Via GreenBiz, last week at the GreenBiz Forum, Ernst & Young offered an advance look at their Fall 2011 survey of more than 270 businesses and their sustainability reporting trends. The big 6:

1. A rise in sustainability reporting; 2. An increase in the CFO’s sustainability role; 3. The emergence of employees as a key sustainability stakeholder force; 4. Strong reporting on greenhouse gas emissions and mounting reporting on water use--despite regulatory uncertainty; 5. Growing concern about access to raw materials (including so-called conflict minerals) as a business supply chain issue; 6. Special attention to outside rankings and ratings on the part of corporate executives.

The post explores these six items in more depth, and looks at some of the "trends behind the trends," and identifies the major problems with the state of sustainability reporting today. One passage that caught my eye suggests that we may be seeing a generational shift in attitudes toward sustainability: "Particularly as younger generations enter the workforce, employee pressure on companies to show positive sustainability performance can now start as early as the interview stage. And as younger employees advance in their careers and begin to set the business agenda, they’re likely to become an even stronger sustainability force." The graphic communications industry is no stranger to generational changes—after all, how much of the shift to new media has been wrought by the media preferences of young people as they get older? In this case, the generational transition to an increased focus on sustainability may be a trend that works in our favor.