SaS 2009 Group Annual & Sustainability Report Consumer Services Sweden 3 preparatiOn Enjoy your flight SAS Group Annual Report & Sustainability Report 2009 Background: SAS Group is a holding company based in Sweden and the parent company of Scandinavian Airlines, amongst other aviation services companies. It is the leading airline group in Northern Europe and flew 25 million passengers around the globe last year. The SAS Group is partially owned by the governments of Sweden, Denmark and Norway and the remaining 50% is held by private owners. Since 2001, SAS has been integrating its non-financial performance into its Annual Report. In 2001 it started with a summary Environmental Report, for 2002 they moved to the full Environmental Report and then in 2003 the title changed to Group Annual Report and Sustainability Report, as it remains today. content review: The fundamental approach and structure that SAS takes to their reporting has remained largely the same since integration. Although the Annual Report and Sustainability Report are combined into one report, there is little that binds the two together. Each report is thorough and detailed in its own right but it is quite difficult to get a really clear and concise overview of SAS’s business. The Chairman does pick up on key big picture issues like climate change and the environment which are obviously significant, material issues. The Report starts with an integrated highlights page which features alongside the traditional financial targets and performance – sustainability targets and performance – but these are not then explained or reported against in any further detail until the Sustainability Report which sits around page 100. The first 100 pages of the Report is a traditional Annual Report with little evidence of sustainability throughout. The strategy section was somewhat disappointing because of their overarching goal of creating value for its owners, with little consideration of sustainability or wider stakeholder groups. In contrast the sustainability section reported how integral that thinking was to all operations and across the business. Summary: The Report is ‘one’ Report – an Annual and Sustainability – but appears to be integrated more in a physical sense rather than strategically evidencing the integration of sustainability across the business. It certainly is a first step, but more effort is needed to integrate the messages more consistently throughout and explain in more detail the interrelationship between the financial and non-financial issues. Currently the two parts of the Report seem to be written by different parts of the organisation. 24 The integrated journey
