The power of collaboration across your reporting suite

Senior Strategist Liz Rogers has more than a decade of experience advising businesses on best practices in ESG disclosure. She recently supported CRI client Whirlpool Corporation through the creation of not only the company’s latest Annual Report and Sustainability Report, but also an internal People report, ESG-related content in Whirlpool’s Proxy statement, one-page downloads on ESG topics and updates to their corporate website.

Here, she explains why, when we create multiple pieces of content for a client, each one is stronger for it.

Q: How did CRI’s support across a suite of annual disclosures benefit Whirlpool?

A: Businesses naturally want to have a consistent message across all their communications. But it’s difficult when you have a different team responsible for every project. At a large company like Whirlpool, those teams aren’t necessarily talking to each other. For example, the person responsible for the proxy isn’t in constant communication with their climate data expert. We act as the connective tissue among these teams, assembling each of these individual communications into a bigger picture.

Q: How did you approach telling Whirlpool’s business story alongside its ESG story?

A: We started by getting grounded in the business, working to understand the details of Whirlpool’s recent performance, new strategic imperatives and the innovative products they wanted to emphasize. Everything else flowed from there. With this understanding, we were able to ask better questions of SMEs when gathering information for the ESG report.

This also allowed us to strengthen the business case for ESG. For example, in writing about Whirlpool’s new SlimTech^TM insulation for refrigerators, we emphasized recyclability and energy efficiency, as well as how the material meets consumer demand for more refrigerator capacity in smaller spaces.

Q: In what other ways did this process make things more efficient?

A: Working on multiple publications in tandem made sense for all kinds of practical reasons. Some of the input we received from SMEs informed a half-dozen pieces of content — and we were able to gather what we needed from one conversation rather than several. Whirlpool also benefited from a single design team, who became well acquainted with the company’s brand standards and preferences and created a cohesive look and feel. As the reports were being finalized, our project management team made sure all metrics and other details were correct and consistent across all content.

“This year was the first time we leveraged the CRI team for the writing of the reports, which was a welcome change and made for a more collaborative process overall. We are already hearing a lot of positive feedback on this year’s reports, including an appreciation for the connections between the reports and Whirlpool’s website. I’m looking forward to our continued success in this space.” - Nicole Tiberi, Senior Manager Global Content, Corporate Reputation, Whirlpool Corporation

CRI can help.

ESG reports and other stakeholder communications often require internal teams to collaborate with many different functions across a company. A third-party partner can bridge the gap. We can help you tell a consistent story across all disclosures, with the appropriate tone, perspective and level of detail for every audience you need to reach.