Communicating Sustainability: An Operational Model for Evaluating Corporate Websites

Abstract

Abstract:The interest in corporate sustainability has increased rapidly in recent years and has encouraged organizations to adopt appropriate digital communication strategies, in which the corporate website plays a key role. Despite this growing attention in both the academic and business communities, models for the analysis and evaluation of online sustainability communication have not been developed to date. This paper aims to develop an operational model to identify and assess the requirements of sustainability communication in corporate websites. It has been developed from a literature review on corporate sustainability and digital communication and the analysis of the websites of the organizations included in the "Global CSR RepTrak 2015" by the Reputation Institute. The model identifies the core dimensions of online sustainability communication (orientation, structure, ergonomics, content-OSEC), sub-dimensions, such as stakeholder engagement and governance tools, communication principles, and measurable items (e.g., presence of the materiality matrix, interactive graphs). A pilot study on the websites of the energy and utilities companies included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index 2015 confirms the applicability of the OSEC framework. Thus, the model can provide managers and digital communication consultants with an operational tool that is useful for developing an industry ranking and assessing the best practices. The model can also help practitioners to identify corrective actions in the critical areas of digital sustainability communication and avoid greenwashing.

Assessing the Sustainability of High-Value Brands in the IT Sector

“…Likewise, the way in which sustainability information is reported also makes a huge influence, especially nowadays with the growing impact of digital communication. Despite this growing amount of attention being paid to both the academic and business communities, models to analyze and evaluate online sustainability communication have not yet been developed [53]. However, it is important to communicate the commitment to corporate sustainability to stakeholders because a sustainable business approach cannot be implemented without effective communication, which aims to share CSR values with stakeholders [54].…”

Rethinking the Way of Doing Business: A Reframe of Management Structures for Developing Corporate Sustainability

“…Corporate Sustainability performance [44][45][46][47][48][49] Corporate Sustainability and strategic management [34,50,51] Sustainable business models [49,52] Corporate Sustainability reporting [13,30,53,54] Corporate Sustainability frameworks, tools and practices [55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64] Sustainable supply chain [65] Environmental Corporate Sustainability [66,67] Adopting Corporate Sustainability in specific countries/regions [68,69] Table 1 presents the literature reviews in CS grouped in seven key areas of research. These literature reviews are fundamentally important to advance the state of the art in CS; however, they have specific focus on certain areas of CS research.…”

Designing a Data Visualization Dashboard for Managing the Sustainability Communication of Healthcare Organizations on Facebook

“…Companies have to make their CSR activities visible to stakeholders in order to be considered as "socially responsible" [36][37][38]. To this end, besides communicating CSR commitment using traditional means (such as sustainability reports, codes of ethics and certification standards), healthcare industries are increasingly active in adopting digital technologies [39].…”