Beyond Green: The Triple Play of Sustainability

Beyond Green:
The Triple Play of
Sustainability
The CIO is in a prime position to help organizations
broaden sustainability efforts to cover environmental,
economic and social impacts.

| FUTURE OF WORK
1 FUTURE OF WORK March 2011

Executive Summary
Want to find the most environmentally conscious person in
the organization to lead your company to a more sustainable
future? A good place to start is the CIO. Across industries, CIOs
in many companies have been spearheading corporate-wide
“green” initiatives, both within and outside of IT, with many
fruitful results. Through programs like data center consolida-
tion, server virtualization, desktop power management initia-
tives, print management and new equipment procurement
guidelines, to name just a few, CIOs have steadily worked to
successfully reduce IT’s carbon footprint.

Many CIOs have also reached across the aisle to facilities
management groups in their organizations to ensure that HVAC
and lighting is optimized, inside and outside the data center.
And by leading projects to baseline greenhouse gas and carbon
emissions levels and then set reduction targets — even building
dashboards for the entire company to easily view the results of
their efforts — they have become advocates and educators for
corporate-wide environmental sustainability initiatives.

However, the field of sustainability is much broader than just
the environment. Organizations such as the Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI) now define sustainability as a triumverate that
encompasses not just the environmental impacts of the company
but the economic and social footprint, as well (see Figure 1).

The Sustainability Triumverate

Social

Bearable Equitable

Sustainable
Environment Economic
Viable

Source: Open-Sustainability
Figure 1


The classic definition of sustainability is “meeting the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.”1 It is an expanded way of
measuring organizational success, using values and criteria from
the economic, environmental and social realms, often referred
to as the “triple bottom line.”2 Increasingly, sustainability is
also used as a term to describe a company’s environmental,
social and governance (ESG) management approach. The idea
is to balance the needs of people, the planet and the company’s
profits to create long-term shareholder value.

In ever increasing numbers, corporations, government agencies,
universities and even cities are compelled to develop and report
on key performance indicators around these three areas of sus-
tainability. Annual reports that include just financial data may
one day be superseded by “an integrated report,”
as governments, investors, citizens, employees The idea is to balance
and business partners begin to demand a single the needs of people, the
document that integrates corporate performance
on environmental, economic and social impacts
planet and the company’s
and goals, as well. These “integrated reports” are profits to create long-term
not static documents but instead leverage the Web shareholder value.
to provide stakeholders with analytic tools, more
detailed information and an opportunity to engage with the
company, according to Robert Eccles, professor of management
practice at Harvard Business School and co-author of One
Report: Integrated Reporting for a Sustainable Strategy. “It is
as much about listening as it is talking,” Eccles says.

It won’t be long before sustainability reporting becomes a
vital way of doing business. With a post-recession business world
increasingly influenced by the four forces of the Future of Work
— globalization, virtualization, cloud computing and millennial-
influenced workforce and marketplace — pressure is mounting
for companies to be transparent and open to scrutiny about how
they do business and maintain profitability.

The CIO (and the IT organization) has an opportunity and per-
haps even a responsibility to become a major contributor to

March 2011 FUTURE OF WORK 3

broader corporate sustainability efforts. IT already owns a
large portion of responsibility for the environmental impact
of computing resources, and with its cross-functional view of
the organization, it often understands best how to optimize
business processes and lead the organizational
CIOs who get on top change necessary to begin the journey to sustain-
of this trend now can ability awareness and reporting. Most importantly,
since the effort requires a significant amount of
become an invaluable information gathering, IT is perfectly positioned
resource for building the to support the business in choosing the founda-
strategies, frameworks, tion and tools for sustainability reporting and
tracking.
technology foundations
and tools necessary In the near future, sustainability reporting will
likely become a competitive differentiator, as in-
for sustainability and,
vestors, corporations and consumers increasingly
ultimately, integrated use these measurements to decide with whom
reporting. they do business. CIOs who get on top of this
trend now can become an invaluable resource for
building the strategies, frameworks, technology foundations
and tools necessary for sustainability and, ultimately, integrat-
ed reporting. Companies that don’t start now will likely find
themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the very near
future. (Learn more by viewing our latest video.)


