Corporate Social Responsibility: Communication ...

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sustainability reports by Indian and Multinational Companies. By ... Design/Methodology/ Approach: Examines the sustainability reports of the top 100 .... external channels like the newsletters, intranet as well as websites, blogs, ..... are publishing the sustainability reports and therefore the employment of best communication.
Corporate Social Responsibility: Communication through sustainability reports by Indian and Multinational Companies

By Ruchi Tewari Associate Professor Shanti Communication School Shantipura Ahmedabad – 380058 Email id: [email protected] Cell No: 09376144037 And Dr. Darshana Dave Associate Professor Sardar Patel University Anand Email id: [email protected] Cell No: 09978388111

Abstract

Purpose: To understand CSR communication made the use of sustainability reports for this purpose. Further to compare the CSR communication made by the Indian and Multinational Companies (MNCs) through the sustainability reports. Design/Methodology/ Approach: Examines the sustainability reports of the top 100 companies operating in the Information and Technology sector in India and compares the performance of the Indian and the MNCs in terms of CSR disclosure made through sustainability reports vis-àvis the guidelines stated by the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) Findings: The total number of Indian companies in the IT sector publishing sustainability reports is few but quality of reports is of global standards and the international benchmarks stated by GRI is achieved by a larger percentage of the Indian companies as against the MNCs operating in India in the IT sector. Research Limitations/ implications: The paper considers the sustainability reports only and no other medium of CSR communication. The study is limited to the companies operating in the IT sector only. Originality/ Value: Sustainability reports as a medium of CSR communication is highly ignored and therefore the findings will supplement and enhance the understanding of CSR communication Keywords: CSR, CSR communication, sustainability reports, Information Technology Sector, Indian companies and MNC. Paper Type: Research Paper

Introduction: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is no longer an option for the corporate and so on the broad business environment quick action and moves towards adoption of CSR as a part of business strategy is seen. Organizations irrespective of their size, field of operation, native country and legal mandates are inclined towards some form of CSR. This may be happening because of pressure from the external environment, societal expectations, „intrusive media reporting‟ or growth in the number and intensity of the pressure groups leading to an internal industry demands but its presence and relevance cannot be denied (Bowd, et al 2006). In 2006, in US, about $ 2.3 trillion was invested in companies which reflected a CSR bent and in 2007 64% of the Fortune Global 100 published a Corporate Social Responsibility Report. With the movement of large companies towards communicating their CSR there is bound to be a ripple affect and smaller organizations in lesser developed countries than the US are likely to show a bent towards communicating CSR to their stakeholders. In developing nations like India is driven by the service sector in which the Information and Technology (IT) and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) are a forerunner. In 2005-2006, 3% of India's GDP came from the IT sector and it employed close to 4 million people. The industry is estimated to be growing at a compounded annual growth rate of nearly 2% per annum with the aggregate turnover estimated to reach over USD 100 billion by 2010 (Nasscom, 2007). Since globalization India had emerged as an IT hub and has a top few local and Multinational Companies (MNCs) like the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Accenture, IBM etc operating here. Several Indian Companies are listed and traded on the stock exchanges in the United States and Europe indicating that they match the performance of the other „non-indian‟ companies operating internationally. Therefore since the IT sector in India has been spearheading the economic development process and the companies in the IT companies operating in India has a perfect mix of the local and MNCs head quartered outside India it made fertile ground to compare the performance of a contemporary internationally acknowledged business practice, CSR, of the Indian and the MNCs. The two distinct phases of CSR integration into an organization which can be earmarked are – successful adoption and implementation of CSR and effective communication of the same to the respective stakeholder. The first one is affected by internal factors like corporate structure and

