"Include environmental and social risks".

Mr Bakker, if you had to write a sustainability report about yourself, what would it say?

If I actually had to, I would certainly mention my air miles. In my role as president of the WBCSD, I am very often on the road globally and sometimes fly around the world for an event. So my CO2 emissions are very substantial. A second key point is the social impact of what I do. What does my absence mean for my family? As a result, I ask myself: can I justify this level of emissions and absence with my activity? This brings us to a current problem, namely, how do I measure the impact of my actions? This measurability is still lacking, especially in the case of social factors.

What does this mean for companies?

They have exactly the same problem. The financial ratios, the extent of financial risks are precisely defined and reporting on them is established. Natural capital can now also be measured relatively well. But when it comes to social capital, employees and people along the entire value chain, we are still lagging behind.

What are the differences in reporting between small and large companies?

Basically, the need to write a sustainability report is the same for every company, regardless of size. Because both small and large companies have advantages and disadvantages. The large ones have more capacity to write a sustainability report. On the other hand, their value chain is much more complex and difficult to monitor than that of the smaller ones. The latter, in turn, complain that they do not have the resources to write a sustainability report. But sooner or later, all companies will have to address this issue. After all, if large corporations report on their value chain, the smaller companies that may be part of that chain will eventually have to collect the essential figures as well. It is important to keep a sense of proportion: An SME does not have to report on 40 different topics; perhaps five to ten indicators are enough to describe the company's impact on the environment.

What are the current trends in sustainability reporting?

The scene is developing rapidly. External pressures on companies, for example from global warming and the depletion of our resources, are growing. The only problem is that we don't yet have an optimal language for reporting on corporate impact. For this, we need to develop meaningful standards to achieve comparability in reporting. But since there are already several standards such as GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) or IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council), we need to offer support to companies here. It must be clear which standards are suitable for which company. That is why the WBCSD is currently in the process of developing a decision-making basis for this.

Another trend is that integrated reporting is gaining in importance. Why is that?

The separation of financial business reporting and non-financial sustainability reporting is already wrong in its approach. Because the decisions a company makes should include financial, environmental and social aspects.

Today, however, risk analysis in most companies only relates to financial risks.

Exactly, just as a company's share price is based on its financial results. So this means that this separation has to be removed not only in reporting, but in corporate governance in general. Companies need to fundamentally change the way they make decisions today.

Can you give current examples where social and environmental risks play a major role for a company?

Just think of Ebola. Who knows, maybe the Ebola virus will spread to Europe and become an epidemic. What does it mean for a factory if suddenly half of its employees are out of work? Or let's take the example of climate change. In regions that used to be rather dry, there is suddenly a lot more rain, there are more mudslides. Factories are damaged or destroyed. This is the kind of risk a company needs to be aware of and understand. Risk analysis should therefore increasingly ask questions about social and environmental factors. In this way, a company can make better decisions, better analyse and measure its impact, and ultimately better report on the effects of its own actions.