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Sustainability Reporting: The Global Reporting Initiative

The Global Reporting Initiative is made up of a large group of experts who collaborate on the development and improvement of global standards for sustainability reporting. Adopting the reporting standards outlined by the GRI is voluntary. With transparency and sustainability emerging as growing trends in the late 1990's, the GRI was created to provide companies with a standardized sustainability reporting framework. Dissatisfied with the level of transparency in corporate reporting, the GRI works to make sustainability reporting mandatory, as opposed to voluntary. In a previous post, "Social Responsibility Reporting Best Practices: Allstate," I discussed the application of the GRI reporting techniques at Allstate. The economic downturn has forced businesses and their leaders to make changes to their internal controls and business processes by adopting sustainable solutions.

The GRI provides guidance for companies, offering best practice reporting solutions, through the implementation of the G3 Guidelines, to increase transparency and emphasize the need for sustainable business practices. Breaking the reporting process down into various components and serving as a resource of best practice reporting examples, the GRI makes sustainability reporting far less daunting.

About the Global Reporting Initiative

The vision of the GRI is the desire that the disclosure on economic, environmental, and social performance becomes as common and comparable as financial reporting, and as important to organizational success. Through the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework, the GRI works to increase the transparency and exchange of sustainability related information. In 2009, GRI released the Amsterdam Declaration on Transparency and Reporting, which calls on the government in each country to make the disclosure of environmental, social and governance performance mandatory for companies. In the article "First GRI-Certified Training on Sustainable Reporting in Canada" Rock Lefebvre, Vice President, Research and Standards, at Certified General Accountants Association of Canada stated:

"The GRI Guidelines represent the best approach for achieving the goal of standardized sustainability reporting."

The GRI and the G3 Guidelines have formed collaborative partnerships with the UN Environment Programme, the UN Global Compact and the Earth Charter Initiative. A number of documents and agreements from other organizations- such as the OECD and ILO, have also been referenced for the purpose of creating the G3 Guidelines.

Reporting Framework

In an overview provided by the GRI, the G3 Guidelines:

"Provide guidance for organizations to disclose their sustainability performance. It's applicable to organizations of any size or type, and from any sector or geographic region, and has been used by thousands of organizations worldwide as the basis for their sustainability reporting. It facilitates transparency and accountability by organizations and provides stakeholders a universally-applicable, comparable framework from which to understand disclosed information. The Framework is continuously improved and expanded as knowledge of sustainability issues evolves and the needs of report makers and users change."

The reporting framework provides guidance on setting report boundaries, defining report quality and report content. When following the G3 Guidelines, companies must also include a company profile, sustainability strategy, management approach and key performance indicators for measuring sustainability initiatives.  The GRI is continually involved in projects identifying and influencing the future trends related to sustainability.  These projects help the GRI remain on top of current issues and make updates to the guidelines. Updates are made to the reporting framework by category, instead of overhauling all guidelines at the same time. Guideline updates are shaped by stakeholder input and the outcomes of the projects GRI is involved with.

Important Documents

The GRI publishes reports related to the progress made in sustainability reporting, government commitment to sustainability, as well as the achievements and progress made at GRI. Each year, the GRI publishes their own sustainability reports and last year, published their first Year in Review report, documenting the organization's progress towards established goals. A series of "Learning Publications" have been developed to assist business leaders integrate sustainability into their workplaces, beginning with basic concepts in reporting, understanding the value of sustainability reporting and innovative reporting examples.

Companies following the G3 reporting framework are invited to submit their reports to the GRI. In doing so, company names are added to a public list that's made available on the GRI website. GRI has prepared a number of tools to provide report makers with assistance, as preparing a sustainability report for the first time can be overwhelming. Templates, software, training and sample reports are just a few of the solutions GRI has to offer to those responsible for publishing a company's sustainability report.

About the Author

i-Sight is a case management software platform designed to simplify your process and provide outstanding reports. It's primarily configured to manage customer complaints and corrective actions, or employee relations, HR & ethics investigations. It's also used for a variety of other customized case management solutions. We blog at i-Sight.com, providing advice and tips to HR managers and investigators in regards to managing internal investigations.

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report examples
report examples
report examples