board composition, size, industry of operation and stakeholder pressure while the second one is affected by industry practices, legal mandates and organizations inclination to image management. APCO (2004) survey results show that stakeholders are active and prepared to listen about organizations efforts towards CSR but the companies are not saying enough. CSR communication is still restricted to a few large organizations operating in developed economies. But globalization has changed the way business has been operating and local organizations based out of cities in developing nations are also beginning to adopt CSR and also attempting at communicating the same. Literature Review: CSR is an extremely fluid term with varied definitions and understandings. It has been understood as firms „voluntarily integrating the social and environmental expectations and concerns of stakeholders into their operations and their interactions with stakeholders‟ (Campbell, 2007), to being as broad as „the idea of social responsibility supposes that the corporation has not only economic and legal obligations but also certain responsibilities to society which extend beyond these obligations‟ (McGuire, 1963). Society would include all the stakeholders ranging from the primary stakeholders like the shareholders to the secondary stakeholders like the suppliers. Therefore CSR reflects two key approaches – shareholder approach based on the view that „the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits‟ (Friedman, 1962) and the stakeholder approach which focuses on a multiple number of stakeholders interest who are directly or indirectly affected by the decisions and the actions of the organizations (Freeman, 1984). CSR Communication Irrespective of the approach to CSR what runs underneath and links the various CSR understandings, theories and approaches is that CSR needs to be communicated effectively by the organizations such that people within and outside the organizations are aware about the activities of the organization. Communication is important because discourses construct reality as they are constitutive and productive, they are political and may be employed for the purpose of enhancing or legitimizing a particular interest such that they are established as facts (Foucault, 1977). Kureshi (2003) aptly mentions states about the relevance of discourse by saying that „after they have been told for a while, stories can turn into politics, into our

institutions, and it is important that they seem just the way things are, and the way they have to go on being.‟ CSR communication is defined as „a process of communicating the social and environmental effects of organizations‟ economic actions to particular interest groups within society and to society at large‟ (Gray, et al, 1996). Through CSR communication organizations are able to enter the public dialogue, present legitimacy claims and create positive relationships with publics that can influence their economic and institutional operating environment (Bostdorff & Vibbert, 1994) and delineate the corporations rights, roles and responsibilities. So, for organizations to ensure that they are known as a responsible organization with multi-stakeholder concern they not only engage in CSR but also communicate their CSR activities because it is commonly believed that those who „talk the walk’ also „walk the talk’. Through the use of public communication the organizations „attempt to shape the grounds for discussing social and political issues of the day” (Cheney & Christensen, 2001). So, the gains which CSR communication yields are favourable stakeholder relationships, building a positive corporate image which in turn strengthens stakeholder–company relationships, and enhances stakeholders' advocacy behaviors (Du, et al, 2010). Yet, the main concern in pertaining to CSR communication is the lack of awareness amongst the stakeholders because of which the organizations practicing CSR are unable to reap rightful benefits. Theories of CSR Stakeholder Theory The CSR communication strategy proposed by Morsing and Schultz (2006), is based on the stakeholder approach and harps upon stakeholders in the communication process in the form of stakeholder information, stakeholder response and stakeholder involvement. The analysis of CSR communication from the stakeholders‟ perspective shows how there can be both a positive as well as negative impact of CSR communication and it sis important to keep in mind the environment for which the theory of sense- making comes handy to have an effective understanding of the communication process. They suggest through empirical evidence that the managers involved in CSR communication should be constantly aware that CSR communication is like a „double-edged‟ sword which may boomerang and therefore it is important that communication managers should try and involve stakeholders in the process of CSR communication as a step towards „pro-active‟ CSR endorsement. Social Contract Theory

Gray, et al (1996) and Donaldson and Dunfee (1999) expound CSR as a part of social contract because it is understood that business operates in society which implicitly expects business to operate in a responsible manner. Therefore managers take ethical decisions because they know that the business is a part of a macro social set-up where both society and business exist and the microsocial decisions taken within the organizations should be conducive for the larger social set-up and match the societal expectations. Therefore CSR communication made by organizations is an effort on the part of organizations to fulfill this contract and inform society of their ethical decisions and activities and establish themselves as a socially conforming organization. Legitimacy Theory Suchmann, (1995) defines legitimacy as „a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs and definitions.‟ He has categorized three main types of organizational legitimacy – pragmatic, moral and cognitive and has pointed out that “legitimacy management rests heavily on communication” and therefore highlighting that CSR communication is essential of understanding the basis of the organizations bent to ethical deeds and socially responsible activities and so an analysis of organizations legitimacy would rest upon its corporate communication (Moir, 2001) and reflects the organizations attempt – therefore in any attempt to involve legitimacy theory, there is a need to examine some forms of corporate communications.

