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Concrete tips when translating your sustainability report

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Sustainability reports

Textforum would be happy to translate your sustainability efforts

These past few years, sustainability reports have notably increased in significance and scope. In fact, these reports have become almost as important as annual reports! Companies don’t just publish sustainability reports to fulfil legal requirements: these reports have also become a key way to distinguish yourself from your competitors. Because who wants to do business with a company that doesn’t care?

 

A lot is happening in the field of sustainability. Directives are being updated, new regulations and standards are popping up, and more companies than ever are now legally required to publish a sustainability report.

 

Here are some key developments to keep track of:

 

  • The EU taxonomy is an EU-wide classification system for environmentally sustainable investments. It includes climate objectives and rules for sustainable growth – the goal being for Europe to become climate-neutral by 2050. The taxonomy, which came into force in January 2020, will apply to more and more companies over the coming years.
  • The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is a new, stricter EU directive that dictates how companies should report on their sustainability efforts.It requires companies to publish certain types of information that used to be voluntary to report. Companies now have to report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in greater detail, for example, and mention which concrete measures they are taking to reduce those. Emissions include those directly related to the company’s operations (scope 1) and those related to the generation of the energy and heat the company consumes (scope 2).Companies now also regularly need to screen how much their customers and suppliers emit (scope 3). Emissions have to be reported in whichever category they carry the greatest weight. From January 2024 onwards, the CSRD will apply to all companies with more than 500 employees. The directive will be implemented successively, based on companies’ sizes.
  • The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) are a new, joint reporting standard for all companies subject to the CSRD that will make it easier to compare companies’ sustainability efforts. The standards are divided into three main categories: environmental topics, social topics, and corporate governance.
  • The GRI standard is one of the most commonly used standards for sustainability reporting. The Global Reporting Initiative is an independent organisation that helps companies, governments and organisations understand the effect they have on the economy, people, and the environment.
  • The UN’s seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted as part of the 2030 Agenda. They now underpin many companies’ and organisations’ sustainability efforts. You can read more about them here.

 

So how should you approach the task of having your sustainability report translated? Here are some concrete tips from us at Textforum:

 

  • Don’t leave it until the last minute. You can’t just hire any translator to translate your sustainability report, and the most experienced ones tend to get booked up quickly. Contact us as soon as you begin to plan next year’s sustainability report; we can then propose an ideal schedule and book a suitable translator well ahead of time.
  • Make sure the source text is thought-through and fully done. A translation is always based on the text in the original language – what we in the translation sector call “the source text”. Because of this, it’s very important for the source text to be well-structured and completely finished, ideally with correct and consistent terminology, before you send it to us to be translated. All of this will help the translator deliver a translation that you’ll be 100% satisfied with.
  • Factor in time for changes, additions, and questions. Last-minute adjustments can gobble up quite a bit of time, while the deadline looms around the corner. That’s why it helps to carefully plan the entire translation and publication process, so there’s time to send us any changes and extra paragraphs that need to be translated. In the end, this will save you both time and money. Also make sure the right people are available to respond to any questions the translator and proofreader might have during the project. Feel free to reach out to our project managers, they’ll be happy to streamline the process for you!
  • Discuss your style and terminology with us. Your sustainability report is an important part of your corporate communication. That is why it’s a good idea to have a chat with us before we start translating your report, to tell us exactly what you’d like the report to sound like in the target language. Are there any established terms and concepts you’d like the translator to use? Perhaps your organisation has its own style guide? Share all that information with us, so your translator can craft a translation that is fully on brand in terms of expressions and language. Your translator will be well acquainted with the report’s topics and knows the language – but you know your company’s style of communication best.
  • Give us feedback. We would love to get feedback once the project is done. What worked well? Is there anything we could have done better? Sustainability reports are a recurring publication: we want each report we translate for you to be better than the last one! We see ourselves as your long-term partner and want you to be fully satisfied with Textforum. Your feedback helps us fine-tune our partnership, year after year.