A sustainability report with more impact

Giving a sustainability report magazine editorial treatment for more impact 

In a nutshell

To help fellow B Corp, Pathfinder Asset Management, develop their 2023 Sustainability Report, we took a magazine editorial approach, used our co-design processes and pro-journalist writing. This meant the report gave different types of readers a useful experience.  Simon Leach, Senior Relationship Manager at Pathfinder tells us he uses the report in all his interactions with clients and advisors, and that he finds it a pleasure to sell from.  

What Pathfinder needed – a sustainability report with impact 

Having published two voluntary annual sustainability reports, Pathfinder were looking for a fresh approach and copywriting support to take their third report to a new level of usefulness. 

The report is a wrap up of ethical investment leader Pathfinder’s non-financial – and financial – impact over the 2022 to 2023 financial year. 

To have maximum impact, the report needed to support different types of users – those who wanted to dip into the report, to dabble in one section or to dive into the full detail throughout. 

How GoodSense helped – a magazine editorial approach, co-design processes and journalism 

We love helping ethical businesses make bigger waves by telling their stories well and the project to help fellow B Corp, Pathfinder, shape the narrative for their third sustainability report was highly rewarding.

We began with a co-design process, with Kylie and Kath from GoodSense working with six of the Pathfinder team around the boardroom table. The co-design workshop quickly and efficiently forged a consensus on the narrative highlights for the report. By involving a range of team members, we could weave together a range of different perspectives from throughout the business. 

We used the outputs from the co-design workshop to create a recommended narrative flow for the report and to recommend design treatments and editorial approaches for each of the spreads.  This magazine editorial approach is what gives the resulting report its flow. 

We then worked with the Pathfinder team to write the text, drawing on interviews and customer testimonials as well as data.  We supported Pathfinder in collaboration with designer Simone Cashmore of Form Studio to keep the narrative integrity through the design and layout stages. We love how Simone brought the brand ThoughtFull created for Pathfinder to life in the report, and how the images help tell the story. 

What this has meant for Pathfinder 

The resulting report, Optimism Prevails tells the story of:
💥 The outstanding success of Pathfinder’s financial returns while investing for good. Proving yet again that ethical investing is a smart choice economically as well as environmentally, socially and culturally.
💥 How the Pathfinder team are using active investment, management and stewardship to drive the world we want to see.
💥 How Pathfinder choose direct investments with examples.
PLUS
🌏 Gave an update on Pathfinder’s many and varied climate actions including voluntary disclosures.
 

The report has received extremely good feedback for being easy to read and beautiful. It is seen as building on the strong track-record and award-winning performance of Pathfinder as leaders in ethical investing in Australasia. Pathfinder’s Senior Relationship Manager perhaps communicated its impact, beyond being just a reporting tool, as being a pleasure to sell from. 

You can dip, dabble or dive into the detail of ‘Optimism Prevails’ here. Let us know what you think? 

“The report is beautiful, I’m using it in all my interactions. Thank you for your work.” 

Simon Leach, Senior Relationship Manager, Pathfinder 

“Thanks so much for your support with this project, the 2023 report is clear, concise and easy to digest. Your design suggestions were fantastic and really helped elevate the brand work we’d already undertaken.” 

Lily Richards, Creative Director, Pathfinder 

To find out more about how we can help with your content writing, or to make your sustainability story sing, call us on 09 973 0960 or please get in touch.