Channels of CSR Communication To communicate CSR to the various stakeholders, organizations use both the internal as well as external channels like the newsletters, intranet as well as websites, blogs, annual reports, magazines & press release etc. The medium of communication chosen depends upon the industry to which the company belongs, size of the company (Cerin, 2002), age of the company, country of origin, country of operation, public pressure (Brown and Deegan, 1999; Neu et al, 1998; Preston & Post, 1975), potential threats (Buhr, 1998; Deegan et al, 2000; Nasi et al, 1997; O‟Donovan, 1999). Further the importance of channel is also governed by the control which the company can exercise over the contents of the message transmitted through a channel and not exclusively by the reach of the channel (Sones et al, 2009) but at the same time the corporate

have to ensure that they are guarded against the stakeholder skepticism which is higher about the communication sent in through the corporate sources than the non-corporate sources and specifically if it is through a neutral source like a renowned NGO (Du et al, 2010; Yoon et al, 2006; Simons and Becker-Olsen, 2006)

CSR Communication through sustainability reports Sustainability reports or social reports are released by the companies for the stakeholders and present the sustainability accountability of the corporate. Sustainable development reports have been defined by, The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSB), as „public reports by companies to provide internal and external stakeholders with a picture of corporate position on activities on economic, environmental and social dimensions.” Sustainability Accountability has emerged for a period of time and has its roots both in philosophical accounting discussion and developments in accounting (Gray, 2002 & Gray and Bebbington, 2001). There is a mixed pattern in the release of sustainability reports because certain organizations include the sustainable report as a section in their annual reports while others release it as a separate report. Of the various forms of CSR communication the most recent one is the use if sustainability reports. They have evolved over a decade last decade and have had various nomenclatures attached to them ranging from corporate social responsibility report, global citizenship report or sustainability report. But irrespective of the name under which these reports are released these reports are a platform for the firms to demonstrate to people at large the positive responsible corporate citizenship (Ferns, Emelianova, & Sethi, 2008). They are channel for external communication employed for CSR communication and are gaining popularity (Carol & McNicholas, 2007) because they can be employed as a tool for indirect CSR communication (Morsing and Schultz, 2006). Further, since one of the key purpose of CSR communication is to gain organizational legitimacy which is achieved higher by the use of neutral or third party certification the use of sustainability reports is found to be more pronounced (Hedberg & Malmborg, 2003) The sustainability reports unlike the annual reports, websites and press releases have a more structured format of reporting with guidelines, templates and ranking provided by several international agencies like Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI), Global Compact, CSR

Assessment Tool Conference Board of Canada in partnership with Imagine, CSR Insight TM Five Winds International etc of which GRI is the most popular one (Hedberg & Malmborg, 2003). Since CSR reports are a very recent form of CSR communication even in the developed countries and is still gaining grounds in the developing countries, the GRI provides training and help in preparing the sustainability reports to the extent that templates for filling in information is extended by GRI which facilitates the organizations in learning about themselves and communicate effectively. Therefore the small organizations in the developing nations can also employ GRI guidelines and publish sustainability reports which will lead to level playing and creating neutral grounds for both large and small organizations in the developed and the developing nations (Broga et al, 2009). For such reasons the pressure to publish sustainability reports is growing both from the governmental agencies and peer companies operating in the same industry along with the non-governmental organizations. Method

Objective A lot of CSR communication focused research has analysed the annual reports and the websites while the growth of sustainability reports is growing. Further, institutions like GRI have facilitated the process of sustainability report publication through support and easy access nullifying the earlier argument of small companies in developing nations that big revenue rich companies from developed nations can only publish CSR reports. Therefore the purpose of this study is to analyse the use of sustainability reports as a medium of CSR communication by the companies in the IT in India and to compare the performance of Indian companies and MNCs operating in the IT in India.

