Global Reporting Initiative

The Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency convened on 7-9 May 2008, following the highly successful Amsterdam Conference hosted by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in October 2006. One thousand participants joined discussions with a focus on the users of sustainability reports. The event also presented the winners of the first GRI Readers’ Choice Awards and featured high-level speakers and reporting experts in interactive discussions. UNEP co-presented a session on public institutions and reporting, including discussion of latest trends in regulation and voluntary standards for reporting.

UNEP DTIE has for many years worked to stimulate individual companies - and industry associations through their membership - to report on their sustainability performance and the implementation of their voluntary commitments in the form of codes of conduct and charters. One key obstacle in advancing sustainability reporting in the 1990s was the absence of a generally accepted reporting framework, which would greatly enhance the credibility, comparability and comprehensiveness of corporate sustainability reports. UNEP addressed this need through its role as co-founder of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Since its inception in 1997, the GRI has worked to design and build acceptance of a common framework for reporting on the triple bottom line of sustainability - the economic, the environmental, and the social. The sustainability reporting guidelines developed under the GRI are intended to be applicable to all types of organisations. The third revised or third generation (G3) version of the GRI guidelines was launched at an international conference in Amsterdam, October 2006.

Since 1994, UNEP and the London-based SustainAbility Ltd have produced various reports on corporate sustainability reporting through its joint Engaging Stakeholders Programme. This programme is designed to meet the ever-increasing demand for the benchmarking of corporate sustainability reports, and the further analysis of sustainability reporting at the sector-level.

Sustainability reporting activity in recent years has also included the publication of the first sustainability reports by public authorities. This has been accompanied by a debate on the role of government in advancing sustainability reporting, including exploration of the pros and cons of voluntary and mandatory approaches to reporting. UNEP DTIE has initiated its own efforts to promote reporting in the UN system and to facilitate debate on different policy approaches.

We provide special assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through The Efficient Entrepreneur calendar. On the basis of "You can't manage what you can't measure", the calendar introduces environmental performance measures through a month-by-month programme that ends with a simple SME environmental report.

In 2006 UNEP also commissioned a critical review of the GRI as product and organisation. This was done to take stock after almost ten years of the GRI process, and to provide the GRI advice on possible future risks and opportunities in its further development. The review included a series of interviews, and presented to the GRI Stakeholder Council and GRI Board to assist their strategic planning. The resultant "Trends in non-financial reporting" (PDF - 0.97 MB) by the Global Public Policy Institute provides some critical questions related to future trends in sustainability reporting. Whilst somewhat limited in its numbers of interviewees and respondents involved, the scenario prognosis in the report has been cause for healthy debate. We will continue to monitor the trends closely, as we work with the GRI and others to promote greater uptake in sustainability reporting world-wide and the ability of the new G3 framework to advance reporting that adds value and enables benchmarking on material issues of the day.

[ More background ]

Amsterdam Conference
7-9 May 2008

Links

GRI website