Schulich School of Business
Body Shop Pioneer of Corporate Environmental Reporting David Wheeler Says Real-time Interactive Web Reporting Wave of the Future

TORONTO, March 21, 2000 -- Dr. David Wheeler, the man who pioneered voluntary corporate reporting on environmental performance at The Body Shop International, says Web-based reports that are up-to-the-minute and interactive are the wave of the future for companies that want to be perceived as good corporate citizens. He predicts the imminent demise of the corporate environmental report as we know it, adding that the quality of a company's Web-based information will now determine whether customers, employees and other stakeholders remain loyal.

"Companies need to provide stakeholders with the information they want -- on social performance, emissions, waste and other indicators -- when they want it," says Wheeler, who was responsible for all non-financial performance issues at the UK toiletries company in the 1990s. Recently appointed Director and Chair of the Erivan K. Haub Program in Business and Sustainability at York University's Schulich School of Business, Wheeler will present new research on the subject at the Vancouver Globe 2000 business conference March 24, in a paper entitled The Advent of Cybernetic Sustainability Reporting and Communication.

The paper is co-authored by John Elkington, inventor of the ėtriple bottom line' concept that requires assessment of the environmental and social performance of a company along with financial results. Wheeler will reveal the results of an assessment, designed by the Haub Program, of sustainability reporting on the Web by the top 20 international companies ranked for quality environmental performance reporting. The results show that even the companies with the best reporting records have significant room for improvement in the design and accessibility of their Web-published information.

Wheeler says corporate reporting in all three performance areas will have to go on-line soon in response to growing demand from consumers and investors for real-time, Web-based information that is tailored to their needs. He says this form of reporting will be important for financial analysts, opinion formers, commentators and direct stakeholders alike.

"It's very difficult to lie on the Net. Employees can see what the company is saying and publish the truth," says Wheeler, adding that secrecy is always an excuse for poor corporate performance. He says as investment decision-making goes more on-line, the opinions of analysts and the growing army of popular financial commentators will also need to be increasingly real-time and immediate. He notes that this will substantially reduce the role of accounting firms and the value of published annual reports. "The views of analysts will be based more on opinion and hearsay than on published results and audited accounts, annual or otherwise," he says.

Wheeler emphasizes that the concept of sustainability has to be learned, and aligned with the human resources function of an organization rather than the public relations function. As Chair of the Haub Program at York, he will oversee the development of the Sustainable Enterprise Academy, which will run ėtransformational courses' for senior executives. Former Ontario Hydro Executive Brian Kelly will direct the work of the Academy, which has secured $800,000 in funding from four major Canadian corporations: Suncor Energy Foundation, Petro-Canada, Dofasco and DuPont Canada.

"The Schulich School of Business has a unique level of institutional commitment to the advancement of sustainability in business," says Wheeler. "The Business and Sustainability Program at York will play a major role in helping business in North America and abroad meet the challenge of delivering a fairer and more environmentally secure world for future generations."

Wheeler was previously Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at Kingston University Business School (UK), and an advisor on sustainability issues to the global professional services company KPMG. Prior to that, he was Director of Environmental and Social Policy at The Body Shop International. Wheeler started his career in the water industry, where he specialized in water pollution control. As an academic at the University of Surrey (UK), he became a leading researcher and commentator on standards of drinking water and recreational water in the UK, and was a frequent consultant to the World Health Organization and a wide variety of development agencies working in water and sanitation programs in less developed countries. He supervised development projects in 12 countries in Africa and Latin America and co-developed the DelAgua drinking water test kit which is now used in more than 50 developing countries worldwide.

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For further information, please contact:

Dr. David Wheeler
Chair
Haub Program
Schulich School of Business
(416) 399-0133
DavidWheeler2000@cs.com

Nancy Sutherland
Associate Director
Haub Program
Schulich School of Business
(416) 736-2100, ext. 40478
nsutherl@schulich.yorku.ca

Susan Bigelow
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22091
sbigelow@yorku.ca
YU/036/00