Transparency of organizations worldwide is boosted by the work of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its network, according to GRI’s Sustainability Report 2010/11, launched on Wednesday, 7 March. GRI’s biggest impacts are indirect, through the use of its Sustainability Reporting Framework, improving the sustainability and transparency of thousands of organizations worldwide.
GRI produces a comprehensive Sustainability Reporting Framework that is widely used around the world. 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 follows its own Guidelines to produce its sustainability report every year. This year, the report is based on the G3.1 Guidelines and the NGO Sector Supplement – tailored guidance suitable for non-profit organizations like GRI. The report, “GRI: Inside [and] Out”, is an Application A Level report; Application Levels reflect the extent to which GRI’s Guidelines have been followed.
Ernst Ligteringen, Chief Executive of the Global Reporting Initiative, said, “GRI’s achievements in this reporting period are thanks to the engagement of staff and stakeholders worldwide, who have a shared vision of a sustainable global economy. GRI relies on its network of thousands of organizations worldwide to produce excellent guidance for sustainability reporting, and to help improve the transparency of organizations around the world. This network has also helped shape this year’s sustainability report.”
GRI received lots of feedback on its 2009/10 report, resulting in a robust stakeholder engagement exercise for this year’s report. This feedback included advice for next year’s report: to include a more comprehensive risk analysis of the organization and an evaluation of GRI’s program effectiveness – that is its effect on sustainability worldwide.
Recent research shows that sustainability reporting is becoming more standard practice, with 95 percent of the world’s 250 biggest companies producing reports on their sustainability performance. GRI’s Sustainability Report 2010/11 aims to show how GRI’s work with its network influences transparency worldwide, focusing on its programs, policy and partnerships.
For the first time this year, GRI also convened an External Feedback Committee to provide feedback on the report’s content. Their statement is included in the report, as is a response from GRI.
“We hope that GRI’s influence on transparency worldwide is illustrated in this year’s report, and that the GRI network will continue to give us valuable feedback on how to improve as we continue on our own reporting journey. The next challenge will be to find ways to assess the sustainability effects of the enhancements in reporting that GRI is helping reporting organizations to achieve” added Ligteringen.
Source: GRI.
