Whilst my brief to write about the ‘early days’ of social reporting is in one way most fortunate in
that it would be impossible to even begin to do justice to Rob’s later contributions to the field in
such a short paper, it is at the same time rather restrictive. In particular, Rob’s commitment to
engagement with practice has increased exponentially since the early 1990s. Not only has he
worked with a wide range of international commercial, non-commercial and professional organisations,
but has also embarked on a number of collaborations with supra national bodies such as
the United Nations. Additionally, Rob was a prime contributor to the immensely influential
ACCA Environmental (later Sustainability) Reporting Awards Scheme, which was launched
in 1991 and continued for some 20 years.