1. GRI Update: The Latest Trends
in Sustainability Reporting
Boston College CCC
February 13, 2013
Atlanta, Georgia
Mike Wallace, Director
Global Reporting Initiative, Focal Point USA
wallace@globalreporting.org
Marjella Alma, Manager External Relations
Venue, Date
Global Reporting Initiative, Focal Point USA
alma@globalreporting.org

2. What is the current
situation?

3. What do we know?
•We have 1 planet
•We know it’s acreage (or is it hectares)?
•We know how much it has produced
•We know how much we’d like it to produce

4. What do we know?

5. What do we know?
• CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility
• CC - Corporate Citizenship
• SD - Sustainable Development
• ES - Environmental Sustainability
• BE - Business Ethics
• CE - Corporate Ethics
• CG - Corporate Governance
• ESG - Environmental, Social & Governance
• IR - Integrated reporting
• SV - Shared Value
• II - Impact Investing

6. What is GRI’s role?

7. GRI’s Vision & Mission
Vision
A sustainable global economy where
organizations manage their economic,
environmental, social and governance
performance and impacts responsibly and report
transparently.
Mission
To make sustainability reporting standard practice
by providing guidance and support to
organizations.

8. GRI Guidelines
GRI Principles:
These guide the content and quality of your
reporting.
Materiality, boundary-setting, inclusiveness,
stakeholder engagement etc.
GRI reporting elements:
1. Profile Disclosures
Strategy, About, Governance.
2. Disclosures on Management Approach
EC, EN, LA, HR, SO, PR
3. Performance Indicators
EC, EN, LA, HR, SO, PR

9. Sample Indicators
EN 3 - Direct energy consumption by primary energy
source
LA 7 - Rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days and
absenteeism, and number of work related fatalities by
region.
HR 6 - Operations and significant suppliers identified as
having significant risk for incidents of child labor,
and measures taken to contribute to the effective
abolition of child labor.
PR 6 - Programs for adherence to laws, standards, and
voluntary codes related to marketing communications,
including advertising, promotion, ad sponsorship.
EC 6 – Policy, practices and proportion of spending on
locally-based suppliers at significant locations.

10. Who is using GRI?

11. A Progress Report
October 2011
• Reviewed 3400 companies representing the national leaders
from 34 countries around the world, including the 250 largest
global companies
• Ninety-five percent of the 250 largest companies in the world
(G250 companies) now report on their corporate
responsibility (CR) activities, two-thirds of non-reporters are
based in the US.
• CR reporting has gained ground within the Top 100 companies
in each of the 34 countries surveyed.
• The total number of reporting N100 companies increased by
11 percentage points, to 64 percent in 2011.
• Eighty percent of G250 and 69 percent of N100 companies
are now aligning to GRI reporting standards.

12. GRI Reporting in the US (2007 – 2011)
300
Relative growth in GRI reporting in the US
250 ’07 – ’08 ‘08 – ’09 ‘09 – ’10 ’10 – ’11
67% 21% 30% 42%
200
150
100
50
0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
*Based on Sustainability Disclosure Database data from 4 February 2013

13. GRI Reporters

14. Is there measurable ROI?

15. Investor Coalitions
• Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) [2006]
– Currently represents over $22 Trillion in investment capital
– Close to 1000 signatories
• Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) [2003]
– Currently represents over $9 Trillion in investment capital
– 90+ members
• Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) [2002]
– Currently represents over $71 Trillion in investment capital
– act on behalf of 551 institutional investors
• Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) [2001]
– Currently represents $6 Trillion in investment capital
– 70 members
• Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) [1972]
– Currently represents over $100 Billion
– 300 members

16. Financial Market Uptake

18. Sustainability Performance
MSCI World & GRI
2002 to 2012
S&P 500 & GRI
2001 to 2011

19. GRI Reporting - Does it matter?

20. What are some unique
developments?

21. Stock Exchange Activity
May 2010 January 2011

22. Public Agency Uptake
"More governments are making sustainability
reporting mandatory.“
• 142 regulatory instruments addressing
sustainability reporting exist in over 30
countries
• 65% are classified as mandatory, the rest
voluntary
• United States
• WH CEQ - EO 13514
• USPS, US Army, GSA, etc….
• SEC
• Dodd-Frank
• CA Transparency on Trafficking &
Slavery

23. Recent Precedents

24. Supply Chain Ripple

25. What’s the North
American plan & how can
you help?

26. GRI: North American Presence
• Governance Bodies – US BoD, Advisory Group
• 6 Sector Leaders
• 100+ Organizational Stakeholders
• 6 Certified Training Partners
• GRI Master Classes/G4 workshops
• Regional Conferences
• Webinars
• (Research) projects

27. Increase of Network (OS & SL)

28. Association Activity

29. HELP: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

30. Survey Fatigue & SMEs
Customer
Training
Suppliers
GRI Stakeholders

31. Regional Capacity Building Program

32. Sustainability Disclosure Database

33. GRI Benchmarking Database
• Depicts who
reports & to what
extent
• Provides country
& sector filtering
capabilities
• Identifies &
benchmarks
material issues
most reported
database.globalreporting.org

34. What you should know
about G4?

35. How the GRI network does it?
Through a “Due Process” !
SC +
WG TAC BoD
BoD
Public
Public Comment
Comment Period
Period

36. G4 challenges
• Demand for sustainability performance
information is increasing – also from
regulators
• Metrics is not coherent/harmonized
• Lack of precision - leads to high reporting and
verification costs
• Most reports lack material focus
• Information in pdf of other unfriendly formats
• “Integrated Reporting” is a trend

37. G4 Objectives
• To be user-friendly for beginners and experienced
reporters
• To improve the technical quality, clearer definitions
• To align with other reporting frameworks
• To offer guidance which leads to material reports
(“materiality”)
• To offer guidance on how to link the sustainability
reporting and Integrated Report - aligned with IIRC
• To provide support to improve data search (XBRL)

38. Revisions
• Disclosure of management approach
• Governance and remuneration
• Boundary-setting (Value Chain)
• Application Levels
• Supply Chain
• Revision - topics: GHG, Anti-Corruption,
• And… material topics per sector!

39. Status
• GRI Working Groups have finalized their work
• Two Public Comment Periods have been
succesfully completed
Next steps
• Approval by Stakeholder Council and TAC
• Approval by Board
• Release on 22 May 2013

40. GRI CONFERENCE
22-24 May 2013, Amsterdam
Venue, Date

41. Global Conference and N-A events
11 April Pre-Conference event at NYSE
21 May North American outing, seminar and
cocktailparty, NYSE Euronext, Amsterdam
22-24 May Global Conference, Amsterdam
Public North-American event &
networking dinner
June Post Conference events in the US
There are sponsorship opportunities

42. More involvement with GRI?
In addition to getting started with GRI reporting,
you can:
• Join the Organizational Stakeholder Program
• Become a US Sector Leader
• Participate in Working Groups
• Participate in Governance Structures

43. Thank you!
More information:
www.globalreporting.org
http://database.globalreporting.org
Mike Wallace, Director
Global Reporting Initiative, Focal Point USA
wallace@globalreporting.org
Marjella Alma, Manager External Relations
Venue, Date Global Reporting Initiative, Focal Point USA
alma@globalreporting.org