The challenges and opportunities
Sustain report leadership year-on-year
How do we continually evolve the report to support Cathay’s position as a leader in sustainability reporting in the industry?
Create a platform for the future
How do we move beyond conventional delivery mechanisms to enable timely updates and ease of report publishing into the future?
Recognised as a world leader in the aviation sector for its approach to sustainability, Cathay Pacific has been reporting on their environmental activities since 1996 and corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities annually since 2006. Our work started with the design of the 2004 CSR report.
In 2009, Cathay published their first comprehensive Sustainable Development Report. With increasing content and page extent, we advocated moving the report online.
Bringing the brand to life
We progressively employed a range of media to bring the report to life. We developed custom illustrations to support performance data ensuring this was easy to consume. We introduced subtle animation and motion effects to convey a sense of the Cathay brand as the reader navigated around the report. To create a stronger connection with leadership, Cathay Pacific’s CEO shared his perspective on the year’s performance via a video interview.
Simplifying the reading experience
Over time, the report had become weighed down by supplemental information and documents, to the detriment of the overall report flow. We focused on slimming down the content to make it easier to navigate for readers who prefer a high-level summary, and those who read from cover-to-cover. We reviewed downloadable extensions and consolidated them to fuse key information back into the main body of content. This enabled a clearer, more cohesive and coherent report structure.
Navigating the future
In 2018, given the increasing volume and frequency of sustainability related messaging and content it became clear that there was a need for Cathay’s sustainability team to be able to publish updates all year round.
We proposed a CMS-enabled microsite to showcase the current report and facilitate publication of multimedia updates. CMS training was provided to the Cathay internal team. Our solution enabled Cathay to move beyond resource and technical constraints to ensure that Cathay’s sustainability story remains current and accessible.
Our recommendations for subsequent reports included rationalisation of SDG goals and targets, more graphics, SEO, and enhancements to report navigation.
It was really great working with your team. I’m impressed with the efficiency and the quality and will definitely recommend you to others. Let’s celebrate!
