Sustainable development objectives are broad and,
in order to deliver them, organisations must focus on
specific issues. One way to do this is through
indicators, which quantify and illustrate the important
issues. Return on equity, profit before taxation and
cost/income ratios are widely recognised as key
financial indicators of business performance. They
are broad-brush, highly aggregated statistics, which
summarise the overall picture. Organisations use
indicators to determine business strategy and
stakeholders use them to judge how well a business
is performing. The bank intends that the indicators
within this Report should be used in the same way;
that is, to inform strategic decisions within the
business and to help Partners assess whether, when
judged against the benchmarks presented in this
Report, the bank is achieving the broader objectives
of sustainable development. Of course, conflicts of
interest will arise; for example, situations where
progressing one indicator will mean hindering
development of another. Judgements, therefore,
need to be made by Partners about how to reconcile
the benefits of delivering value, social responsibility
and ecological sustainability.
Choosing SMART indicators
According to conventional business wisdom,
indicators should meet a number of criteria referred
to as SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable,
Realistic and Timely. Whilst endorsing these general
characteristics, the bank also believes that:
For details of how the bank's 72 indicators relate to
various emerging standards and guidelines, please
refer to the standards section of the report i.
Results This is the sixth consecutive year in
which the bank has provided independently audited
data and commentary showing how far it has
succeeded in delivering value to Partners in an
ecologically sound and socially responsible manner.
Of the 64 targets set last year, the bank has fully
achieved 45, made acceptable progress against 11
and has not yet achieved 8. Broadly speaking, the
bank is satisfied with these latest results; particularly
considering how far it has progressed since 1997.
But, of course, there is always room for
improvement, which is why in this section there are
also details of the 77 new targets set for 2003.
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