You may have read a few company Impact Reports but how many of these have you actually read? Like, really, really read? Not skimmed, or checked a few sexy charts, or, heaven forbid, prompted a chatbot about to get an instant breakdown of the main insights. How many reports have you sailed through without a struggle?
Chances are not many – or even any. It’s not necessarily you, though, it’s the reports. A lot of time and effort goes into them but they’re not compelling.
There are some key mistakes that brands make and it’s not to do with the amount of work, or the intentions – every brand wants to create an amazing report – it’s about forgetting how to tell a story that holds an audience’s attention. Here are a few common mistakes and tips to make these reports better.
Cut down the length – less is more
Creating an impact report is like telling a story. That’s an appropriate analogy because most reports read like books. And not novellas; we’re talking about massive, challenging tomes like Ulysses or Infinite Jest.
Maybe that’s an exaggeration but it does seem that way because most reports are disproportionately huge. Unwieldy tome-like things. Patagonia’s latest acclaimed Impact Report came in at 154 pages and that’s one of the better examples.
Is this length merited? Honestly, no. Modern attention spans are a bit broken and this would be too long anyway. It’s better to be more succinct. Otherwise, people aren’t going to be inclined to read the report, which is the point. A report isn’t a garnish.
Our recommendation is to stick to a limit of 50 pages and challenge yourself to cut the fluff and fit the vital information in. If you can’t, add a few pages, but remember that longer does not mean better. Less is more.
Be radically transparent
An impact report is not a hagiography, brands should not tell the story of their own sainthood. It’s far better to be honest, sometimes radically so. Readers are not turned off by failings and appreciate transparency because they don’t expect perfection, anyway.
It can’t all be bad though. It goes without saying that there should be some positive progress to share – a report full of admirable honesty about negative impacts and a few threadbare sprinklings of optimism isn’t going to impress anyone, either.
Patagonia is the classic reference point here, again. Their latest report went so boldly far as to say ‘nothing we do is sustainable’ – and was enriched with other self-effacement – but it also went into vast detail about the attempts to become sustainable. The report went viral across social media, which just shows how far candour can go.
What to do then? Don’t create a fairy tale – aim for a balanced, nuanced and authentic story that includes the good and the bad – bearing in mind the good should still surpass the bad. Don’t be scared to tell the truth – it should be well received if your brand’s heart is in the right place.
Visualise data (but not just with charts)
Nobody wants to wade through a dense paragraph explaining percentage drops in GHG emissions or the statistical breakdown of supply chain diversity. Our minds aren’t wired to process blocks of numbers written out in prose without our eyes instantly glazing over.
This is where data visualization comes in but we aren’t talking about plopping a generic, 2D Excel pie chart onto the page and calling it a day. That’s a start but think bigger. Think creative infographics. A well-designed infographic can communicate a complex achievement in a captivating way, turning dry statistics into a visual narrative that hits home. It breaks up the monotony of the text, gives the reader’s eyes a place to rest, and makes the information far more digestible – meaning memorable; shareable.
Instead of just telling your audience what you’ve achieved, show them. Use illustrations, iconography, and thoughtful layouts to map out your progress. When a reader can get your core metrics in a five-second glance rather than a five-minute read, you’re telling a story worth listening to.
Calm the corporate jargon
There seems to be an unwritten rule that the moment a document is christened a report, it must adopt the personality of an oily corporate executive. Suddenly, brands that sounded vibrant and human start talking about “leveraging paradigm shifts,” and “optimizing core sustainability synergies”. Or even “leveraging paradigm shifts to optimize core sustainability synergies”.
This kind of corporate speak puts a downer on any story. It creates a wall between you and the reader, making the report feel cold, distant, and frankly, a tad suspicious. If people can’t understand what you’re saying, they might assume you’re trying to hide a lack of real action behind all those buzzwords.
The fix is easy peasy: write like a human talking to another human. Keep the tone conversational, accessible, and grounded. Explain your initiatives the same way you would explain to a reasonably informed friend over a coffee. You can be entirely professional and authoritative without sounding like a corporate dufus.
And in line with all of the above: use AI sparingly or not at all. The tendency of AI to over-apply jargon is well known. And it’s a turn-off.
Choose fonts and colours carefully
It’s easy to get carried away when designing a flagship document. You want it to pop, so maybe you opt for a wildly artistic font or a striking, avant-garde color palette. But remember the primary goal here: people actually need to read the thing.
A beautiful report is useless if it causes eye strain after three pages. Tiny, ultra-thin fonts on dark or heavily patterned backgrounds might look edgy, but they destroy readability and accessibility. You don’t want your audience having to squint to figure out what your long-term environmental goals are.
Remember: sustainability is also about people as well as the planet. In this sector especially, you shouldn’t limit the circle that you’re narrating to.
Stick to clean, legible typography, especially for the body copy. Save the fancy, stylized fonts for your major headers, pull quotes, or the cover page. Likewise, use colors that offer high contrast and align with your brand but ensure they don’t overpower the content itself. Good design in an impact report shouldn’t scream for attention – it should comfortably guide the reader through your story. Creative, yet minimalist design is a good rule of thumb but this is a task that requires a pinch of that increasingly precious commodity: Taste.
Avoid saving the planet
There’s the real danger in sustainability of going too far. Lines about saving the planet – or changing the world – and so on. It’s normally better to come down from there. No brand alone, whatever impact they’re making, is going to save the planet or civilization. This grand language is not rousing and is weirdly boring. Instead, be specific about the improvements you’re bringing into your world.
Are you looking to create an Impact Report?
Those are our recommendations for better impact reports that people will read, and perhaps even enjoy reading. We also help to create impact reports for our clients – taking into account all of those points and more. If you’d like to have a chat about how we can help, get in touch. If not, and you’re just here for some guidance – then best of luck with whatever you’re creating. The stronger the real stories about sustainability are, the better.
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