External Reporting Standards
Global Reporting Initiative
Baxter recognizes the importance of external sustainability reporting standards to promote relevant, transparent and comparable disclosure of company performance. The company was one of the first to pilot the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Guidelines in 1999 — and has served as an Organizational Stakeholder since the program’s inception in 2004. This report aligns with the GRI G3 Guidelines, application level B. Baxter provides a detailed GRI Index online.
The following table describes how Baxter addresses G3 reporting principles.
| GRI G3 REPORTING PRINCIPLE | RELEVANCE TO BAXTER |
| PRINCIPLES FOR DEFINING REPORT CONTENT | |
| Materiality – The information in a report should cover topics and Indicators that reflect the organization's significant economic, environmental, and social impacts, or that would substantively influence the assessments and decisions of stakeholders. | Baxter continually refines its approach to identifying and reporting on its material sustainability issues. A company-wide analysis was completed in 2006 to analyze the company's sustainability issues. In the first quarter of 2007, Baxter launched its executive level Sustainability Steering Committee, to build upon the 2006 assessment. The committee defined sustainability priorities for Baxter to further focus its efforts and direct future initiatives. |
| Stakeholder Inclusiveness – The reporting organization should identify its stakeholders and explain in the report how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests. | Baxter outlines its key stakeholder groups, and references examples of how it interacts with them, in the Stakeholder Engagement section. |
| Sustainability Context – The report should present the organization's performance in the wider context of sustainability. | Most sections begin with a brief description framing the importance of the issue and its relevance to sustainability. This report also introduces a graphic illustrating sustainability overall at Baxter, including how the company's efforts link to broader sustainability challenges. |
| Completeness – Coverage of the material topics and Indicators and definition of the report boundary should be sufficient to reflect significant economic, environmental, and social impacts and enable stakeholders to assess the reporting organization's performance in the reporting period. | Baxter continues to improve its reporting to more fully address the range of sustainability issues. New and expanded sections this year include Supply Chain and Product Responsibility, as well as additional content related to public policy (in Baxter's Approach, GHG Emissions and Climate Change and Access to Healthcare / Public Policy). |
| PRINCIPLES FOR ENSURING REPORT QUALITY | |
| Balance – The report should reflect positive and negative aspects of the organization's performance to enable a reasoned assessment of overall performance. | Baxter reports on a consistent set of core performance indicators (see Summary Data Table) to illustrate positive as well as negative performance trends. |
| Comparability – Issues and information should be selected, compiled, and reported consistently. Reported information should be presented in a manner that enables stakeholders to analyze changes in the organization's performance over time, and could support analysis relative to other organizations. | When possible, this report provides five years of performance data, including relevant breakdowns and progress against targets on an absolute and normalized basis, to allow readers to evaluate the company's performance. Key information is included in a Summary Data Table for ease of use. |
| Accuracy – The reported information should be sufficiently accurate and detailed for stakeholders to assess the reporting organization's performance. | Baxter uses a combination of internal processes and external verification (see below) to ensure the reliability of information presented in this report. |
| Timeliness – Reporting occurs on a regular schedule and information is available in time for stakeholders to make informed decisions. | Baxter produces its Sustainability Report annually, as soon as is feasible after data is compiled and in some areas verified. |
| Clarity – Information should be made available in a manner that is understandable and accessible to stakeholders using the report. | Baxter has continued to enhance the report web site to further increase accessibility. The three report versions provide varying levels of detail, to meet a range of audience needs. |
| Reliability – Information and processes used in the preparation of a report should be gathered, recorded, compiled, analyzed, and disclosed in a way that could be subject to examination and that establishes the quality and materiality of the information. | The EHS section of this report is verified by ERM Certification and Verification Services. In addition, much of the financial data included in this report is taken from the consolidated financial statements contained in Baxter's 2006 Annual Report. These financial statements are subject to an audit by Baxter's independent registered public accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. |
Good EHS Reporting Principles
Baxter also follows the Good EHS Reporting Principles (GERP), developed with the assistance of Ceres and others. These Principles provide a standardized approach to compiling and reporting EHS data and complement GRI guidelines.
