The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

Click here for a graphical representation of the information.
Quick Reference – the G3 Guidelines in short form - http://bit.ly/d533Ed

Sustainability reporting is '... the practice of measuring, disclosing, and being accountable to internal and external stakeholders for organisational performance towards the goal of sustainable development.' A report refers to a single, consolidated disclosure that provides a reasonable and balanced presentation of performance over a fixed time period.

The Global Reporting Initiative has issued detailed guidelines for such reports. The GRI Framework identifies nearly 80 performance indicators, and sets out reporting principles and disclosures. The Guidelines include:

Indicator protocols
Sector supplements
Technical protocols
Standard disclosures
Performance indicators

All organisations (private, public, or non-profit) are encouraged to report against the Guidelines, whether they are beginners or more experienced reporters and regardless of their size, sector or location. The reporting requirements are set up in a way that organizations can start with a ‘level C’ report and build up to a ‘level A’ report.

There are other considerations which are important to recognise when implementing the Guidelines.

Materiality
Stakeholder inclusiveness
Standard disclosures - strategy and profile; management approach and performance indicators

The GRI attempts to make its guidelines relevant to all users. This can, however, lead to practical questions about how to make reporting both global and local at the same time.

The GRI Guidelines are the most widely used in the sustainability reports of global companies. Indeed, they are regarded as the ‘de facto’ standard for sustainability reporting. In South Africa, the King III Report recommends sustainability reporting and refers to the GRI as a guideline.

Interesting downloads from the GRI:

GRI ESG Reporting Trends Presentations – this presents all the latest stats, a listing of US Business Roundtable members who are GRI reporters, as well as developments at Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters and Nasdaq – including screen shots of the ESG data they are collecting on roughly 3,000 global companies - http://bit.ly/cfpli3
Presentations on Government and Public Agency Reporters, as well as Financial Services – http://bit.ly/cfpli3
Recent 8-minute E&E TV Interview that provides overview of the latest ESG market developments - http://bit.ly/dmB148
GRI Reports List – a review tab for 2009 to see over 1350 reporting organizations. See who’s here and who’s not by sector, country etc. - http://bit.ly/dnhjbv
Sector Supplements – see the entire list and look at the latest developments in Mining & Metals and Financial Services - http://bit.ly/9NP1VW
Organizational Stakeholders – see who’s who in the GRI family using this searchable database - http://bit.ly/dy7ntA

For further reading visit the GRI website http://www.globalreporting.org