The Pressure is on for Sustainability Reporting
Concern about corporate sustainability is not new. Since 1999, the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index has tracked the financial performance of leading sustainabil-
ity-driven companies worldwide. What is different today is that sustainability is
no longer just about the environment. As “green” efforts enter the mainstream,
businesses worldwide are under increased scrutiny to become more socially respon-
sible, as well as environmentally conscious, while meeting investor expectations for
financial performance.

Also new is the mounting pressure on organizations to report on data showing their
environmental, economic and social impacts, their progress toward these goals and
areas in which they still have work to do. Increasingly, this type of reporting is
expected to be integrated in one, single report that combines financial and non-
financial performance information.

The pressure to report on sustainability comes from all sides: The financial com-
munity, customers, employees and government regulators. The idea of operating in
a sustainable way and being able to report on it is becoming less of a feel-good
practice and increasingly engrained in the way companies conduct business.
Indeed, while sustainability reporting is currently voluntary, many believe manda-
tory reporting is inevitable.3

Mandated or not, thousands of corporations around the world today engage in
sustainability reporting, according to a study conducted by the CorporateRegister.
This study found the number of sustainability and similar reports
issued by corporations grew from 26 in 1992 to over 3,000 in
2008. According to the Hauser Center at Harvard, the world’s Since June 1, 2010, all
largest companies now regularly issue sustainability reports, in a
wide range of industries, from financial services, to healthcare, as 450 companies listed on
do nonprofit organizations, cities and trade associations. Ernst &
Young research shows that more than two-thirds of the Fortune the Johannesburg Stock
Global 500 publish some form of sustainability or corporate
social responsibility (CSR) report.4 Exchange are required
Even if companies don’t formally issue a sustainability report, they to publish an “integrated
are beginning to compile this data and make it available on their
Web sites. In a 2010 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), report,” including data
the number of U.S. companies with CSR information on their
Web sites jumped from 75% in July 2009 to 81% the following on their economic,
year. Europe is further ahead, with 94% of companies publishing
CSR data on their Web site and 18% publishing a CSR report.5
environmental and social
U.S. companies lag behind their counterparts in other parts of the impact or explain why
world. According to the PwC report, less than 30% of S&P 500
companies issued CSR reports in the U.S., compared with 75% they are not doing so.
of S&P Europe 350 companies. European companies are now
seeing disqualifications to bid on RFPs because of poor ESG scores or no proof of
improvement. And in South Africa, since June 1, 2010, all 450 companies listed on
the Johannesburg Stock Exchange are required to publish an “integrated report,”
including data on their economic, environmental and social impact or explain why
they are not doing so. Other stock exchanges are likely not far behind.6

Meanwhile, in the financial community, an increasing number of organizations are
publishing rankings of companies based on their sustainability measurements,
including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the CRD Analytics Global 1000 Sus-
tainable Performance Leaders and FTSE4 Group’s FTSE4Good Index Series.


There is a growing investor awareness regarding the importance of sustainability
and even the relationship between sustainability reporting and corporate perfor-
mance. According to a 2010 study by Ioannis Ioannou at the London Business School
and George Serafeim at Harvard, equity analysts are now giving higher ratings to
companies with exemplary CSR practices.7 The study surveyed
It won’t be long before not 4,100 publically-traded companies over a 16-year period.

reporting on sustainability In addition to investors, customers are applying pressure for
greater transparency and improved performance on sustain-

becomes a risk factor, as ability. Cognizant receives approximately one request per week
from our customers on ESG performance. Clearly, all global
those that don’t will soon companies will need to raise the bar of their sustainability
reporting to meet the needs of clients, worldwide.
be seen by consumers, Benefits of Sustainability Reporting
employees and other In addition to the external pressures to institute a sustainabil-
ity reporting program, there are also significant benefits to
stakeholders as unwilling creating better internal processes and controls to gather and
analyze ESG data. According to Ernst & Young, these include
to be transparent and better measurement of the organization’s triple-pronged bottom
line, greater stakeholder trust, improved risk management and
even less competitive. increased operational efficiency.

