On December 3, the 13th International Conference on CSR Reporting in China was held in Beijing. Focusing on “Responsible Communication Creates Value”, new thoughts on CSR reporting, new practice trends, and hot topics of information disclosure and CSR communication were shared with attendees. The Release Ceremony of GoldenBee CSR Report Honor Roll 2020 was also launched.

The conference was hosted by China Sustainability Tribune, China Business Council for Sustainable Development (CBCSD) and GoldenBee ThinkTank, co-hosted by the CSR Centre at Embassy of Sweden in Beijing and TÜV NORD, and supported by Consulate-General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Shanghai and GoldenBee Sustainable Brand Communication.
 
New expectations for CSR Communication toward 2030

The year 2020 is decisive to the realization of poverty alleviation. It is the concluding year of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) and also the key node to achieve the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Under this situation, the direction and mode of CSR development as well as CSR communication have ushered in a new era of expectations and requirements.
 

Xu Hua, Director, General Office, Department of Policies, Laws and Regulations, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said that at the time of China's transition toward high-quality development, CSR has more important and far-reaching significance. As an effective tool for communication between enterprises and stakeholders, CSR reporting plays an important role on corporate transparency and social responsibility management.
 

Paola Albornoz, First Secretary, Responsible Trade (CSR), Embassy of Sweden in Beijing said that new generations of global investors are increasingly concerned about companies’ performance on sustainability. She called on companies to set CSR reporting as a starting point for better management and risk assessment to improve the predictability of business operations and enhance short- and long-term profitability and competitiveness.
 

Zhai Qi, Executive Secretary General of China Business Council for Sustainable Development (CBCSD), said that since the outbreak of COVID-19, CSR concept and sustainable development have become important guiding principles for enterprises to avoid ESG risks, enhance core competitiveness and pursue innovative development.
 
Global CSR disclosure trends: Smooth, strong, diverse
 

Release of 2020 GoldenBee Research on CSR Reporting in China

 
Facing the global trends, the conference sends an important signal that CSR fulfillment and relevant information disclosure remain stable, not being affected by the pandemic. With the influence of stakeholders, enterprises are paying more attention to climate change, biodiversity, UN 2030 SDGs, information disclosure and related practices.
 
Despite the complex situation, China's CSR reports are still in an overall stable and quality-pursuing stage of development, which is also the core of the GoldenBee Index on Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China 2020. According to the report, from January to October 2020, the number of social responsibility reports released in China had reached 1,903, of which 1,730 were from enterprises. GoldenBee (Beijing) Management Consulting Co., Ltd. has conducted a systematic analysis and compiled the Report to summarize the findings on CSR reporting in China:
 
❖ The reporting timeliness was delayed by the outbreak of COVID-19, but the total number of CSR reports issued by enterprises in China keeps increasing, with a significant increase in "ESG Report". 40% of China's top 500 enterprises haven’t issued CSR reports.

❖ The quality of CSR reporting is generally stable, remaining the steady developing trend since 2016, with the comprehensive index maintaining at around 1,300.
 
❖ Reports of Central SOEs have maintained leading quality, and the report quality of private enterprises, foreign-invested and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan enterprises shows steady improvement.
 
❖ The reporting quality is generally on the rise in all industries. The quality gap of CSR reports issued by industries of different scales shows a decreasing trend.
 
❖ Information disclosure on gender equality, child rights, UN 2030 SDGs and biodiversity is increasing.
 
Responding to the findings, the Report suggests that enterprises should further strengthen their strategic understanding of CSR information disclosure, enhance comparability of the reports, and improve the disclosure of management approach of material topics. It is also suggested to strengthen the guidance for listed companies on social responsibility information disclosure and to encourage more top 500 Chinese companies to prepare CSR reporting.
 
The latest progress of the CSR information disclosure in Europe, Japan, the Netherlands, Global Reporting Initiative and TÜV NORD indicates that facing digital revolution, new regulations and higher public expectations, it has become the common sense and direction for enterprises to improve information disclosure quality, engage in more active communication, increase transparency and enhance CSR management, jointly build a good environment of information disclosure with stakeholders, promote responsible business conduct and contribute to economic sustainable recovery.
 

At the Conference, 51 Social Securities released its first Social Responsibility Report. Yu Qingquan, Founder and CEO of 51 Social Securities, introduced that the Report proposed the CSR model for companies providing human resources services and focused on the mission of social securities, dedicating to safeguarding each job.
 
Heated discussion on ESG, poverty alleviation and CSR communication

As a professional communication platform for CSR reporting, the conference has continued the feature of professionalism, focusing on hotspot issues of CSR reporting such as information disclosure, CSR report communication, etc., generating in-depth discussion.
 

 
The panel “ESG Information Transparency” addressed issues including ESG rating methods, ESG investment and practices trends and the value of digital ESG management.
 

At the panel “CSR Communication and Information Disclosure from a Cross-cultural Perspective”, guests speakers shared how Chinese enterprises build corporate image in cross-cultural integration, and provided experienced and advice on how to achieve effective communication and information disclosure from a cross-cultural perspective.
 

Aiming at summarizing practices and successful experiences of targeted poverty alleviation, the panel "Targeted Poverty Alleviation and Sustainability Communication" shared Chinese models and their better involvement in rural revitalization.
 

 
Facing the open market and the situation that COVID-19 pandemic has not been fully controlled, guests speakers at the panel “Stakeholder Communication in the Post-pandemic Era” discussed about how enterprises can exert their advantages and use digital methods to innovate in stakeholder communication and branding.
 
88 CSR reports listed in the 2020 GoldenBee CSR Report Honor Roll

During the Release Ceremony of GoldenBee CSR Report Honor Roll 2020, 88 enterprises stood out from over 1,700 candidates to be listed in the honor roll for 11 awards including “Leading Enterprise”, “Growing Enterprise”, “Foreign-Invested and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan-Invested Enterprise”, “First Time Report Award”, “Evergreen Award”, etc.
 

 
Up to now, over 15,000 reports have registered for the evaluation and more than 700 CSR reports released by around 250 enterprises have been listed in the GoldenBee CSR Report Honor Roll. The event has provided a professional platform for brilliant enterprises and outstanding CSR reports to manifest their advantages, and also indicates the increasing number and quality of outstanding CSR reports in China.
 
This Conference also provided live streaming video on NetEase platform, attracting over 550,000 views. As one of the earliest international events on CSR reporting in China, for 13 years, the conference has been adhering to the idea of “Responsible Communication Creates Value”and has pitched the feature of professionalism and internationalism, discussing the trends and hot topics of CSR reports, such as reporting standards, preparation, management, and dissemination, witnessing and promoting the CSR reporting to be more standardized, transparent, and diversified. It also plays a positive role in enhancing corporate transparency, improving information disclosure and innovating in stakeholder communication.