Objective of the Transparency Benchmark
The Transparency Benchmark examines the reporting of companies on the area of CSR. Increasingly stakeholders such as, shareholders, customers, interest groups and governments expect transparency from companies about their performance on CSR.
Transparency makes it possible for stakeholders to form a view about these performances and to start a dialogue on this matter. This is the core reason to perform the Transparency Benchmark. For a good notion of the Transparency Benchmark it is important to underline that it measures the transparency in the reports and not the concrete activities of the results in the area of CSR.
Identifying trends
The Transparency Benchmark is not only for determining scores per participating company. More important is to identifying trends. Which industries show an increase and which not? How many companies provide an annual report for the first time? And so on. By benchmarking best practices can be identified and companies will be able to compare systematically their CSR reporting. Exactly this comparison with other companies is useful to make progress in the area of social reporting.
Ambition
The ambition of the Ministry of Economic Affairs is, based on the Transparency Benchmark, to increase the visibility and the impact of the Crystal Prize. The aim is that the scores achieved by the companies, increase every year. Furthermore, there is the ambition to develop the Crystal into the national benchmark of transparency in the business world. In the next few years, the government will actively promote the Crystal to institutions within Europe.
