230 people responded to our latest survey.

Our evaluation protocol, which assigns a score out of a maximum 100 points, is organised into 7 pillars and enables us to measure the effectiveness of online sustainability and corporate responsibility communications.

250+ COMPANIES RANKEDACROSS EUROPE

The 7th edition of the research evaluated 254 companies across Europe, covering the calendar year 2016. The study was organised into four distinct rankings:• Europe 100 Leaders: our flagship ranking of the

biggest European companies. In this edition, we revised our universe by including components of the STOXX Europe50 and STOXX Euro50 indexes (as of July 2016) to include the region’s top companies by stock market value. To give a focus on the communication of sustainability leaders, however, we also included Europe-based industry leaders in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (2016) and top performers included by RobecoSAM in its

Main steps in the CSR Online Awardsresearch process

STAKEHOLDER

INPUT COLLECTED

ON 7 PILLARS

“CORE“

EVALUATION OFBASIC CONTENT

REVISION OF

EVALUATION CRITERIA

FULL EVALUATION BASED

SELECTION OF COMPANY

We draw up a long-list of listed and non-listed companies based around

rankings for Europe, Germany,

Switzerland and Italy

Assessment of corporate websites and social media channels, assigning up to max.

We screen companies and reject those not reporting on sustainability or presenting basic sustainability information online

We’ve gathered input from over

1850 respondents over 8 years in surveys looking into what stakeholders want to know about sustainability

The criteria in our evaluation model, organised into 7 pillars, are revised in light of stakeholder input and latest trends

2

3

4

5100 points


25

Sustainability Yearbook 2016. In the current edition of the research, the Europe ranking included 94 companies.

• Germany Top30: we once again considered members of Germany’s benchmark DAX30 index but expanded coverage with three leading non-listed corporations for a total of 32 companies (Fresenius and Fresenius Medical Care were considered as one company).

• Switzerland Top50: our Swiss ranking once again included components of the SMI Expanded index plus a selection of important non-listed brands that address sustainability issues, for a total of 57 companies.

• Italy Top100 (published in June 2017): we analysed the 80 biggest listed companies by market value (excluding holding companies) and another 20 important non-listed companies that report on sustainability.

RANKINGS CARRIED OUTIN 3 PHASES

We know users trust what companies say based on the substance, not on how it’s presented. That’s why we’ve organised our methodology to filter out companies that don’t have a structured sustainability process or provide users with the most sought-after information.This is achieved through a three-step evaluation process.

STEP ONE: We look for evidence of a structured approach to non-financial reporting, usually in the form of an annual sustainability or corporate responsibility report or equivalent information in the annual (or integrated) report or else through online disclosures.

STEP TWO: We carry out a “core” evaluation on all remaining companies, based primarily on the criteria in the first pillar of the research (Concrete). We do this to avoid assessing effectiveness of communication when basic information, such as strategy, policies, performance and targets are missing. Companies need to obtain at least 40% in the “core” criteria (9 points out of 21.5) to

proceed to the final phase. STEP THREE: Surviving companies are assessed based on all criteria. Social media channels are analysed and metrics collected for Facebook and Twitter and practical test emails are sent to contact information available on each company’s website. Evaluations are carried out by two different analysts with quality checks carried out on top performing companies.

WHAT WE EVALUATE

To delimit our research activities, we examine the section or sections of the corporate website that deal with sustainability, corporate responsibility or similar topics.

Reports themselves are not considered, whether in PDF or online, unless there are downloads or direct links to specific information we require. Mini-sites are taken into consideration only if they are properly flagged from the corporate site. For the evaluation of the Integrated pillar we consider all other sections of the corporate site. We assess social media accounts linked from each company’s website.

How we assign penalty points

The evaluation protocol uses a penalty system applied to the first 5 pillars, with 0.5 points subtracted for each penalty. We penalise issues with content by subtracting score directly in the relevant criterion or for user experience problems, in which case the penalty is subtracted from the score in the User friendly pillar. Penalties are given for:

• Problems of information architecture and menu structure that make information hard to find or places it in an illogical or inappropriate place.

• Outdated or obsolete information.• Problems of usability in accessing website content

and functions, including legibility of images, charts and diagrams, broken links, etc.

• “Etiquette” errors in social media accounts (e.g. disabled comments, private videos, no company information, non-English content).

