The reasoning behind Bloomberg’s sustainability coverage

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Eric Roston is a journalist who oversees Bloomberg News new initiative in covering sustainability-related issues.

Roston peviously wrote The Climate Post, a popular weekly climate-and-energy news analysis at ClimatePost.net, and was affiliated with the the Washington, DC office of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University.

Previously, Roston wrote for Time in its Washington bureau, where he covered economics, politics and technology. Roston joined the magazine in 2000 as a business reporter in the New York bureau, covering stories such as the collapse of Enron, China’s emergence as a force in global trade, and how advanced computing technologies are reshaping the economy.

An eyewitness to the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Roston was a part of the reporting team that won a National Magazine Award for best single-issue coverage.

In September 2002, Roston became a part of Time’s Washington bureau, covering politics, energy, science, and health issues. He has penned a monthly column on technology and society for Time Inside Business. He was Time’s first blogger, writing a daily commentary on “the technology that will carry us through tomorrow — and the stuff that keeps us stuck in yesterday.”

Roston has been a guest on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” CleanSkies.tv, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBC, National Public Radio and various radio stations nationwide and abroad. Roston, who is fluent in Russian, holds an M.A. in Russian history, and a B.A. in modern European history, both from Columbia University.

Roston talked with Talking Biz News by e-mail last week about Bloomberg’s sustainability coverage. What follows is an edited transcript.

Why does Bloomberg want to get into the business of covering sustainability issues?

Bloomberg covers global business. The diverse trends and practices that travel under the rubric “sustainability” are now built into governance and operations of global businesses. As Roberta Bowman of Duke Energy says, “If you don’t have a sustainability plan, you don’t have a business plan.” Daniel Yergin says at the end of his new book, The Quest, “Sustainability has become a fundamental value of society.” Some would quibble with him, saying it’s fundamental strategy, not a value.

How does this differ from Bloomberg’s traditional coverage?

Bloomberg is fairly unique as you know — with more than 2,300 news professionals globally, producing over 5,000 stories per day. This past May, we launched a new design and a more editorially driven Bloomberg.com (rather than just pulling stories from the Professional service, aka the Terminal).

We focused on embracing the flexibility of the web. That means more photography, videos, blogs, and stories geared to the busy business executives who rely on Bloomberg every day to stay ahead. The first section to launch under this mantra was Bloomberg View, then Personal Finance, and now Sustainability.

Does the sustainability section have its own staff, or will all Bloomberg reporters add to its content?

It is a combination of both. We work closely with the energy and commodities, government, and companies reporters at Bloomberg. We also have a dedicated staff specifically for this section on the web.

Why should business news desks pay attention to sustainability issues?

At the end of 2011, sustainability is a new idea to many people, so it deserves special attention as it goes through a period of definition and experimentation. Large institutional investors recognize that sustainability is a way for businesses to gain a competitive advantage. They are demanding to see evidence of long-term strategy — which includes disclosure of non-financial data.

As competition intensifies for strategic resources, it’s becoming even more important for companies to understand the impact on their bottom line as well as their customers and communities — because they may lead to improvements, efficiencies, and new products.

What do you plan to do differently than others who cover similar topics?

We really have an opportunity here to illustrate, deal-by-deal, step-by-step, day-by-day, how the global economy is reconfiguring itself and what it might mean in the long term.

The overall theme of the site is that of intensifying global competition, among companies and nations, for strategic resources. In this arena, there’s a lot of talk about the future. We want to show how the world changed between yesterday and today, and what it might signify for the long-term.

When leading companies are looking out farther into the future for various reasons, we’ll be there to ask them questions about why, and what they’ve learned. We’ll turn over the stones of the global economy to show readers every day who’s competing, collaborating, and what are they after. Easier said than done, but it’s a story that needs to be told, and daily.

Who else in journalism does a smart job in covering sustainability issues?

This is a very rich area, and there is a lot of work to envy and emulate […long thoughtful pause]. It’s a little overwhelming, actually. Some of the best coverage doesn’t necessarily announce itself as belonging to this-or-that category. They are just stories that are gushing with excitement and potential about new ways to drive business.

Every day I read the major media natch. For example, Harvard Business Review is a thought leader, and we’re partnering with their blog network. I also see a lot of great stuff being passed around Twitter. Bryan Walsh of Time, Kate Galbraith of the Texas Tribune, Andy Revkin of the New York Times, David Biello at Scientific American, Michael Levi at the Council on Foreign Relations, Heidi Cullen at Climate Central, Dennis Dimick at National Geographic, David Roberts at Grist, are just a few that come to mind.

In America we tend to interpret sustainability as heavier on energy and climate change than elsewhere, where human capital and corporate governance share the spotlight. It would be great if a year from now everyone working in the space started using words to mean the same things, including “sustainability” itself.

Why should the typical Bloomberg reader care about sustainability stories?

There’s something epic built into the sustainability enterprise. What we’re talking about here is observed and predicted change of great scale and consequence, across virtually every element of the modern enterprise. The rise of China. The Internet revolution. Climate change. These are grand narratives that define how we live now.

What are some of the issues that people covering sustainability face in presenting an accurate story?

Great question. The answer is that sustainability is not yet old enough for there to be enough data for companies to understand in the aggregate what works and what doesn’t. Sustainability metrics are still being developed. Companies and others are trying to account for things they’ve never counted before. The most sustainable companies have independent audits of their work done. Of course, the last couple of years have demonstrated there are still kinks to iron out of financial reporting.

Greenwashing is real and something to be conscious of at every turn. But some of the change we’re seeing is also real. That’s what’s truly interesting, and what matters most.

What tricks can companies play in trying to present themselves in a better light sustainability-wise than what’s reality that reporters should look out for?

BP certainly schooled everyone on how safety concerns can slow-boil behind a public façade of progressiveness. Jack LaLanne apparently used to say, when asked how he lived so long, “If it’s manmade don’t eat it, and if it tastes good spit it out.” The same might be said about sustainability reports. If something sounds too simple and easy, it probably is.

How can you cover sustainability issues so that customers of these companies will also care about the topic?

Customers care about having reliable, productive business relationships. Sustainability introduces new questions about risk into understanding these relationships. What’s the political situation like in the country where your next gold mine is in? How does a company that doesn’t acknowledge the evidence of manmade global warming expect to attract and retain smart young talent? Do you understand the watershed and politics you’re building that bottling plant in?

There is a world of questions we haven’t been asking. Sustainability is the methodical framework for identifying and answering them