Sustainability reporting is very much aligned with the Future of Work forces and
channels these forces in useful and productive ways. For example:

• Changing demographics: Companies that become more transparent and
showcase their corporate social responsibility will be more attractive to the
growing numbers of millennials who will soon dominate both the workforce
as employees and the marketplace as consumers. It won’t be long before not
reporting on sustainability becomes a risk factor, as those that

People from both don’t will soon be seen by consumers, employees and other
stakeholders as unwilling to be transparent and even less com-
inside and outside the petitive. In response, corporations must become more open and
transparent about how they are building a more sustainable
organization should join enterprise.
• Globalization: With more businesses expanding into emerging
together as a virtual team economies and assembling work teams across geographies,
including developing nations, there are increasing drivers
to tackle sustainability around sustainability, such as social justice, labor practices and
human rights. Sustainability reporting will also enable globally-
issues and reporting. minded companies to more effectively comply with legislative
mandates across the world.

• Virtualization: Tackling sustainability is not an effort that should be contained
within the four walls of an organization, but rather, it extends beyond traditional
organizational structures. People from both inside and outside the organiza-
tion should join together as a virtual team to tackle sustainability issues and
reporting.

• Cloud: Social networking and other Web 2.0 technologies play a two-pronged
role in sustainability reporting. They are both driving demand for greater
transparency and enabling companies to report in more engaging and interactive
ways. For instance, corporate Web sites can expand beyond static sustainability
reports by including interactive features such as blogs and feedback mechanisms.8


According to Professor Eccles, sustainability reporting leverages the Internet to
provide more detailed information of interest to shareholders and other stake-
holders, as well as for improving dialogue and engagement with all stakeholders.

Additionally, companies will need to build out their infrastructures and create
a new IT foundation to enable sustainability reporting. In many cases, it makes
sense for some of these tools and technologies to be delivered more cost-effec-
tively through the cloud, through business process as a service (BPaaS).

Sustainability Reporting Trends
Two important trends that are influencing sustainability reporting programs are
the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the integrated report.

Global Reporting Initiative
The GRI is a main point of reference for corporate sustainability reporting. This
voluntary, non-proprietary initiative has developed content and quality principles,
standard disclosures and a set of 79 universally applicable reporting parameters to
guide organizations in developing programs to measure corporate performance on
sustainability (see Figure 2).

GRI Performance Indicators
7/10 1/2 1/1 2/3 2/3 0/1
Performance
Indicators Emissions, Customer Health Community Employment Investment and Security
Efffluents, and Safety Procurement Practices
Categories and Waste Practices
and Aspects

2/2 2/2 1/3 3/3 2/2 1/1 0/1

Materials Products and Product and Corruption Labor/ Non- Indigenous
Services Service Labeling Management Discrimination Rights
Relations

2/5 1/1 1/2 1/2 2/4 1/1 4/4
Freedom of
Energy Compliance Marketing Public Policy Occupational Association and Economic
Communications Health and Collective Performance
Safety Bargaining

1/3 0/1 0/1 0/1 1/3 1/1 2/3
Child Labor
Water Transport Customer Anti-Competitive Training and Market Presence
Privacy Behavior Education

2/5 0/1 1/1 0/1 2/2 1/1 1/2
Child Labor
Biodiversity Overall Compliance Anti-Competitive Diversity and Indirect
Behavior Equal Economic
Opportunity Impacts

■ EN = Environmental 17/30* ■ PR = Product Responsibility 4/9* ■ SO = Society 6/8*
■ LA = Labor Practices and Decent Work 9/14* ■ HR = Human Rights 6/9* ■ EC = Economic 7/9*

*Numbers show core vs. total indicators. Of the 79 total indicators, 49 are “core” and 30 are “additional.”

Source: Global Reporting Initiative
Figure 2


Just as there are standard ways to calculate revenues and assets, for example,
these GRI indicators provide guidelines for what to disclose and how to report on
non-accounting-based economic indicators and environmental and social perfor-
mance. The GRI’s G3 Guidelines are grouped into the three commonly accepted
categories that define sustainability:

Just as there are • Economic: These indicators include the company’s impact on the
economic conditions of its stakeholders at the local, national and global
standard ways to calculate levels.

revenues and assets, • Environmental: This includes the impact on living and non-living natural
systems, including ecosystems, land, air and water.

these GRI indicators • Social: This includes the impact on the social systems within which the
organization operates. Four categories are included:
provide guidelines for
> Labor practices: Impacts on the workforce, including labor/manage-
what to disclose and ment relations, health and safety, training and education and diversity.

