Communicating with and involving stakeholders is a vital part of effective sustainability programs. According to the Global Research Initiative, 80 percent of the top 15 global brands are now reporting on sustainability performance, and 43 percent of the top 100 brands publish some sort of sustainability report.
Communicating with stakeholders allows companies to highlight sustainability goals and accomplishments, build or strengthen relationships, enhance corporate reputation, build brand loyalty and gather useful data and ideas. Meat-industry stakeholders include employees, customers and suppliers, shareholders and investors, regulators, communities, media, NGOs and the general public. Each stakeholder sector has its own concerns, communication network, communication methods, and will be receptive to different messages.
These differences were summarized recently in The Green Business Letter. Although this chart focuses on environmental, health and safety communications – all part of sustainability -- it is a useful model:
