You’re doing the work.
But does your reporting show it?
I'm Abigail Stone, the writer behind Reporting Well. Senior writer, editorial strategist, and GRI Certified Sustainability Professional. I work with in-house sustainability and ESG leads to turn a year of work into a report that's clear, credible, and ready to publish.
How I got here
I’ve spent over 20 years turning messy inputs into documents that people actually read.
I live at the intersection of business, sustainability, and language, which means I speak “CSO,” “finance,” “legal,” and “brand” without needing a translator.
Fun fact: I actually have a degree in translation.
I started my career translating and interpreting other people’s words, then realized what I really loved was helping organizations find the right words in the first place.
(My knowledge of French and German is also a great bonus for companies with international operations.)
Sustainability reporting turned out to be the perfect fit: real-world impact, complex ideas, and the challenge of saying only what you can stand behind.
My job is to make the words work as hard as the sustainability efforts behind them — and to make the reporting season feel a little less like a sprint through wet cement.
How I work
A few things you should know before we talk
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I read everything.
And I mean everything. Prior-year reports. Interview transcripts. The data tables. The email thread where someone tried to explain Scope 3 to the CFO. I'd rather over-prepare than ask you to re-explain things you've already documented.
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I write in your voice, not mine.
A good ghostwriter disappears. By the time I'm done, the report should sound like your company and no one else.
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I'm detail-obsessed without being precious.
I'll push back on language that won't hold up to scrutiny. I'll also let go of a sentence I love if it isn't serving the report. The report wins.
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I work with a small number of clients at a time.
Sustainability reports are deep work. I take on what I can do well, not what I can squeeze in.
When I'm not writing reports
I’m a lifelong storyteller, with an accent that’s made a long journey from northern England and somehow survived a fair bit of travel.
My life has been like one of the Choose Your Own Adventure books I loved as a child, winding from the Lincolnshire fens to translation and interpreting studies in Edinburgh, and later, to a stretch as a translator and journalist in Germany’s Black Forest.
Today, I'm based in the American Midwest where the prairie meets the sky. I live with my husband, two teenagers, and a dog whose primary ambition is to remain physically attached to me at all times. When I’m not working, I’m usually hiking, running (slowly), devouring three books at once, or attempting to cultivate a garden that the local deer consider a well-managed buffet.
Why work with me
Here's what I offer that those paths usually don't
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A senior writer who's been doing this long enough to make hard editorial calls without checking in five times.
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A specialist who already knows GRI, CSRD, TCFD, ISSB, TNFD, and SDGs, so you're not paying me to learn on your time.
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A translator's instinct for moving between "CSO," "finance," "legal," and "brand" without losing the thread.
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One person, not a team. Say hello to a consistent voice throughout your report, no handoff drift, and one point of contact from kickoff to publication.
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An outside perspective that's invested enough to care about the report, and detached enough to ask the questions your internal reviewers stopped asking three drafts ago.
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An editorial architect who can turn a pile of questionnaires, data tables, and stakeholder comments into a report with a clear narrative, logical structure and a reason for readers to keep going
