A Guide to Environmental Reporting for Controlling Officers

Chapter 5 - Possible Follow-ups

It is good practice to provide a mechanism to encourage direct feedback on the report from key target audiences, to handle enquiries, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the report. The feedback can facilitate review for improvement in the next reporting exercise.

1.Invite Feedback

There are many ways to invite feedback, including:

• insert a reply card along with the published report that invites the audience to respond to similar questions;
  
• provide a contact name and address in the report to encourage feedback from the audience in writing or by phone; and
  
• hold formal or informal meetings with interested audience groups or on a one-to-one basis for feedback.

Attached below are some examples of reply cards for reference.

Sample from Environment Agency for England and Wales: "Annual Environmental Report 1997/98 "

Sample from CLP Holdings, Hong Kong: "Environmental, Health and Safety Review 1997 "

2.Evaluate Effectiveness of the Report

To improve the quality of subsequent issues of the report, it is important to evaluate its effectiveness after each publication.

Evaluation could include:

• feedback and concerns received from audiences;
• review report style and content to suit changing conditions including audience expectations
• and organizational policy, programmes and operations; and
• assess extent to which the objectives of reporting are being met.