Ralf Isenmann • Jorge Marx-Gómez

Customization is vital for environmental (online) reporting. Meeting target groups’ heterogeneous information needs strongly influences reporting success, perhaps whether users pay attention to environmental reports at all, how they value these documents, and to what extent they are actually willing to make use of these communication vehicles. Employees and customers but also suppliers and investors want fine tuned vehicles exactly meeting their specific needs in content, form, media and distribution principles. Today, environmental communication merely via “one size fits all” reports may hardly fulfill requirements of several standards, especially in terms of information supply, stakeholder dialogue and interactivity.

In contrast to the wide acceptance of customization however, current practice shows significant room for improvements. Hence, we propose a framework on how to provide customized environmental reports properly, described along three conceptual components: (i) stakeholder analysis and information requirement analysis, (ii) XML-based document engineering, and (iii) ICT-architecture of an environmental reporting system. In total, throwing more light onto customization is a real step forward, finally to the benefit of all groups involved in or affected by environmental reporting: managers, accountants, employees, members of the financial community, standard setting institutions, or organizations focused on benchmarking, rating and ranking.