SELECTED CORE CRITERIACODE OF CONDUCT, GUIDELINES, HOT TOPICS, ENVIROMENTAL APPROACH, HUMAN RIGHTS, KPIs, NEWS & CONTACTS


26

WHAT’S NEW IN THIS EDITIONThe research evolves at each edition as we interpret trends in digital and sustainability. After an overhaul in 2014 with the introduction of the 7 pillars, changes in this edition were limited, which offers greater comparability between editions. The main changes include:

Materiality andstakeholder engagement

Storytelling

Social media

Integration

Materiality and engagement are gaining a dominant role in the definition of content, especially for evaluating social media, integration and distinctiveness

We now assess the integration of sustainability topics from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective and have expanded the pillar’s scope to cover cases when corporate storytelling addresses sustainability.

The growing relevance of social channels to corporate sustainability is reflected in the increased weight of the Social pillar. We analysed a year of tweets and Facebook posts, assigning score based both on the frequency of sustainability-related posts and engagement rates for that content.

We’ve increased scores for storytelling but have retained our rigour in looking for content, visuals and videos that illustrate topics of strategic relevance and the most material issues for a company/sector. We look for storytelling related to the company’s context too.

5 steps in discoveringsustainability’s “big data”

For the 7th edition of the CSR Online Awards we teamed up with (www.twig.pro), specialists in data management and social media metrics, to tap into the big data of corporate sustainability communications and understand the dynamics of engagement. We focused on Facebook and Twitter, social networks that are among the most used both by companies and stakeholders.Here’s what we did:

1

2

5

3

4

Analysis of materiality matrices of 10 companies in different sectors from Italy, Switzerland and Germany to identify key sustainability themes

Monitoring of a year’s activity of accounts belonging to companies in the research, both in terms of the language used and the engagement generated

Comparative analysis of social metrics, including publication frequency and engagement per post/tweet, of each company, split between sustainability content and other content

Mining of frequently used words to extract key terms and hashtags related to corporate social responsibility and sustainability

Creation of a sustainability “dictionary” of 200 terms based on material issues (in 5 languages - English, French, German, Italian and Spanish)

33%6th Edition

DISTINCTIVE

INTEGRATED

SOCIAL

Growing focus on distinctiveness and taking the message to stakeholdersWe increased the weight of the Distinctive, Integrated and Social pillars to a combined 40% of the total score.

40%7th Edition


27

CONCRETEProviding a core set of environmental, social and governance information, from policies and guidelines to data and objectives

EXHAUSTIVEAllowing users to see “under the bonnet” with more detailed disclosure (for example on stakeholder engagement and target achievement)

USER-FRIENDLYSpeedy, intuitive navigation, reporting formats, search functionality as well as the user experience more generally

ONGOINGKeeping stakeholders updated on a regular basis (through news, blogs, etc.) and remaining open to feedback and comment

SOCIALLeveraging social media to listen, inform and engage both in generic corporate accounts and in accounts specifically geared to audiences interested in CR or sustainability

INTEGRATEDTaking the message to stakeholders across the corporate website as part of the presentation of the company and information aimed at investors, journalists, jobseekers, etc.

16%

16%

19%9.5%

15%

11.5%

13%

Our researchpillars

Our evaluation protocol takes a close look not only at what is communicated in terms of content and information but also how it is presented to stakeholders within the corporate ecosystem.

DISTINCTIVEUsing digital to tell an engaging, unique story that focuses on the most important issues and shows what strategy means in day-to-day, concrete contexts through storytelling, video and visual communication


28

CSR Online Awards EuropeTop 100 (2016-2017)

RANKING WITH FULL EVALUATION

7th edition position

Change 6th edition position

Full scoreCompany name

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11=

11=

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20=

20=

22=

22=

24

25

26=

26=

28

29

30=

30=

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39=

39=

41=

41=

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

6

45

8

11

3

2

33=

17=

39=

new

54

new

36=

31=

22

1

new

56

15=

61

83=

13

12

17=

20=

48=

25

66

38

new

73

35

46=

71

29

new

43

5

88=

67=

new

new

73,25

72,75

72,5

70,75

70,5

63,5

62

61,75

59,5

59,25

59

59

58,25

56,5

55,25

54,5

54

53,75

52,75

52

52

51

51

50,75

49,75

49

49

47,75

47,5

47

47

46,5

46,25

46

45,75

45

44,5

44

43,5

43,5

43,25

43,25

BASF

Orange

Eni

Bayer

Unilever*

Nestlé

Munich Re

Deutsche Bank

Iberdrola

SCA* (1)