> Human rights: Includes investment and procurement practices, child
how to report on and forced labor, security practices.

non-accounting-based > Society: Impacts on communities, including corruption, public policy
and anti-competitive behavior.
economic indicators > Product responsibility: Includes product health and safety, informa-
tion and labeling, marketing and privacy.
and environmental
Companies can move through three levels of GRI compliance, as they grow
and social performance. more advanced in their sustainability reporting. For Level C reporting, a
company must report on only 10 of the parameters, while for a Level
B report, it must report on at least 20. For Level A reporting, a company must
report on all core and Sector Supplement indicators or explain the reason for its
omission.

The GRI is fast becoming a commonly used framework for sustainability programs,
with over 1,200 reports registered in 2009.9 According to PwC’s 2010 study, 83% of
companies that produce sustainability reports use the GRI guidelines. According to
KPMG, 80% of Fortune Global 250 companies and 70% of the world’s largest 100
companies refer to GRI guidelines. The GRI has caused a multiplicative effect, since
once a major company adopts GRI reporting, it often asks suppliers to report on
similar indicators. The G3 Guidelines are used by CRD Analytics in its Global 1000
index,10 and they will likely become incorporated into frameworks that get developed
for integrated reporting.

In addition to its role in developing standard reporting parameters, the GRI is influ-
ential in other ways. It believes that by 2015, all large and medium-size companies
in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and
large emerging economies should be required to report on their ESG performance
and, if they do not do so, to explain why. It also believes that by 2020, there should
be a generally accepted and applied international standard that would effectively
integrate financial and ESG reporting by all organizations.11

Integrated Reporting
Integrated reporting combines financial and sustainability measures into a single,
dynamic report that leverages Web 2.0 technologies to engage with stakehold-
ers in dialogue and analysis. A major driver for integrated reporting is the work of
Professor Eccles of Harvard Business School, who advocates for GRI parameters
to be adopted as the worldwide sustainability reporting standard. Eccles describes


the central role of integrated reporting in creating sustainable companies and,
ultimately, a sustainable society, in his book, One Report: Integrated Reporting for
a Sustainable Strategy. In effect, Eccles believes that corporations play a crucial
role in creating a sustainable world. All companies need to be profitable to stay in
business, he argues, but the question is, how are those profits earned, and what are
the social and environmental costs of earning them? While sustainable organiza-
tions need to be bolstered by a new ecosystem of management practices, technolo-
gies, intelligent regulation and individual decisions, integrated reporting is central,
Eccles says, because it establishes the discipline for the integrated management of
financial, natural and human resources. It also meets stakeholders’
information needs — along with processes of engagement — to enable
them to help the company build a sustainable strategy.12
Key IT roles such as
The topic of integrating financial and sustainability reporting is
enterprise architect,
gaining significant interest in various groups, such as compliance and
financial reporting experts, academicians and socially responsible
business architect, IT
investors. Major companies are moving to an integrated report, such
as Southwest Airlines, United Technologies and Novo Nordisk. Some
relationship manager
European countries, such as France, are edging closer to requiring
companies to produce an integrated report.
and business analyst
The Role of the CIO in Enabling Sustainability
have the process skills
IT is uniquely positioned to work on corporate sustainability initia- and organizational
tives and could even position itself as sustainability champion
in companies without a chief sustainability officer. Not only knowledge to drive
does IT already own a healthy piece of responsibility for
the company’s environmental impact, but it also has a cross- waste and inefficiency
functional view of the organization and understands how to
optimize business processes and lead organizational change out of the organization.
management necessary for launching a sustainability program.
Key IT roles such as enterprise architect, business architect, IT relationship manager
and business analyst have the process skills and organizational knowledge to
drive waste and inefficiency out of the organization.

Most important, sustainability programs require new frameworks, strategies,
technology foundations and reporting and tracking tools, in which IT must be
integrally involved in selecting. IT has a vital role in supporting organizational efforts
to gather information about sustainability from internal and external sources, create
collaborative capabilities, set targets and track progress against these goals.

