Indian companies are producing the highest proportion of complete reports globally on their sustainability performance, according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Figures from the GRI Reports List published May 11, 2011, alongside GRI’s Year in Review 2009/10, 78 percent of GRI sustainability reports from India contain a complete set of information that is relevant to the reporting organization and externally assured, compared to just 24 percent globally.
GRI provides the world’s most comprehensive framework for producing sustainability reports. The GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines enable large and small companies, non-profit organizations and government bodies worldwide to assess their sustainability performance and disclose the results in a similar way to financial reporting. Transparency through reporting on economic, environmental and social factors drives the sustainability of individual organizations and, ultimately, the global economy.
The ‘Year in Review’ is GRI’s annual report, outlining the achievements of the GRI Network and showing trends in sustainability reporting using the GRI Guidelines. GRI collects data on the number of reports based on the GRI Guidelines, published in the GRI Reports List. GRI announced its 2010 reporting data on May 11, alongside the latest Year in Review.
According to statistics from the GRI Reports List for 1 January to 31 December 2010, 18 out of the 23 reports from India that were declared to GRI reported against all relevant indicators in the GRI Guidelines, and were assured. This shows an increase from 15 out of 21 reports from India being complete and assured in 2009.
The statistics for 2010 also reflect a global upwards trend in sustainability reporting, and suggest an increase in the use and awareness of GRI Guidelines. There was an increase of 22 percent in the number of reports registered on the GRI Reports List in 2010, rising from 1491 in 2009 to 1818 in 2010.
Aditi Haldar, Director of the Global Reporting Initiative’s Focal Point India, said, “The latest statistics reflect the importance of sustainability data to investors and other players in financial markets. The data has to be complete and reliable for stakeholders to make informed decisions.”
“We believe that many more companies than those registered on the Reports List are reporting on their sustainability performance, and the next step is to encourage more companies in India to share their data, in line with GRI’s mission to make reporting standard practice worldwide. GRI’s Focal Point India aims to increase the quantity and improve the quality of sustainability reports and we hope to see an even bigger increase – with the same quality of reporting – in next year’s figures,” added Haldar.
GRI Reports List and GRI’s Year in Review 2009/10 can be accessed at GRI website:
Notes:
The GRI Reports List is updated every week and GRI tries to make it as comprehensive as possible. The list includes GRI reports that GRI is made aware of, through the process of checking Application Levels, through GRI’s Data Partners, who share information on GRI reports, and through internet searches. The list includes reports with a GRI content index that are in Latin script and published online. Not all GRI reporters publish reports on an annual basis. Many reporting organizations use the GRI Guidelines as a tool to guide their ESG reporting without actually making a reference to GRI. Therefore, the total number of GRI reports per year may not necessarily correspond with the total number of GRI reporters in that year.
About the Global Reporting Initiative
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) drives sustainability reporting by all organizations. GRI produces the world’s most comprehensive Sustainability Reporting Framework to enable greater organizational transparency. The Framework, including the Reporting Guidelines, sets out the Principles and Indicators organizations can use to measure and report their economic, environmental, and social performance. GRI is committed to continuously improving and increasing the use of the Guidelines, which are freely available to the public.
GRI, a multi-stakeholder non-governmental organization, was founded in the US in 1997 by CERES and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). In 2002, GRI moved its central office to Amsterdam, where the Secretariat is currently located. GRI has regional ‘Focal Points’ in Australia, Brazil, China, India and the USA, and a worldwide network of 30,000 people.
Source: GRI.