AXA

UPM-Kymmene*

Philips*

Telefonica

Roche*

Deutsche Post DHL Group

United Utilities*

ING Group

Royal Dutch Shell

ABB

SAP*

BP

Siemens

British American Tobacco*

UBS*

GlaxoSmithKline

Novartis

Rolls-Royce*

Assicurazioni Generali

CNH Industrial*

Zurich Insurance Group

Vivendi

L’Oréal

BNP Paribas

Intesa Sanpaolo

Michelin*

Reckitt Benckiser Group

BT Group

Airbus

Deutsche Telekom

Nokia (2)

Terna*

Notes

new: Companies are indicated as “new” in the Europe 100 ranking even if they were previously included in country rankings* Industry leaders in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (2016) and top performers mentioned in the RobecoSAM Yearbook 20161 SCA was evaluated before the demerger of Essity2 Nokia acquired Alcatel-Lucent, the industry leader for Technology Hardware & Equipment3 Previous score refers to GDF Suez4 Previous score refers to Imperial Tobacco Group

Evaluation timingsCompanies were selected for inclusion and informed of their involvement in the research in July 2016.The first two screenings of companies – identification of non-financial reporting and the “core” evaluations – were conducted in August 2016 and in January 2017 for U.K. companies.

Full evaluations of companies passing the “core” evaluation were conducted between October and November 2016 and in February 2017 for U.K. companies. The analysis of Twitter and Facebook feeds was conducted in April 2017 based on posts and analytics gathered for the period March 2016-March 2017.

The timing for companies included in the German, Italian and Swiss editions of the research are those stated in the notes to those rankings and were not subsequently updated.


29




43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55=

55=

57

58

59

60

61

62=

62=

64

65=

65=

65=

68

69

70

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

10

50=

new

74=

50=

new

77=

new

39=

76

74=

31=

90=

new

new

79=

39=

new

36=

28

23=

new

90=

55

new

72

new

new

43

42,5

42,25

42

41,75

41,5

40,75

39,75

39,5

39,25

38

37,75

37,5

37,5

37,25

36,75

36,25

35,75

35,25

34,75

34,75

34,5

31,25

31,25

31,25

28

26

21,75

Allianz

Syngenta

Coca Cola HBC*

Daimler

Societe Generale

SGS*

Rio Tinto

Gas Natural SDG*

Engie (3)

Vinci

Diageo

E.ON

Lloyds Banking Group

Saint Gobain

Sodexo*

Inditex

National Grid

Electrolux*

UniCredit

BMW*

Imperial Brands (4)

Metro*

Anheuser-Busch InBev

AstraZeneca

Carrefour

Banco Santander

Air France-KLM*

Unibail-Rodamco

Ranking continues on next page


30

COMPANIES WITHOUT SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING

Fresenius SE

RANKING WITH “CORE” EVALUATION

Position Change 6th edition position

“Core” scoreCompany name

71

72=

72=

72=

75=

75=

75=

75=

79

80=

80=

80=

83=

83=

85=

85=

87

88=

88=

88=

91

92

93

-

-

-

-=

-

-

-

-

82

77=

new

42

58

new

60

83=

new

77=

7

new

83=

new

17=

30

90=

90=

new

new

new

87

62=

8,5

8

8

8

7,5

7,5

7,5

7,5

7

6,5

6,5

6,5

6

6

5,5

5,5

5

4

4

4

3,5

2

1

Volkswagen

Schneider Electric*

Telenet Group Holding*

Total

Barclays

Royal Mail*

Sanofi

Swiss Re*

Technip*

Air Liquide

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria

Safran

HSBC

Kering*

Enel

Novo Nordisk

Vodafone Group

Danone

Essilor International

LVMH Moët Hennessy

Akzo Nobel*

Prudential

ASML Holding


31

CSR Online Awards GermanyTop 30 (2016-2017)





1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20=

20=

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

=

-

-

-

2

4

10=

10=

6

1

28

5

23

7

21

12

19

3

18

25

13

20new

22

9

24

new

8

14

15

new

17

73,25

70,75

66,25

62

61,75

54,5

52

51

50,75

49,25

48,5

47

43,5

43

42,5

42

41,5

40,75

39,25

37,75

37,75

36,5

35,75

34,75

34,5

34,25

33,5

29,5

BASF

Bayer

Henkel

Munich Re

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Post DHL Group

SAP

Siemens

Merck KGaA

adidas

ThyssenKrupp

Linde

Deutsche Telekom

Allianz

Beiersdorf

Daimler

Continental

Commerzbank

Robert Bosch

Deutsche Börse

E.ON

Infineon Technologies

Bertelsmann

BMW

RWE

HeidelbergCement

Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Lufthansa

Evaluation timingsCompanies were selected for inclusion in February 2016 and announced to companies and on our website (lundquist.it) on 23 February 2016.