IT’s role in a corporate sustainability program falls into two categories of activity:
Plan the platform and tools for the initiative and analyze and improve the company’s
sustainability performance.

Category 1: Develop the integrated technology foundation that collects,
analyzes and reports on core sustainability information for GRI reporting.
IT can lead the effort to identify a subset of GRI indicators the company is going to
track. In some cases data exists, and it’s a matter of pulling it together in a reporting
format. But other data may not exist, such as the case of occupational/health and
safety data or carbon reporting.

Because sustainability reporting is not a one-time event but at least an annual
endeavor, applications need to be developed that automate data collection and
capture of these indicators. Not all GRI indicators require an IT system, but 50% to
70% could be facilitated through technology.


Sustainability Reporting Systems Architecture

XBRL Engine
Industry Standards
Library
Reporting Layer
GRI , CDP , UNGC, ILO, Peer &
ETI, FASB, IASB Competitor
Reports
Sustainability Performance Repository

Indicator Actual Industry
Repository Targets
Performance Benchmarks Extraction

Text Actual Performance Data Collector
Input

Financials Human Resources Supply Chain Env., Health, Safety Other
General Human Outbound Carbon Env., Health, Contract Gov., Risk,
Payroll Receiving Mgmt Safety
Ledger Resource Logistics Mgmt Compl. (GRC)
Water Building
Mgmt Mgmt (IBMS)
Accounts Learning Time Procurement Cust Sat Survey Tool
Payable Mgmt Tracking
Sensors Meters

Source: Cognizant
Figure 3

Once captured, the data needs to be rolled up into a centralized platform, and
analysis and reporting tools need to be disseminated for key stakeholders to set
targets, track efforts and report to various audiences. For instance, the core HR
system can provide data on employee demographics, but companies
By tagging data that is also need to set targets for improvement and perform year-over-year
tracking, as well as real-time monitoring for new hires and attrition.
captured, it can be made Such real-time monitoring, reporting and analysis will require sophis-
available in real time. Users ticated sensing and database technologies, according to Professor
Eccles, who recently moderated a workshop on integrated reporting
can drill down or manipulate at Harvard Business School.13 Technology will also enable reporting
to become an interactive dialogue among virtualized teams of
the data via easily usable participants through the Web.

iPhone-like applications. The key technology elements outlined in the workshop include the
following:

• Sensing technology: Sensors that gather information about heat, light, electric-
ity and fuel consumption, as well as water flow rates, can help capture relevant
data in real time. Such technology can be used to monitor the status of different
metrics in facilities or manufacturing processes.

• Data tagging: By tagging data that is captured, it can be made available in real
time. Users can drill down or manipulate the data via easily usable iPhone-like
applications. Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) can play a key
role in this. XBRL is a standards-based way to communicate and exchange busi-
ness information between business systems.14 It is becoming an important tech-
nology for publishing both financial and sustainability data, particularly as more
ratings and rankings organizations demand automated methods to capture sus-
tainability performance data from companies.


• Real-time monitoring, reporting, analysis: This will help organizations react
quickly when problems are identified or sustainability performance indicators
trend in the wrong direction.

• System and application integration: This is necessary for companies to aggre-
gate ESG data across regions and systems.

• Security/privacy: More data will be made publicly available, but sensitive data
will still need protection.

• Web 2.0: Unlike traditional reports, integrated reports are ideally interactive,
enabling participation in wikis, blogs and other feedback mechanisms.

• Cloud computing: Capabilities needed for sustainability programs can be deliv-
ered via BPaaS solutions. The use of cloud can also reduce the need to invest in
developing new systems.

IT needs to plan and either build or buy the entire technology stack that brings
together these capabilities (see Figure 3).

Category 2: Analyze and improve the company’s sustainability performance.
IT can also play a lead role in improving corporate sustainability performance to
ensure the long-term economic success of the enterprise. The commitment to
doing this needs to start at the highest level of the organization, with sustainability
becoming integrated into the corporate strategy, which is supported by the overall
IT strategy.

