The Global Reporters Program

The Global Reporters program, of which

this report is a part, has been built on a

consistent, rigorous and transparent

process for assessing quality in reporting,

applied here to ensure the most complete

and professional assessment of the

Brazilian reporting market possible.

Here is how we conducted the survey.

Report selection

This survey is about best practice, so one

of our challenges was to develop a means

to identify leaders. The first step was to

draw up a list of those companies in Brazil

that produce a sustainability report. We

identified 76 companies engaging in some

degree of sustainability reporting, from

which our Top 10 were chosen.10 We

reviewed the 76 identified reports against

a subset of criteria drawn from the Global

Reporters Methodology,11 which gave us

an estimate of the report's potential

quality. The results of this process yielded

a shortlist of 28 reports,12 which were then

forwarded to our Advisory Group for their

guidance in selecting the Top 10.

The decision to select ten reports

(rather than 20, 50 or even more) reflects

two major considerations:

— Ten is sufficient. The number of

companies providing comprehensive

sustainability reports in Brazil number

fewer than 100 at present. Ten may

seem small, but it's a full 13% of

known Brazilian reporters.

— A larger sample would entail the risk of

including lower-quality reports.

The benchmarking process

Following selection, the Top 10 were

reviewed in detail against the full

assessment methodology. This involves:

— Reading

In-depth review of reports and

materials on websites.

— Analysis and scoring

Detailed analysis and scoring of reports

against each of the 29 benchmark

criteria (see Figures 5 through 8 for

an overview).

— Quality control

Peer review of the analysis.

— Finalization

Updating of scores and analysis.

Conducting

the survey

The Road to Credibility 9

Methodology

The Global Reporters report assessment

methodology, developed over many years,

essentially tests how well sustainability

issues are taken into account in normal

business processes. It measures the quality

of reporting, not performance. A summary

of the methodology appears in pages

11–12 (Results section).

Independence and credibility

This report has been developed with

the highest regard for the independence

and integrity of the report selection,

benchmarking and interpretation

processes; and for readers'