Increase sales and customer satisfaction   Attract and keep talented people   Reduce and costs and risks in operations   Increase share price and avoid exclusion from responsible funds

To get more results from your efforts to be a green and sustainable organization, others - employees, customers and shareholders in particular - need to know about your achievements AND be more likely to support you.  You have to tell them, and they have to believe you, and they have to act on it.   Benefits from sustainable practices are measurable - you know what you have achieved.  But how can this increase employee productivity, sales and share price?  In today's cynical world, how can get your audience to really listen to and believe your story?  How will this attract and keep good people, customers and investors?    Just saying "we care" won't work because anyone who cares at all will dig a little deeper.  Your story must have real depth - authenticity and community - that rewards your audience and increases their preference for your business.  And you need to back it up with data, not just stories.    Communicating your performance is in fact critical to your vision - who you want to be.  If you are committed to making your organization more sustainable and to getting real results, you have to be very specific about it.  Deciding what to communicate is at the heart of strategy and how to communicate it is at heart of implementation.    What you need is a framework for factual communications about sustainable performance that gives your audience confidence in your organization.  And you need practical strategies to use.  This one-day intensive and interactive seminar will give them to you.   What you get in this unique seminar is: The latest research findings about just what managers, employees, customers and investors want to hear about your sustainable and responsible performance.  Understanding of internationally recognized guidelines for reporting on sustainable performance that increase your audience confidence and trust in your message.  Learn about the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and the best ways to put your organization in front of big companies who do "get it". Practical how-to-do-it solutions for print and Internet communications, developing internal support for your communication efforts, and more. Executive briefings on the most important resources - Click here to learn more Who Should Attend? Responsible Business Owners and Managers:  Your customers and staff will reward your efforts and values, but only if they get the right information the right way.  You will learn the specific ways to communicate to specific groups about sustainable practices, including your own staff as well as customers and suppliers and interest groups. Communications:  There are right and wrong ways to report on sustainable performance, different strategies to use with key stakeholders such as customers, employees and activists, and important international guidelines and best practices to follow - learn more here. Environmental Management, Sustainability and Citizenship:  The new standards for sustainability reporting use measures that resonate in executive offices and boardrooms - learn how to show that environmental and sustainability programs add real value. Consulting:  Management, environmental and social consultants can grow new business by promoting sustainability reporting, and can greatly increase their expertise by studying the best sustainability reports. Economic development and environmental / social regulation and advocacy: Learn how to promote responsible organizations in your community.  This unique course shows how market-based indicators of sustainability will interest your local business leaders and a clear path they can follow. Fund Management:  Pick long-term winners.  Sustainability reports give extra information needed to identify high potential for long-term investment performance and avoid major risks such as climate change impacts - learn more here Investor Relations:  Prepare for and head off shareholder activists by acting early.  Competent communication is critical to attract the increasing numbers of responsible investors and avoid being excluded from responsible investment funds and indexes - learn more here Accounting and Law:  Responsibility reporting is a new business growth area - there are new legal and auditing standards for reports and important implications for accounting systems design - CPAs See who attended the December 05 course and what they said    What is a Sustainability Report, anyway?  Learn the answers: Why is communicating about responsibility and sustainability an increasing concern for many companies, organizations, and investment managers? How do sustainability reports increase business value? What are the existing and emerging standards for sustainability reports? What are the risks and benefits of disclosing sustainable performance information? Who should prepare a sustainable performance report? How are sustainable performance reports audited? What are the best practices in sustainable performance reporting, and says who? How can sustainable performance reports be used for competitive benchmarking? How can a manager ensure that a sustainable performance  report adds real value and is not just a PR cost? What would your own sustainable performance  report look like? How can more sustainable performance  reporting be promoted by government and activists? ENROLL NOW

******************************************************************** AGENDA 8:00 a.m.     Introduction and Overview 8:10 a.m.     A short history of sustainable performance  and “sustainable business” - why and how sustainable performance  has changed radically in the last 10 years 8:30 a.m.     Socially Responsible Investment (SRI): The theory and evidence that sustainable performance  adds shareholder value - one particular element of sustainable performance  is now proven to add shareholder value - which one? 9:00 a.m.     What IS it? How the market and investors define sustainable performance  - original research into sustainability indexes and mutual funds to learn exactly what are the key elements of sustainable performance  that are important to profit-seeking investors. 9:30           Discussion - work with other participants to determine your own important sustainable performance  indicators 9:45 a.m     BREAK 10:00 a.m.   Standards for sustainable performance  reports - The Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Guidelines, the ISO sustainable performance  standard in development, AA 1000 and SA 8000, and others.  Learn who offers free online help for sustainable performance  reporting and report distribution 11:45 a.m.   Discussion - issues and concerns in telling your sustainability stories. 12:00          LUNCH - on your own 1:00 p.m.     A tour of “the best” sustainable performance  reports - Dow Jones and others now rate sustainable performance  reports and companies - who did they pick as leaders and why? 2:00 p.m.     New research findings on stakeholder responses to sustainability messages - what they want to hear, how they want to hear it, best practices for content, structure and media. 3:00 p.m.     BREAK 3:15 p.m.     Translating "Sustainability" into words others want to hear - how to tailor your messages for CEOs/senior execs, department heads and supervisors, and staff and workers.  How Sustainability supports Quality, Service and Delivery. 4:00 p.m.     Practical exercise: Outline a sustainable performance  report for your company or client 4:30 p.m.    Review and End Participants will receive a coursebook and the CD ROM Sustainable Business Library of the best digital publications on sustainable performance  and sustainable business.  Over 500 publications with an annotated bibliography to help you find just the references you want.  Resources on the CD will be demonstrated throughout the workshop. Instructor(s) Burton Hamner has taught business managers in 15 countries, for 15 years now, how to make sustainable business a practical reality.  His clients include  the UN, US AID, World Bank, City of Seattle, Nike Inc., and others. San Francisco workshop:  Gil Friend is a nationally recognized speaker, author and consultant on business environmental management and sustainable performance.  Based in the San Francisco Bay area, Gil knows how to bring resources together to create sustainable synergy. ENROLL NOW Your satisfaction is guaranteed.  close this window to return to the main page