Sample Selection and Data Source Dataquest, (2008) India‟s first and leading IT magazine ranked the top 100 IT companies in terms of their revenue in fiscal year 2006-07. The revenues of these companies range from Rs 18698 crore to 100 crore. These 100 companies are revenue rich and therefore have a strong possibility of not only being involved in a CSR attempt but also in communicating it to stakeholders. The details of these 100 companies were scanned to categorize them as Indian

companies and MNCs and information about 12 companies was clear and it was found difficult to categorize them so they were dropped and only 88 companies‟ sustainability reports were looked up for. For the purpose of this study, separately published sustainability reports where only included because those which were a part of the annual report were included for analysis in the section of annual reports. These reports are framed in accordance to the social audit, the third party certification and adherence to the national or international. All the reports contained under the head of sustainability reports, CSR reports, corporate governance report, ethical standards and code of conduct, qualified under the head of CSR report. Separately published sustainability reports have been chosen because SR are a depiction of the reality which the companies intend to present before there stakeholders because as Tinker and Neimark (1987) put it, “Corporate reports are not passive describers of an “objective reality” but play a part in forming the worldview of social ideology that fashions and legitimises”. Therefore SR would help enhance and elaborate in understanding communication of CSR as the annual report analysis brought out the quantity i.e. how much CSR reporting has happened (page count and the word count). The quality of CSR communication made through SR would be studied by analyzing the difference in presentation (use of colors, graphics and other creative expressions and grading received from GRI). Technique for analysis of Information Sustainability Reports The websites of Indian companies and MNCs were scanned for the sustainability reports and they were downloaded. Those companies whose sustainability reports were not found on the websites, their public relations, administration and the corporate communication departments were contacted to inquire about their sustainability reports. All the organizations which published sustainability reports had put them up on their websites and none of the companies contacted for sustainability reports replied affirmatively about their release of sustainability in the hard form. These reports were then scanned through analyse the quantity and quality of CSR related information. Quantity of CSR communication was measured through the number of pages and the number of words in the report though it has been differing opinion about the number of pages being an exact measure of the organizations commitment to CSR but it does reflect the company‟s inclination towards CSR as Chambers et al. (2003), put it, “the greater the

extent of the reporting, the more engaged the company is with CSR and the more seriously it is taken therein”. Further, Social disclosures are measured through content analysis which facilitates in highlighting the quantity and measure of disclosure ((Holsti, 1969; Krippendorf, 1980). The nature of quality of CSR communication was judged through the number of companies which carried a GRI index and the ranking received by the report from GRI.

Results and Analysis Corporate sustainability reporting has been on the rise due to continuing emphasis on green awareness (Basalamah and Jermias, 2005) but most of the studies are limited to the developed nations like Australia, United Kingdon, Japan, USA (Belal and Owen, 2007; Islam and Deegan , 2008). There has been a rise in the number of companies practicing sustainability reporting in the developed world (Guthrie and Parker, 1990; Gray et al., 1995; Mathews, 1997); Adams, et al., 1998; Adams, 2002) and they are moving ahead in sustainability disclosure practices (Buhr, 2007). Developing nations are lagging behind in sustainability report and they are, if any, confined to CSR reporting in their annual reports (Sobhani et al., 2009). CSR reporting in India is diverse and unsystematic and most Indian companies resort to „unregulated and public type of reporting‟. Very few Indian companies use sustainability reports as a medium of social and environmental reporting on account of which comparison of reports is difficult (Sahay, 2004). Sustainability reports should be prepared as per the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) developed through a multi-stakeholder process which helps in comparability and benchmarking between good and not appreciable practices (Malarvizhi and Yadav, 2008/2009).

Sustainability Report Analysis Indian Company Parameters

(Total no= 46).

MNC % / Average

Total Publishes Report Yes No

6 40

Length of the report 376 (Page Count) Coloured Yes No

6 0

(Total No. =42)

%/ Average

Total 13.04 % 86.96 %

20 22

47.62% 52.38%

63 (Avg.)

1436

71.8 (Avg.)

100%

20 0

100%

24 4.8 70 5 Grey, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Grey, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Brown, Red, Orange, Green, Brown, Red, Orange, Green, Yellow, Magenta and Purple, Yellow, Pink and Purple, Names of colours used Blue (11) Most used colour/ No. Green (3) of company’s using it No of colours used

No. of Visuals

208

50866 *Textual Count (Word Count) **No. of Company’s 4 with GRI Index ***No. of Company’s 4 with A Rating

41.6 (Avg.) 10,173 (Avg.)

557

26.52 (Avg.)

12521259

62,563 (avg.)

