Ten Global Companies Sponsor GRI G4 Guidelines

Last Wednesday, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reported that ten global companies are supporting the two-year development of the GRI G4 Guidelines. Companies include Alcoa, Enel, GE, Goldman Sachs, Natura and Shell, as well as the Big 4 accounting firms: Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Ernst & Young.

GRI is the most widely used sustainability reporting framework, and an increasing number of companies are producing reports on their sustainability efforts and progress. With every iteration of the framework, GRI strives to create the most comprehensive and standardized guidelines for sustainability reporting, enabling more and more organizations to report to their stakeholders. Further, the landscape of sustainability reporting and subsequent regulation is constantly changing, so GRI continues to evolve its guidelines with it.

The G4 Guidelines are set to be published in 2013, and are in the development process as we speak. GRI is soliciting feedback from a range of stakeholders, including diverse working groups, as well as employing approval procedures and due diligence to ensure the guidelines reflect the broadest stakeholder base possible. The ten global sponsors will be part of The Global G4 Consortium, which will advise GRI on topics to consider in the development of the G4 Guidelines.  

For more information on the G4 Guidelines please click here. To read the entire press release from GRI please click here.

Reporting indicates company’s sustainability commitment?

A poll commissioned by GRI found that 60% of report readers felt that reading a sustainability report “positively influences their commitment and connection to an organization”. A whopping 97% said that the presence of a sustainability report itself is an indication that a company is improving its performance on sustainability initiatives. The study was conducted by Futerra Sustainability Communications, SustainAbility Ltd. and KPMG.

Some other key findings of the study:

• 65% of companies writing reports said they did so to improve internal operations
• Of those who read reports, more than half said they use the reports as a basis for investment/purchasing decisions
• 45% said they use the info to share their views on a company with others
• 40% said the reports had a positive impact on their behavior as a consumer

A survey conducted by KPMG for GRI last year found that 79% of 250 companies were reporting on non-financial indicators.

To read the full article please click here.

Are these statistics surprising to you? Or do you think non-financial reporting is becoming common enough these days that the numbers seem low? Do any of the stats seem off? Discuss!

GRI Focal Point USA hits the ground running

The GRI Focal Point USA office, led by Mike Wallace, has been building momentum since its announcement on October 13, 2010. The office is supported by donations from the Big 4 accounting firms (KPMG, Deloitte, PwC and E&Y), and is being hosted by The Conference Board in NYC.

Over the past year Wallace has been actively responding to the growing demand for ESG reporting in the USA through a range of outreach/engagement efforts, according to the press release. Since the announcement the office has participated in the Harvard Integrated Reporting conference and e-book (The Landscape of Integrated Reporting: Reflections and Next Steps), as well as presentations at events such as the GreenGov Symposium, NAEM Board of Regents, Triple Bottom Line Reporting, Justmeans – Social Media, SRI in the Rockies and the Canadian Investor Relations Institute.

The office and its founding sponsors are hosting the formal 100 Day Event for its inception on January 31, 2011. The event will highlight the latest developments in the sustainability and ESG reporting field, as well as outline plans for continued efforts in the U.S.

To read the full press release click here. To stay connected with the office’s latest developments, join the LinkedIn group or browse the web pages.

GRI opens New York Office, headed by Mike Wallace

The Global Reporting Initiative is opening an office in New York tomorrow, October 13, 2010, to be headed by former GRI Director, Sustainability Reporting Framework Mike Wallace.  The office’s official name is Focal Point USA, and was not only established to provide support to companies that produce sustainability reports, but also aims to increase the number of companies that produce reports.

Further, this new office will work to improve the consistency and quality of reporting, as well as increase organizations’ input into developing new guidelines for reporting.  The ‘big four’ accounting firms: Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers have agreed to provide donations to sponsor the new office for its first two years.

In addition, The Conference Board has agreed to host the new office pro bono during these two years.  The Conference Board has a Center for Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability, and sees its relationship with the GRI as an asset to the Center’s core values.

The GRI hopes to make sustainability reporting mainstream by 2015.  They’ve been engaging more closely with companies, financial institutions, leading business associations, investors and government agencies in the U.S. over the past year on ways to better integrate ESG data into financial reporting.  Over the next 10 years, the GRI will be working with several other organizations to develop an integrated reporting framework.

Wallace will have staff on the ground in the U.S. to provide better support to organizations who produce reports by helping to identify best practices that are tailored to U.S. organizations’ needs while still complying with the GRI guidelines. 

To celebrate this extension of the GRI in the U.S., and to provide organizational stakeholders (OS) with the opportunity to meet Wallace, events will be planned for early 2011.  Nikki McKean-Wood, OS Program Manager, will join Wallace in the new office. 

BrownFlynn is proud to be the first U.S.-certified training partner of the GRI, and is looking forward to working with Wallace and McKean-Wood.  This is an exciting time for the GRI and sustainability reporting in the U.S.

For more information please click here.

New authority on integrated reporting solution to CSR?

Michael Muyot, President & Founder of CRD Analytics, posted on Justmeans yesterday about the recent announcement of a new, single global authority on integrated reporting. The International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC) was formed to create a universally recognized reporting framework for integrated reporting.

This past December The Prince of Wales convened a high level meeting of investors, accounting bodies, companies, decision-makers in standard setting and UN representatives. An agreement was made that the Global Reporting Initiative and the Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) should work together with other organizations to establish an international body that oversees the creation of a universally recognized integrated reporting framework that connects financial and sustainability reporting.