Extra Extra: Company Publishes 150+ Page PDF?

Let’s face it — if you’re breaking news with a sustainability report, you’re probably doing it wrong.

We came to this realization several years ago as we were changing up our reporting structure. We had moving stories, first-hand accounts and brilliant pictures. We also had great data, and loads of information on governance, policies, training and management. Did it really make sense to hold all this material and send it into the world once a year in a fell swoop?

Probably not. So we broke our “report” into a real-time blog, and an online reporting resource that we update at least annually (if not more frequently). A year into this change, I’m happy to say it’s going well.

Today I’m proud to share AT&T’s 2014 Annual Sustainability Update, our collection of all our information from last year. Our issue brief library gives a topic-by-topic breakdown of our key goals, data and management info for 30 of our most important issues. Our KPI table provides a year-over-year look at our key statistics. Our GRI table, materiality assessment and value chain map provide the foundation of what and how we report. And our blog showcases the people and projects behind the scenes.

It does mean that writing a traditional report press release around our “new report” becomes harder to do. But a few highlights (click on image in upper right.)

One of the best parts of this structure has been the opportunity to engage with our employees, suppliers, customers and communities much more frequently. We’re excited about that shift, and we hope you are, too. Chime in at @connecttogood. 

Jenny Robertson is director of sustainability at AT&T, where she oversees the company’s environmental and social reporting efforts. Learn more at about.att.com/csr/reporting or follow her @JennyARobertson.