The first two screenings of companies – identification of non-financial reporting and the “core” evaluations – were conducted between February and June 2016 based on reports published relating to 2015 calendar year. The list of companies passing these tests was published on our website on 6 June 2016 and communicated to companies involved.

Full evaluations were conducted between July and September 2016 with quality assurance conducted in the following weeks. The analysis of Twitter and Facebook feeds was conducted at end-2016 based on posts and analytics gathered for the period June 2015-June 2016.Social media metrics for companies in the Europe 100 ranking were updated for the period March 2016-March 2017 to compile the aggregated data presented on pp. 14-17.




29

30

27

26

8,5

6,5

Volkswagen

K+S


Fresenius Medical Care Vonovia


32

CSR Online Awards SwitzerlandTop 50 (2016-2017)





1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

=

=

=

=

1

5

2

12

4

6

10

8

17=

9

3

11

17=

38=

24

16

20

28=

22

15

19

13

21

14

63,5

55,25

52,5

52

49,75

49

48,75

48

47

42,5

41,5

39,5

39,25

38,75

38

37,75

37

36,5

31,25

29,5

28

27,75

27

21,5

Nestlé

Roche

Credit Suisse Group

ABB

UBS

Novartis

Clariant

Migros

Zurich Insurance Group

Syngenta

SGS

Sika

Swisscom

Firmenich

Barry Callebaut

Givaudan

Sonova

COOP

Adecco Group

Geberit

Lindt & Spruengli

Richemont

Schindler

Georg Fischer

Evaluation timingsCompanies were selected for inclusion in February 2016 and announced to companies and on our website (lundquist.it) on 23 February 2016.

The first two screenings of companies – identification of non-financial reporting and the “core” evaluations – were conducted between February and June 2016 based on reports published relating to 2015 calendar year. The list of companies passing these tests was published on our website on 6 June 2016 and communicated to companies involved.

Full evaluations were conducted between July and September 2016 with quality assurance conducted in the following weeks. The analysis of Twitter and Facebook feeds was conducted at end-2016 based on posts and analytics gathered for the period June 2015-June 2016.Social media metrics for companies in the Europe 100 ranking were updated for the period March 2016-March 2017 to compile the aggregated data presented on pp. 14-17.


33




25=

25=

27=

27=

29=

29=

29=

32=

32=

32=

35

36

37

38

39=

39=

41

42

43

44

-

=

-

-

-

37

28=

27

35=

No Report

new

new

25=

28=

23

No Report

33=

32

25=

31

35

33=

40

No Report

8,5

8,5

7,5

7,5

7

7

7

6,5

6,5

6,5

6

5,5

5

4

3

3

2,5

2

1,5

1

LafargeHolcim

Straumann

SBB

Swiss Re

Galenica

Helvetia Group

Zuercher Kantonalbank

LGT

Sulzer

Swiss Post

Lonza

Swiss Life

Actelion

AMS

Kuehne+Nagel International

Logitech

Baloise Group

PSP Swiss Property

Swatch Group

Dufry


Aryzta

DKSH Holding

Ems-Chemie

Gam

Julius Baer Group

Oc Oerlikon

Pargesa

Partners Group

Ringier

Sunrise

Swiss Prime Site

Temenos

Transocean


34

How we can help you

The CSR Online Awards can help you understand the effectiveness of your online sustainability communications and see how you measure up with peers in your sector and best practice internationally.

STRATEGY THROUGHENGAGEMENT

Internally: our goal is to capture the “identity” and unique role of the company regarding sustainability topics, define strategies, key issues and challenges, create shared culture. Externally: engaging stakeholders is a crucial process for building credibility, collaboration and mutual understanding.

Activities• Internal and external stakeholder

engagement (surveys, workshops, interviews…)

• Definition of key themes, priorities and materiality analysis

• Benchmarking and sustainability strategy

• Defining objectives, actions and KPIs

REPORTING

We support companies in setting up their reporting in line with international best practice and taking those already on the path to the next level. We make sure reports not only meet technical and regulatory requirements but also resonate with audiences: relevant, high impact documents that can be “unbundled” to get content closer to stakeholders.

