Krónan’s Community and Sustainability Report
The project:
Krónan issued a sustainability report in the year 2019 and became the first Icelandic grocery store to do so. Reports like these are an essential tool in a society that increasingly demands more visible and increased corporate social responsibility. There are many factors to consider when writing such a report, but the foundation must be laid with a targeted and organized approach in all of the company's operations.
Project outcomes:
Community and sustainability report for 2019
Set a benchmark in the creation of such reports
Strengthened the framework surrounding Krónan's community and environmental work
Our role:
The analysis
Since 2020 Krónan had distinguished itself in the grocery market by emphasizing environmental issues, sustainability, and social responsibility. Much work was beginning to bear fruit across numerous areas, but this success was invisible to the public. A platform to show the big picture and communicate all the good work that had been done was needed. It was important to share the results and future direction of Krónan with stakeholders and customers but it was equally important to inspire and motivate the staff.
The report was also an opportunity to contextualize Krónan’s work in community matters with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and standards for sustainability reporting.
For these goals to be achieved, reports like these must be professionally produced and based on correct data and information that are certified by a third party. Krónan was in collaboration with Klappir, from which it received data related to the company’s environmental aspects.
The team
Kristín
Consultant
Guðbjörg
Art director and team manager
The strategy
The report was not meant to be a dense read but rather a graphical and attractive presentation of Krónan’s achievements and goals in community and environmental matters. It aimed to be easy for anyone to flip through and absorb the stories.
The compilation of the report was conducted according to defined standards, which impose strict limits on its content scope. Certain information had to be included, and its presentation had to meet the criteria of these standards. Thus, it was a particular challenge to fully adhere to these standards while maintaining Krónan’s light and friendly tone throughout the report.
By involving designers from the beginning and working closely with them during the writing phase, we managed to maintain the spirit of Krónan in an otherwise content-heavy report.
At Krónan, no single employee was responsible for sustainability-related tasks; instead, the involvement of all staff was key to success. We wanted to convey this in the report by putting the staff and their experiences with the projects at the forefront.
The execution
We decided to intertwine written informational content with visual presentations, and our task was to ensure that Krónan’s uniqueness, tone, and voice were incorporated into the report, both in words and imagery.
The report called for collaboration and dialogue among various stakeholders. A specialist from Podium ensured that all standards were adhered to in the report’s creation, but the presentation of the material was entrusted to our team. Furthermore, we organized a photo shoot in-store involving the staff to visually depict the stories we were telling.
From the beginning, it was a priority to ensure transparency, not only to report on the objectives that had been achieved but also to discuss what could have been done better and use that for further goal setting. The report was designed to be easy to read both on a screen and online and was published on Krónan’s website. It was specially introduced to Krónan’s staff, and content from it was disseminated in various ways.
The results
The report was received well and earned recognition as “Community and Sustainability Report of the year 2019” by Festa – Center of Sustainability, Stjórnvísi and Iceland Chamber of Commerce. It also had a lasting impact on the industry because other companies followed Krónan‘s pioneering example, and today, it is commonplace for all grocery stores to publish similar reports.
We are proud to have taken on this project. This is the first Community and Sustainability report that we were involved with making and have leveraged this experience in subsequent sustainability projects and reports.
