How do organisations graphically communicate their sustainability? An exploratory analysis based on corporate reports

Abstract Corporate reports containing non-financial information are the main tool that organisations can use to communicate information concerning their sustainability performance to their stakeholders. The use of graphic media to transmit this information is increasingly present in most of these reports, since people recognise and understand this information more quickly than information represented by text. However, there is not a consensus in the use of icons, colours or forms, etc. for that purpose. The objective of this study is to analyse the way in which organisations are currently communicating sustainability information graphically, in order to identify the existence of common design patterns. To do so, the graphic information included in 80 corporate reports was analysed. A total of 997 icons were identified, grouped in 8 environmental indicators, 19 social indicators, 1 economic indicator and 4 stakeholders. In addition to the concept represented graphically, aspects such as the form of composition, border shape or colour, among others, were analysed. It was found that there is a clear lack of standardisation when communicating the sustainability performance graphically, and also a clear need for a family of icons that allow a direct and unequivocal association of the icon and the corresponding sustainability indicator. This would facilitate the effective and efficient communication of sustainable information through corporate reports.