66.67 %

8

40%

100%

3

37.5%

Table 1

The number of Indian Companies publishing sustainability reports is very few. 13.04 % Indian Companies release a separate sustainability report as against 47% of MNCs. The reason for few Indian companies publishing sustainability reports it that corporate environmental reporting is voluntary while environmental reporting in annual reports is mandatory (1IIIEE, 2002). In

comparison the numbers of MNCs which publish sustainability reports are much higher primarily because most of the MNCs are based out of European or American continent and in most of the countries in these continents releasing a sustainability report is mandatory and compulsory. With globalization MNCs have reached out in India and they understand their responsibility to prove themselves to be conscious of the environment in India which enjoys a colonial legacy (Malarvizhi and Yadav, 2008/9). It is important to note that though there are few Indian companies which publish sustainability reports but the ones which do, match the MNCs in their content and inputs. The average length of an Indian sustainability report is 63 pages as against 71.8 pages of the MNCs. Looking at the brief history of sustainability reporting in India it is appreciable to note the quality of the reports being released by Indian companies. The key influencing factor for the Indian companies could be the presence of MNCs in this sector because MNCs bring along with them best practices which are emulated by the other companies operating in the same sector. Therefore amongst the Indian Companies as whole extreme disparities in terms of attitude towards sustainable reporting can be noticed as on one hand we have very limited number of companies reporting sustainability and on the other hand within the same group (Indian IT companies), there is a presence of companies which follow the highest internationally accepted sustainability reporting standards. Colour used in CSR communication is an important factor in determining the effectiveness of CSR communication because colour is an important visual stimulus which appeals in early vision (Garber and Hyatt, 2003) and the underlying meaning adds to the desired image which the brand intends to communicate (Bottomley and Doyle, 2006; Keller, 1998). The use of colours is made by both the Indian and MNCs as the sustainability reports of both are coloured and the spread of colours used is also the same. Similar number of colours (12) is used by both the Indian and the MNCs but there exists a wide disparity in the dominant colour which pervades most if the Indian or the MNCs sustainability reports. Green colour dominates the Indian sustainability reports where it was used maximum number of times by 60% of the Indian companies where as blue dominated the MNCs reports, being used the maximum number of MNCs (78.57%). No academic research could be found on the use and pattern of colours in sustainability reports but an article by Rooks, (2009) discussed the use of colours in sustainability reports and that green is conventional and „is over-stretched and tired‟. Werbach

(2008), CEO of the sustainability division of global ideas company Saatchi & Saatchi proclaimed the Birth of Blue and announced that blue is a „broader platform‟ for sustainability than green because it integrates the four components of Social, Economic, Environmental and Cultural while green is restrictive and limited to ecology. Since the Indian understanding of sustainability is still conventional therefore the Indian sustainability reports are predominantly green while the MNCs need to keep pace with the developments and changes in communication therefore they may have adopted and shifted to the colour blue. The Indian companies out perform the MNCs in the use of visuals in communicating their CSR activities through the sustainability reports. This distinctly implies that the Indian sustainability reports employ a more effective communication tools – the visuals. Research suggests that visuals help in communicating more convincingly because they „build unity and consensus around the information and promote action and decision making‟. The ability of visuals to communicate an „information experience‟ is higher than words because visuals have the ability to deliver are a more „complete and detailed‟ experience. (Gerard & Goldstein, 2005). The Indian sustainability reports are well furnished with tables, charts, graphs and explicit and elaborate pictures of the CSR activities (eg. Hospitals, educational institutions, tree plantation, workforce etc.). It is important to bear in mind that there are very few Indian companies which are publishing the sustainability reports and therefore the employment of best communication strategy is noticed. Since the Indian companies use visuals in abundance over the words therefore the average number of words used in MNC reports is more than six times higher (62,563) than average number of words in the Indian reports (10,173). One of the critical benchmarks of understanding the quality of CSR reporting done through sustainability reports is there adherence to the guidelines provided by Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) and on this parameter the Indian companies fare exceedingly well. 67% (4 of the 6 companies which publish reports), of the Indian sustainability reports comply with and carry a GRI Index in their reports indicating adherence to the highest benchmarked standards in the field of sustainability reporting where as 40% (8 out 20 companies) of the MNCs which publish a sustainability report carry a GRI Index. The key reason for this could be that since sustainability reporting is voluntary in India the companies which publish sustainability reports do it out of volition and therefore the complete motivation for improvement and market leader through best practices helps in producing a sustainability report of highest standards and quality

whereas amongst the MNCs certain companies are home countries have made sustainability reporting legally mandatory and therefore they may be publishing the report to merely comply with and fulfill the legal mandate and therefore there is a general disregard for the GRI guidelines. Morhardt, (2009), reports in his study based on the 100 largest companies in six broad areas that there is a general disregard for GRI standards even amongst the largest companies across the world which clearly supports the idea that a higher standard of sustainability reporting can be noticed when it is done out of choice than when it is done to fulfill legal requirements.

