How To Write a Strong Sustainability Impact Report
TO KICK OFF 2026, WE’RE SHARING SOME ADVICE FOR HOW YOU CAN CREATE AN IMPACT REPORT TO SHARE AND CELEBRATE LAST YEAR’S ACHIEVEMENTS.
What is an impact report?
An impact report is a way of showcasing your outcomes and achievements, with all of the relevant information collected into one document and made publicly available, usually as a PDF on your website. Your report can highlight the social, economic and/or environmental impacts of your operations, including progress against your sustainability goals, and can have as broad or as narrow a focus as you want. The purpose is to show how your business has affected the world in meaningful ways.
Impact reports are a great way to demonstrate accountability to investors, board members and other stakeholders. They also allow you to show customers and staff — including potential future employees — that you’re taking real, measurable action on issues they care about.
Why produce an impact report?
At its core, an impact report is about effective storytelling, sharing the milestones you hit along your sustainability journey. Customers, staff and stakeholders value transparency, and greenwashing is increasingly taboo. Clear, upfront communication through an impact report not only allows you to highlight and celebrate your achievements, but it also helps to inspire confidence and loyalty. A strong impact report can:
- Reassure stakeholders: Impact reporting allows you to stay accountable to your stakeholders on progress against your ESG goals, increasing transparency and trust.
- Guide future decision-making: The information provided by measuring and reporting on your impact will help you to see what worked and what didn’t, informing your strategic decisions going forward.
- Ensure compliance: Depending on where your business is based, you may be legally required to report on particular environmental metrics. Getting into the habit of measuring and communicating your impact can streamline this process, ensuring compliance with current regulations and keeping you prepared for future requirements.
- Provide marketing material: Elements of your impact report can be repurposed into effective marketing materials that will help to build your brand reputation, increase customer loyalty and attract new business.
- Reduce the risk of greenwashing: By reporting on your progress using clear, measurable metrics, and being open and precise about your successes and shortcomings, you can eliminate the risk of greenwashing in your communications.
- Boost team motivation: In the busy day-to-day of any hospitality business, your team doesn’t always have the time or the information needed to see the effects of their sustainability efforts. Sharing your impact report with your team and celebrating their accomplishments can boost motivation, engagement and productivity — all of which contribute to higher retention rates.
- Encourage continuous improvement: By highlighting progress and showing how far you’ve already come, a good impact report can help to embed a culture of continuous improvement into your operations.
- Inspire wider industry change: Publishing an impact report brings visibility to those businesses who are committed to creating tangible change, helping to inspire other industry leaders to take similar action and creating wider change across the hospitality sector.
How to write a strong impact report
Impact reports can take various formats. Yours might home in on particular metrics (for example, your carbon footprint) or take a broader focus across both the social and environmental impacts of your company. We asked Juliet Kinsman — Sustainability Editor, Consultant and founder of Bouteco — to share her insights on what makes a great impact report. Bouteco is a purpose-led non-profit communications consultancy that has specialised in ‘Sharing Stories to Inspire Impact™’ for a decade.
1. DECIDE ON A STRUCTURE THAT MAKES SENSE.
Depending on the scope of your impact report, decide how to structure the information you’re presenting. Don’t be afraid to take inspiration from outside your business; for example, you could use the three pillars of the Food Made Good Framework (Sourcing, Society and Environment) for a comprehensive overview of your sustainability work, like The PIG Hotel Group did in their 2022 Impact Report. Another good example comes from the University of Leeds, which maps achievements against the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in its 2023-24 report.
2. KEEP YOUR REPORT ROOTED IN ACTION.
Ensure you’re presenting tangible, measurable data from a clearly defined time period (e.g., the previous calendar year) and comparing these to a baseline and/or to the previous period. Avoid wishy-washy language or vague claims.
“Obviously, as long-time professional sustainability communicators, we're sticklers for focusing on the facts and sense-checking reports never stray into greenwash — while ensuring hospitality businesses talk their walk with pride, rather than greenhush,” says Juliet. “As Bouteco, we loved articulating the measurable impact achieved by Mandarin Oriental and enjoyed launching Lore’s succinct but solid ESG report, which speaks to their sustainability endeavours from their IT department through to F&B.”
3. BRING THE DATA TO LIFE.
A strong impact report goes beyond listing achievements; it should help anyone who reads it understand the real-world outcomes of your operations. To accomplish this, you’ll want to include stories alongside the facts and figures; think quotes, testimonials, personal stories and case studies. A good example of this is Hawksmoor’s Impact Report 2024, which does a fantastic job of adding these individual and personal touches throughout.
Juliet shares a good example of how effective storytelling can make all the difference. “The Datai Langkawi in Malaysia is modelling solutions-led storytelling, and has seen a huge rise in residents engaging with their nature-regenerating and community-led activities thanks to their beautiful report, which features in every guest room.”
For businesses who hold a valid Food Made Good Standard, our team is always happy to help, whether that’s providing a quote from The SRA about your business or supporting you in crafting your messaging. Don’t hesitate to reach out!
4. MAKE IT READABLE, COMPELLING AND HUMAN.
It’s worth working with a strong writer — whether in-house or freelance — to make sure the copy in your report is easy to read and engaging. AI tools may be useful in compiling your data, but you can’t beat a human voice when it comes to creating readable, compelling content.
"There’s nothing I love more than combining science and storytelling in an ‘edutaining’ way that speaks to all stakeholders — aiming to sound human, authentic and charismatic in this ChatGPT-generated world where everyone is starting to sound the same and say the same things,” says Juliet.
5. DESIGN MATTERS, TOO.
Make sure your report is visually appealing in ways that make sense for your brand. For example, Eurostar’s Sustainability Report 2024 uses a combination of photography, illustration and graphics while maintaining an easily identifiable sense of brand identity throughout. Keeping people and faces front and centre within the imagery makes the report visually engaging and emphasises the human side of your stories.
A different example comes from Desa Potato Head Bali in Indonesia); in keeping with the hotel’s branding and ethos, their Sustainability Report 2024 is designed to look as though it’s on recycled paper — despite being in a digital format — and utilises plenty of white space, photography with ample borders and some limited use of colour for a simple, pared-back look with great readability.
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If you’d like a quick overview of where you stand on your sustainability journey, take our free five-minute Food For Thought quiz!
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Jocelyn leads our Marketing & Comms team and is responsible for growing our audience and solidifying our global reputation. Jocelyn holds a BSc in Hospitality Management and an MSc in Food Culture & Communications, and is a member of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild. Her background includes on-the-ground hospitality experience; over a decade of food writing, editing and publishing; bespoke content creation for some of Ireland’s biggest food brands; and developing the content strategy for a suite of menu management and carbon tracking software.
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