Activities• Data collection and reporting

process• Alignment with GRI guidelines• Content production, editing and

graphic design

COMMUNICATION

With our user-centred approach, we boost the effectiveness of digital communications, developing and implementing strategies for online content, engagement and storytelling. Our watchwords are: relevance, distinctiveness, integration. Our motto is “digital-first” not “digital only”.

Activities• CSR Online Awards Performance

Report & Assessment• Content strategy for

sustainability• Corporate websites &

stakeholder communications• Storytelling and social media for

sustainability

THE CSR ONLINE AWARDS IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF OUR APPROACH TO SUSTAINABILITY

As we embed sustainability into day-to-day operations, the interconnection between business strategy, reporting, internal and external engagement, and communication is increasingly tight. That’s why the CSR Online Awards is an integral part of our thinking and work in sustainability.

With our strategic approach and in-depth understanding of corporate reputation and stakeholder expectations, we are well positioned to support companies: from strategy to GRI reporting, stakeholder engagement to communications, all supported by best-in-class content creation.

The CSR Online Awards Performance Report gives you all the information you need to know how your sustainability communications stacks up against best practice and stakeholder needs. The report

helps you understand how the research works and provides details of your scoring in each of the 7 pillars, illustrated with examples of best performers at an international level.It’s a great instrument for measuring progress and identifying tactical improvements and gives you a chance to ask us any questions you may have.

Our CSR Online Awards Assessment Report & Workshop includes an in-depth analysis of your communications, identifies strengths and

weaknesses and explains who’s performing best in your sector and why. We consider your entire sustainability ecosystem to understand if it’s effective and coherent: do the site, social media and sustainability reports transmit a distinctive message from a user perspective? The package allows us to pinpoint and discuss areas for improvement and talk through strategic recommendations on how to move forward.

To order a CSR Online Awards Performance Report or Assessment Report & Workshop or to understand how we can help you improve your sustainability communications, email [email protected]


35

James OsborneHead of sustainabilityE: [email protected]

Joakim LundquistFounding partnerT: +39 02 36754126E: [email protected]

Sara RusconiPartner, content strategistE: [email protected]

Aldo CristadoroData managerT: +39 035 199 05572E: [email protected]

For more information on the analysis of social media metrics and research methods, contact

For the analysis of social media data and metrics in this research we collaborated with , a data management company that offers integrated services in research, data analysis and communication. Twig uses web listening tools to understand in real time what voters, consumers and the wider public thinks about specific topics or issues.

By using scraping and text mining tools, Twig’s Web Listening service collects conversation flows from users, interprets textual data and transforms the results into concrete suggestions for managing online reputation.

Who we are

We are consultants specialised in corporate communications and sustainability, with more than 15 years of experience. Lundquist projects stand out for the way they strike an innovative balance between external and internal perspectives, achieved thanks to our in-depth knowledge of corporate audiences and specialisation in digital.

Our approach is underpinned by international research programmes that measure the effectiveness of websites and other corporate channels, allowing us to capture trends in communication and the priorities of different business sectors.

CSR Online AwardsThe study, in its 7th edition, looks at how European companies use digital and

social channels to inform and engage stakeholders. The research is used by companies to evaluate and benchmark their sustainability communications and come up with practical ways to improve. By surveying a wide range of stakeholders, we ensure the research reflects real stakeholder needs.

See the white paper of theItalian edition of the research atbit.ly/NEWSCSROAIT17

Webranking by ComprendIn its 20th edition, Webranking is the most authoritative study of transparency in corporate

communications in Europe. The research, conducted by Lundquist in collaboration with Comprend, investigates stakeholder needs and evaluates transparency on digital channels of the largest corporations in Europe (c. 800 each year).

See www.lundquist.it/category/webranking or https://comprend.com/webranking

Wikipedia ResearchSince 2008 we have been evaluating how informative and complete Wikipedia articles

are on the largest companies in Europe. Through this work, we have created a model to help companies interact constructively with the Wikipedia community.

For information on the European edition of our Wikipedia programme:bit.ly/CompaniesAndWikipedia2016

Visit www.lundquist.it or follow us on Twitter (@Lundquist) to get the latest on our research programmes, events and trends in digital, corporate communications and sustainability.

http://bit.ly/NEWSCSROAIT17

http://www.lundquist.it/category/webranking

http://www.lundquist.it/category/webranking

https://comprend.com/webranking

https://comprend.com/webranking

http://bit.ly/CompaniesAndWikipedia2016

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