Celebrating eighteen years

My sustainability reporting career is officially an adult.

Eighteen years ago this month, I embarked on my first Sustainability Report project. At that time, it wasn’t called that—it was a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report.

Since then, I’ve worked on many projects, and my focus has gradually shifted from translating reports from German to writing reports in English.

I’ve been fortunate to work on a diverse range of projects, learning something valuable from each one—from a 20-page brochure for a family-owned farm to a recent full-length report for one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies.

Let me tell you about one of my most memorable and enjoyable projects from the early days:

The company, now sadly defunct, was headquartered in a German-speaking country and had recently acquired two smaller businesses in North America and the UK.

The PR Manager (back then, Chief Sustainability Officers were a rare breed) wanted to translate the company's latest CSR report into English to print and post (gasp).

He also happened to be married to a British woman who suggested that native English speakers respond better to stories than to lists of facts and figures. So, he knew the report needed more than a straightforward translation.

As a guitarist in a band, the PR Manager had a creative idea: why not make the report more engaging by giving it a musical theme?

With support from the management team, which was open to trying something new, we decided to sprinkle musical references throughout the report.

A page on employees (originally titled “Das Wir-Gefühl,” or “The We Feeling”) was renamed "Smells Like Team Spirit."

The water section became "(No) Smoke on the Water."

An introductory letter from the Managing Director was changed from "Einleitung" (Introduction) to "Taking Care of Business."

We didn’t stop at catchy titles. The German-language report was full of passive sentences, abstract concepts, and Germany-specific references (who knows, offhand, how many recycled bottles you would need to put in a line to stretch from Hamburg to Munich?).

So, we streamlined the report by moving data into tables, changing the copy from third to first person, and removing content that wasn’t suitable for an international audience.

Ah, it was a simpler time back then—a single layer of review, no lawyers, and no mandatory reporting requirements.

Since then, I’ve worked on many sustainability reports across various industries, each with its own unique challenges and rewards.

But that project, with its musical twist, will always hold a special place in my heart.

Here’s to eighteen years of sustainability reporting—and to many more years of creative storytelling ahead!