BASF best in class in online sustainability communications

BASF’s corporate website – www.basf.com - is the most complete and web savvy in the field of online sustainability communications. Jungle Rating – a Dutch internet consultancy – concludes this after having investigated all sustainability websites of the European sustainability leaders, listed on the DJSI STOXX index. The short list of the top 53 companies has been announced today.

Research in a nutshell

The aim of Jungle Rating’s online sustainability research is to provide insight in the way European sustainability leading companies - listed on the DJSI STOXX index - use their corporate website to communicate on their sustainability performance.
The research consists of:

1. A benchmark of 53 corporate websites of European sustainability leading companies, consisting of 125 research criteria, based on Jungle Rating’s Online Communications Quality Model (OCQ-model).
2. An online survey among the 53 selected companies.
3. Research on trends & best practice examples in the field of online corporate communications.

Website BASF no. 1 - closely followed by BHP Billiton, Centrica, Novo Nordisk & BP

BASF obtains the first place in the ranking, with a score of 67%. BASF publishes topical information (news and case study updates) and offers complete GRI-based performance information, very useful for the professional user groups (socially responsible investors and analysts).

The website also contains several unique features, such as case study videos, flash animations, downloadable Excel sheets and interactive graphs. Tanja Castor, responsible for the sustainability section on www.BASF.com explains that: “sustainability is one of the four strategic guidelines at BASF, so it is extremely important to communicate about it”.

Among the close followers, Centrica’s extensive CSR video interview section and BP’s carbon calculator (enables visitors to calculate their CO2 footprint) must not go unmentioned.

Geert Jan Grimberg, internet consultant at Jungle Rating: “the best performers provide complete and topical information, but also make use of the unique possibilities the web offers in terms of multimedia (e.g. video, rich internet) and personalisation (e.g. interactive graphs, downloadable Excel sheets)”. Very few companies use their corporate website to facilitate a stakeholder dialogue, by means of a weblog or periodical chat sessions.

Trends in the field of online sustainability communications:

Based on this research Jungle Rating foresees a number of trends:

1. Disclosing topicalities, statements and opinions: Companies use their corporate website more and more to inform stakeholders on topical matters both within their company and in the broader environment (industry / politics).
2. Creation of an online stakeholder experience: The last years, wave riders have started to experiment with the use of multimedia (images, video and rich internet) on their corporate website and within the sustainability section.
3. Taking into account individual stakeholder preferences: many techniques are available to personalise information for specific needs, some front runners for example offer alert functionalities, interactive charts and/or podcasts (downloadable audio files) within their online sustainability section.
4. Establishing an online stakeholder dialogue: Although by far omnipresent yet, some companies start to make use of the various possibilities the internet offers to get a discussion with stakeholders going (e.g. chat, weblog, polls).

What companies say?

The research also incorporated an online survey. In the end, 17 out of all 53 companies participated. The results of the 17 participants confirms the belief that the corporate website is the primary communications channel for communicating on their sustainability performance. Companies indicate that case studies, the incorporation of multimedia, an HTML report and interactive graphs and charting tools are high on the online sustainability agenda in the next two years.

Methodology

In order to assess the quality of online communications, Jungle Rating developed the Online Communications Quality model (OCQ model). The OCQ model has been drawn up after many interviews with corporate stakeholders, like financial stakeholders ((SRI) investors & analysts) journalists, investors, NGO’s and job seekers. We distinguish:

• Website quality: the extent to which the website is user-friendly, enables interaction, contains multimedia and
• Content accessibility: the extent to which sustainability information is available and accessible on the website

The model measures the quality of online sustainability communications on a total of 125 criteria.

For more information on the Online Sustainability Research visit our sustainability section.

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