Making Stakeholder Dialogue for Sustainability Issues Happen - Benefits, Reference Architecture and Pilot Implementation for Automated Sustainability Reporting a La Carte

Making stakeholder dialogue happen is a step forward in sustainability reporting. It includes mechanisms to involve key target groups and give feedback, facilities of user control and opportunities to fine tune reports to certain users, select report contents and adapt design to individual preferences. Today, one-way-communication on sustainability issues merely through one size fits all hard copies or simple electronic duplicates without any added value may hardly fulfil stakeholder expectations and reporting requirements. In contrast to the importance of these issues of communication in codes of conducts, standards, guidelines and other recommendations however, current reporting practice shows room for improvements, even for the best reporters. Hence, an outline is given on how to develop from early sustainability reporting stages towards a sophisticated approach, with emphasis on stakeholder dialogue and its core features, while fully exploiting the benefits of the internet and using its support.