Discussion It is important the insistence on publication of sustainability reports should be made because the internationally accepted format of publishing social information is a balanced and ensures that organizations quantify and present detailed information about all categories – economic, environment, society, human rights and labour practices and product responsibility each of which appeals to a set of stakeholders. Further there is a scope of self declaration, third party authorization as well as benchmarking against a standardized set of parameters (GR3 Indicators) accepted by the international community which ensures uniformity and credibility upon the disclosed information. In developing nations like India, where majority of the companies fall into the category of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) questions are raised about the suitability of adoption of CSR and subsequent reporting especially in accordance with the GRI framework is a question because of the limitations of resources in terms of awareness, time and cost. Company‟s need to be sensitized and made aware about the advantages that CSR holds for SMEs would help both in incorporating CSR and its reporting as well. CSR adoption should be adopted not for reasons of pressure from external or internal stakeholders but because it holds business sense and encourage growth for business. CSR adoption and reporting establishes a positive and competitive tone of doing business and leads to an enhanced status of the company and its products. If CSR reporting becomes a part of the national business conscience then it would not be far when Indian companies as a whole would be able to catch up with the company‟s operating in the international arena. The current level of limited CSR reporting is happening because neither the primary nor the secondary stakeholders understand or comprehend or are interested in CSR

related activities in which organizations are involved the scope for change and enhancement in the depth and the range of CSR reporting is likely to see very little change and growth. Only the large Indian companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys which have operations abroad in the form of overseas clients or customers seem to be communicating CSR activities which are at par with the top end MNCs. Top few Indian companies convey the CSR related activities in its entirety using all the channels of communication – websites, annual reports, sustainability reports, effectively. Further evolution of CSR reporting even for the large companies can happen if CSR communication is also understood and aspired by organizations as a two-way process where the corporations receive feedback about their CSR related activities from the stakeholders. Both the quantity and the quality of CSR communication needs to be enhanced. The electronic medium of reporting is still static and largely one-way for both the Indian and the MNCs. Further for the Indian companies it is even important to post more information since very little is conveyed about CSR by the Indian firms. websites release a separate sustainability which adheres to the internationally desired reporting standards – Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI, 2006), indicating that a lack of legal regulations is the prime cause for the low sustainability reporting and there is a distinct need for public policy framework or industry driven initiatives which should motivate and monitor the organizations to adhere to the international sustainability reporting practices and also try and outperform them by taking further initiatives like the CII has taken regarding the issue of corporate governance. Internationally, cutting through sectors and countries across the globe, there has been a rise in reporting in 2010 and the GRI conference in 2010 was a success which further enhanced the reporting parameters to incorporate issues like carbon disclosure and water disclosure providing opportunities for increased transparency, reporting and stakeholder awareness. The focus is shifting from questioning the importance of reporting to bringing out ways of effective reporting. The „whether to report or not‟ is giving way to „how‟ to report.

Conclusion The sustainability reports are published under different names and are also known as CSR reports which have the international benchmarking through the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) G3 guidelines. The Indian companies fall way short against the MNCs in the number of

companies which publish sustainability reports primarily because it is not mandatory in India for companies to publish a separate sustainability report. Yet, it is noteworthy that though the number of Indian companies publishing sustainability reports is few but the standards and quality of the published reports match the global benchmarks in terms of content of the report. The best practices which the Indian firms need to adopt from the MNCs are the inclusion and reflection of contemporary issues in the reports. The MNC reports are dominated by water relevant issues, which is a bigger current global concern than the green cover. Therefore the MNC reports have an overriding use of colour blue while the Indian reports still have green as the most used colour in their reports.

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