Position statements should provide clear guidance and direction to the organization with respect to relevant environmental, social, or governance issues. A common problem with position statements we reviewed is that they were hard to locate, too long (sometimes dozens of pages), difficult to navigate, and often contained too much extraneous information.
While it is important to reference overall trends in your past performance and patterns of decision-making, we recommend that you save reporting on recent performance, achievements to date, awards and accolades, and unrelated sustainability initiatives for your annual sustainability reports or your website.
Consider including a section that outlines the motivation for this position statement and/or the process that led to its development. Provide a brief background on why and how the position statement came to be. Were there specific questions, learning outcomes, or impacts that motivated this statement? For instance, some position statements are a response to investor demands.
For example, the following language and content outlines the motivation for the creation of a position statement: "This position statement was motivated by shareholder concerns over the strategic impact that climate change and extreme weather events may have on our strategy and future success."
Position statements should be concise and accessible, both in terms of the language used and also in terms of locating them. Your position statements should be publicly available, for instance by including them in the sustainability and/or governance sections of your company's website.
Example: DuPont consolidates its position statements into a single web-page, noting "Position statements represent DuPont's informed views and opinions on industry-related issues. They cover a range of topics that reinforce our commitment to sustainable growth and are important to stakeholders."