As a starting point, corporations must understand the idiosyncrasies of their
business and industry in which they compete and identify the types of sustainabil-
ity pressures and opportunities the business is facing. For instance, pressures for
a consumer products company or a manufacturer will be much
different from those of a B2B software company or a company
in a knowledge-based industry. The products and services that
As a starting point,
companies offer may provide great opportunities for either
positive or negative social impact. Such insights can be gleaned
corporations must
either by working with the corporate sustainability officer (CSO)
if you have one, or simply by reading the sustainability reports
understand the idiosyncrasies
of your competition or similar companies. of their business and industry
Two useful tools for analyzing and improving sustainability are
the “value chain” and “diamond framework” from Michael Porter,
in which they compete
Harvard Professor and leading authority on business strategy.15
The value chain takes an “inside-out” view which involves
and identify the types of
charting all the activities a company engages in, identifying the sustainability pressures
social impacts of those activities, developing a list of problems
and opportunities to address and identifying opportunities and opportunities the
for social and strategic distinction. The diamond framework
is used to analyze the competitive context a company is in. It business is facing.
looks at “outside-in” linkages — the external influences at the
company’s locations (such as transportation infrastructure) that impact its ability
to compete. In this case, the company would select a few social initiatives to pursue
that have high shared value. In both cases, you can use the GRI’s 79 parameters to
help build the inventory of issues and opportunities.

The business analysts on your IT staff can provide useful insights in this type of
analysis, as they are likely accustomed to using these types of tools. In fact, the CSO
might want to do this type of analysis but not have the skills to do it themselves and
need your team’s assistance.


Examples of sustainability opportunities to which IT can contribute include:

• Compliance-oriented systems, which drive better corporate governance, improve
business ethics and reduce the risk of violations or corruption.

• Employee and customer satisfaction tracking systems.

• Sites to engage stakeholders using Web 2.0 and social media. One example is
Starbucks’ BetaCup online contest to create a reusable or recyclable coffee cup
by 2015. The company is using the Web and mass collaboration principles to
gather submissions, generate discussion, provide expert feedback and refine
ideas on sustainable design. Cash prizes will be rewarded to people who submit
the best ideas.

• Applications that improve product or service safety, or reduce the environmental
or health impact of a product or service, or improve customer knowledge of a
product.

• Applications or Web sites that provide social benefit outside the company, such
as Verizon’s Thinkfinity.org Web site that provides thousands of resources to
teachers and students, globally. Another example is the Pepsi Refresh project.
The company encourages people to submit specific ideas for making a positive
impact on the world; promote their submission through videos, social media and
other means; and then vote on submissions, including their own. Winners are
granted money from Pepsi to fund their project.

• Mobile technologies, such as m-health applications that allow patients to monitor
treatment progress using their mobile phones.

• Enabling ways to serve new customers at the base of the pyramid.

Call to Action: Beyond a Mandate
Companies today are called upon to operate responsibly. What are you doing to
improve economic conditions in the markets in which you operate? Are you treating
your employees fairly? Are your products and services produced and used in ways
that meet customers’ increasing expectations about sustainability? How are you
improving the quality of life in the communities in which you operate?
Since the processes What are you doing to reduce your company’s impact on the envi-
ronment? What are you doing to ensure continued availability of
for creating an integrated scarce natural resources? Particularly with millennials entering the
workforce and adding their voices to public opinion, transparency and
report will increasingly be social responsibility are becoming more important than ever. Orga-
nizations will increasingly be called upon to move beyond rhetorical
refined and standardized, commitments to sustainability and into a mindset of managing and
even competing on their performance against the most meaningful
it makes more sense to tap of sustainability indicators.16

an existing hosted process To build a more sustainable planet, reporting across environmental,
economic and societal factors needs to be tightly integrated and
rather than building standardized. To this end, GRI and “one” reporting are poised to
become internationally accepted standards. In addition, companies
a one-off system. will need partners with demonstrated expertise in building, managing
and maintaining such systems. Since the processes for creating an
integrated report will increasingly be refined and standardized, it makes more sense
to tap an existing hosted process rather than building a one-off system.

Investing in the right IT today can pave the way for a more sustainable — and com-
petitive — future. The key is to think about areas where your company, using IT,


might be able to either do less harm or, ideally, do more good. And by doing more
good, it will also be able to increase revenue, reduce cost, optimize the supply chain,
improve the organization’s reputation and reduce business risk.

