KEY POINTS:
New Zealand businesses are spending more time and money considering the effect of their activities on the environment and the communities in which they operate.
"Stakeholder reporting", or sustainable development reporting, is an audit of a company's non-financial activities, and covers everything from air travel and recycling to
community activities and charity work.
The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development, which promotes business growth alongside care for the environment, has 66 member companies with total annual sales of about $44 billion. Eighteen have joined since December.
Chairman Nick Main said the focus on sustainable practices was driven by the need to address climate change and the increasing belief that business had a role to play in protecting the environment and the interests of local communities.
"Already, millions of dollars worth of in sales and contracts for goods and services are being decided on how organisations measure up as sustainable performers," Mr Main said.
The council said stakeholder reporting was one tool organisations could use to identify their economic, environmental and social impact, assess their performance and make improvements.
Mr Main said sustainability was becoming "much more mainstream" and large and small companies were getting on board.
"Climate change has brought this very much onto people's agenda. The premise is that there is more to business than just making profit."
He said the council's present projects included water management - drought was taking hold in some parts of the country - and next year it would begin work on a sustainable housing project.
Westpac marketing manager Ian Sutcliffe said New Zealand was still behind the pack internationally but was starting to catch up. He said the reports allowed the company to take stock of its environmental and social impact.
"The organisations we deal with are more interested in what we're doing on corporate responsibility and sustainability, and in a tight labour market it's a key point of differentiation for people who are looking at joining us," Mr Sutcliffe said.
"I think it shows a commitment to the environment."
On a practical level, he said Westpac reduced the kilometres travelled by air to 11 million last year from 14 million in 2006, and this year aims to implement a zero-waste strategy and reduce its levels of CO2 emissions and paper consumption.
UK-based corporateregister.com, which is a directory of non-financial reports, analysed 14,000 reports from 3800 companies in 93 countries.
It said stakeholder reporting was routinely carried out by some of the world's biggest banks, insurers, oil companies, pharmaceutical and food companies.