In writing sustainability reports or sustainability reports (SR), understanding is needed in measuring and disclosing data when reporting information and organizational activities so that it complies with regulations from the Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK). Therefore, Wordsmith Group held a Sustainability Report Writing Training to discuss practical knowledge and all the things that need to be considered in the preparation process.
This SR training was held for one full day on Wednesday, 25 May 2022 from 08.30–17.00 WIB at the Sofyan Hotel Menteng. The discussion in this Report Writing Training focuses on POJK No.51/POJK. 03/2017 in preparing subscription reports so that they can comply with and comply with applicable regulations. The material was provided by Mrs. Rory Ratnawati, as aTrainer/Consultant & Doctoral Candidate in Sustainable Finance in the field of Sustainable Development. There were 15 participants who attended with different institutional backgrounds, including PT BPD Sumatera Selatan & Bangka Belitung, BCA Syariah, Kanakata Creative, and CPROCOM.
Standardization of Sustainability Reports
Sustainability reports (SR) and annual reports (AR) have quite significant differences. If AR contains the company’s standard conditions, then SR focuses more on the resulting company impact. The SR writing contains reports on the economic, environmental, and social impacts caused by the daily activities of a company.
There are several benefits from SR, such as conveying the company’s vision and strategy to the public. In preparing SR, the company’s vision and strategy must be purely from the company itself. Which means it cannot be created autodidactically by SR writers. Apart from that, with SR writing, companies will know more deeply about the advantages and disadvantages as well as their business management system. Sustainability reports will also generate new business ideas, employee motivation, reputation, trust, relations with stakeholders, as well as strategic partnership opportunities.
Sustainability Report Writing Training Based on POJK by Mrs. Rory Ratnawati
This sustainability report is mandatory, meaning it must be prepared in accordance with applicable standards and regulations. So how many reporting standards are there? Ms. Rory explained that there are more than 600 reporting standards used throughout the world. She also noted that there were around 65 reporting standards when she attended a seminar in Singapore. Therefore, standard reporting guidelines have been established for all industries and organizations, including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the United Nations Global Compact (UN Global Compact – 2000), and the Sustainable Reporting Initiative (SRI).
Indonesia itself generally uses the GRI reporting standard which can be combined with others. This GRI standard makes it easier for SR researchers because it directly answers questions. Besides that, there are several other guidelines for preparing SR in Indonesia, Peraturan Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (POJK) No. 51/POJK.03/2017 regarding Sustainable Finance, Global Reporting Initiatives Standards (GRI Standards), GRI financial services sector or Financial Sector Supplement Disclosures (FS), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Commercial Banks category, and Sustainable Banking Assessment (SUSBA ) Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Integration Pillars from The World Wide Fund (WWF).
Sustainability Report Writing Process
The first thing that is needed is RAKB as a short-term and long-term plan prepared by the Board of Commissioners. Preparing the RAKB includes developing sustainable financial products or services, developing internal LJK capacity, and adjusting organization, risk management, governance, and standard operational procedures (SOP).
Then the implementation data is put in, then it goes to the processing stage to analyze the data, write according to the framework, and finally design the SR form. The content of the sustainability report must contain information such as an explanation of the sustainability strategy, an overview of sustainability aspects (economic, social, and environmental), a brief profile of LJK, issuers, and public companies, an explanation of the board of directors, sustainability governance, sustainability performance, written verification from independent parties (if any), feedback for readers (if any), and LJK, issuer or public company responses to previous year report feedback.
The Participants of the Training on SR Writing Based on POJK
After Mrs. Rory presented the materials for preparing sustainability reports, the participants were asked to fill in the OJK sustainability report case study worksheet. In the final session, seminar participants presented a general explanation of the Sustainability Report theme as well as the vision and mission of company values, sustainability strategy, sustainability overview, and sustainability performance (economic, environmental, and social).
Eventually, the POJK-based SR training received positive responses from the participants. Mrs. Emilia Bassar, CEO of CPROCOM said that she gained a lot of new knowledge in writing SR according to GRI and POJK, including POJK indicators. Mrs. Rully Larasati, Co-Founder of Kanakata Creative, is now more confident in offering writing services to clients because she already knows the basic rules for writing SRs, and the importance of reading SR from other institutions. And, Mr. Fiandra Adiyath from PT BPD South Sumatra and Bangka Belitung also said that this training had gone according to his expectations.
Wordsmith Group Sustainability Report Writing Services
Wordsmith Group has a team of writers who are professional and experienced in working on sustainability reports, since 2014. We also provide SR writing in Indonesian or English.
Contact us to inquire about your company.