In the end, sustainability represents a significant opportunity for the CIO. Partic-
ularly in organizations where a program has yet to begin, CIOs should consider
stepping up and offering to take on this role until the time the company has sus-
tainability embedded in all of its core business processes and no longer needs to
be flagged as a separate initiative. Those CIOs who step up to this challenge will
enable their companies to develop more sustainable strategies. Corporations can
play a leading role in creating a more sustainable society, and CIOs have it in their
power to ensure they can do so.

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Robert Eccles and Kyle Armbrester, “Integrated Reporting in the Cloud,” IESE Insight, Issue 8,
Q1 2011, http://insight.iese.edu/
“Sustainability: The ‘Embracers’ Seize Advantage,” MIT Sloan Management Review and The
Boston Consulting Group, 2011, http://sloanreview.mit.edu/special-report/sustainability-ad-
vantage/


Footnotes
1
The Brundtland Commission, formally the World Commission on Environment and Develop-
ment (WCED).
2
Wikipedia definition, “triple bottom line,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_bottom_line
3
Steve Lydenberg, Jean Rogers and David Wood, “From Transparency to Performance,”
The Hauser Center for Non-Profit Organizations at Harvard University, May 2010. http://
hausercenter.org/iri/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/IRI_Transparency-to-Performance.pdf
4
“Seven Questions CEOs and Boards Should Ask About ‘Triple Bottom Line’ Reporting,” Ernst
& Young, 2010. http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Seven_things_CEOs_boards_
should_ask_about_climate_reporting/$FILE/Seven_things_CEOs_boards_should_ask_about_
climate_reporting.pdf
5
“CSR Trends 2010,” Craib Design and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
http://www.pwc.com/ca/en/sustainability/publications/csr-trends-2010-09.pdf
6
“International Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting,” KPMG, 2008.
http://www.kpmg.com/GR/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Sustainability/
Documents/SurveyofCorporateResponsibilityReporting2008.pdf
7
“Seven Questions CEOs and Boards Should Ask About ‘Triple Bottom Line’ Reporting,”
Ernst & Young, 2010.
8
“CSR Trends 2010,” Craib Design and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
9
Mike Wallace, “Global ESG Reporting Trends,” Global Reporting Initiatiave, June 2010,
http://seechange.businessroundtable.org/Media/PDF/2010.01.19%20Global%20ESG%20
Reporting%20Trends.Part%201.pdf
10
“CRD Analytics Launches Sustainable Performance Ranking Based on GRI Guidelines,” Global
Reporting Initiative, http://www.globalreporting.org/NewsEventsPress/LatestNews/2010/CR-
DAnalytics.htm
11
“GRI Announces its 2015 and 2020 Goals,” GlobalReporting.org, May 26, 2010, http://www.en-
viroreporting.com/detail_press.phtml?act_id=1048&username=guest@enviroreporting.com&p
assword=9999&username=guest@enviroreporting.com&password=9999&groups=ENVREP
12
Charles Green, “Integrated Reporting: Interview with Harvard Business School’s Robert
Eccles,” TrustMatters blog, TrustedAdvisor Associates, January 19, 2011.
http://trustedadvisor.com/trustmatters/robert-eccles-interview-trust-quotes-series-18
13
“A Workshop on Integrated Reporting: Frameworks and Action Plan,”
Harvard Business School, October 2010.
14
Wikipedia definition.
15
Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, “Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive
Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility,” Harvard Business Review, December 2006,
http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/files/HBR-CompetiveAdvAndCSR.pdf
16
“From Transparency to Performance,” The Hauser Center.

About the Author
Mark Greenlaw is Cognizant’s Vice President of Sustainability and Educational Affairs.
In this role, he is responsible for ensuring that Cognizant conducts its business in a
sustainable and socially responsible manner. Mark also oversees Cognizant’s U.S.
Education Outreach and Campus Recruiting Programs. Previously, he was Cogni-
zant’s CIO with responsibility for Cognizant’s global IT function as the company
grew from 17,000 to over 80,000 employees. Mark has 26 years of experience in the
information technology industry and a graduate of Penn State University. He can be
reached at Mark.Greenlaw@cognizant.com.


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