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The GRI enjoys wide coverage on leading sustainability reporting, transparency and business efficiency topics in various journals around the world.
The Pakistani Perspective on Sustainability Reporting (PDF)
Katherine Miles Hill. Triple Bottom Line. March-April 2008.
Business Growth Based on Socially Sound Model
Sean Gilbert. China Daily. 24 January 2008. Accessible at:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-01/24/content_6418875.htm
In Ready Supply (PDF)
Katherine Miles Hill & Leontien Plugge. Ethisphere. Q1 2008.
Reporting Growth in India (PDF)
Katherine Miles Hill. Ethisphere. Q4 2007.
Lean, Mean Mainland Business Machines.
Sean Gilbert. South China Morning Post. 16 November 2007. Accessible at: http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/
China's Latest Import (PDF)
Katherine Miles Hill. China CSR. November 2007.
Briefing Paper: Transparency in the Supply Chain (PDF)
This paper, authored by Joris Wiemer, discusses supply chain management in the context of the GRI/GTZ Transparency in the supply chain project. It is based on desk research and interviews with a dozen European MNEs, including the project participants, about their sustainable supply chain management.
Sandra Waddock talks to Allen White. The Journal of Corporate Citizenship.
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GRI has its roots within the Boston based non-profits CERES and the Tellus Institute. Dr Allen White, Vice President of Tellus Institute, co-founder and former CE of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and co-founder and Director of Corporation 20/20 discusses the emergence of GRI, its relationship with CERES, and his reflections on GRI five years after handing over the leadership role.
Guidelines By Stakeholders For Stakeholders (PDF)
Tamara Richards and Debbie Dickinson. Journal of Corporate Citizenship. Spring 2007.
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The multi stakeholder, consensus based approach to creating its sustainability reporting guidelines is unique to GRI. In this article Richards and Dickinson examine the network’s distinctive stakeholder engagement method, the reasons for this approach, and its possible future.
Biodiversity in Sustainability Reporting (PDF)
Sean Gilbert and Sandra Vijn. Business.2010 May 2007
The future of corporate responsibility codes, standards and frameworks (PDF)
Georg Kell. Sustainable Development International, Special GRI-G3 Launch conference edition. Oct 2006.
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Embracing the same international conventions, the UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) are complementary. One defines values and operational principles for sustainable development; the latter, a disclosure framework that provides organizations a practical basis to communicate their sustainability performance. Now, under the G3, there is a greater foundation for convergence and user-friendliness between the two, which mutually reinforces their common goal: organizational change, transparency, accountability and enhanced sustainable development outcomes.
Will the real experts please stand up! The adaptive nature of sustainability reporting (PDF)
Ernst Ligteringen. Sustainable Development International, Special GRI-G3 Launch conference edition. Oct 2006.
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“Will the real expert now stand up!” were the closing words of a 1970’s game show in which contestants had to pick the true expert from among a group with imposters. Imagine playing this game today, asking a worldwide audience to identify the real expert in accounting for social, environmental and economic impacts….
Sustainability Reporting by the Public Sector: Momentum Changes in the Practice, Uptake and Form of Reporting by Public Agencies (PDF)
Robyn Leeson, Joanna Ivers, Debbie Dickinson. Sustainable Development International, Special GRI-G3 Launch conference edition. Oct 2006.
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The practice of sustainability reporting by the public sector is, arguably, in its infancy, particularly when compared to the uptake, forms and practice in the private sector. However, recent shifts in momentum within the public sector have seen an increasing interest and engagement in the practice of sustainability reporting by public agencies.
Gems from a coporate governance guru: A convesation with Mervyn E.King (PDF)
Alyson Slater, Sustainable Development International, Special GRI-G3 Launch conference edition. Oct 2006.
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Before companies collapsed at the speed of light, before courts were clogged with the trials of white collar criminals, and long before corporate governance became the issue ‘du jour’ on the front page of newspapers worldwide, Mervyn E. King was steadily working to improve corporate governance practices worldwide and in his home country of South Africa.
Guidelines by Stakeholders, for Stakeholders: is it worth it? (PDF)
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GRI’s multi-stakeholder engagement process has yielded world-class results in their Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, and stakeholder engagement techniques largely perceived to be amongst the best practice. However, as the GRI network expands, it is becoming increasingly challenging to engage with globally-dispersed and constituency-diverse stakeholders. The author reviews the current state of GRI’s stakeholder engagement, its possible future, and ultimately asks: is the stakeholder-driven approach worth all the effort?
Perfect timing: Australia and the G3 (PDF)
Australian Law Reform
- Although actual numbers are somewhat lower than other regions, some of the global best practice examples of sustainability reporting by corporations have emerged from Australian companies. Momentum and interest is clearly increasing, as the Australian Government recently asked the Australian Stock Exchange’s Corporate Governance Council to consider developing a standard for sustainability reporting: a framework to which the GRI and the G3 neatly responds. The author highlights why the GRI has become the most trusted name globally in the field of sustainable development reporting, and encourages that Australia recognize the ways in which G3 will pave the way for positive change in corporate reporting.
Wal-Mart: Twenty-First Century Leadership? (PDF)
- Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott recently acknowledged the scope of the company’s impact on society and the environment. The author argues that if Wal-Mart consciously accepts a leadership role and adopts policies beneficial to its communities, then potential positive impacts can be reaped not only for the company, its employees and the communities it serves, but for Wal-Mart’s worldwide suppliers, its competitors, the communities within which it does business and, strikingly, the political landscape in America. Wal-Mart is urged that using the GRI Reporting Framework would enhance Wal-Mart’s credibility and provide a valuable standard for other leading businesses to follow.
A Sonata for Sustainability: Harmonising the voice of the GRI Guidelines (PDF)
Sustainable Development International
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On the eve of the launch of the draft G3 Guidelines, the authors contextualize how the G3 Guidelines relate with other attempts to improve the global sustainable development issues of our time. How to turn universal norms (such as the UN Declaration on Human Rights) into reporting guidelines is an obvious challenge, one which the G3 strives to reconcile. As well as explaining how G3 relates to the world of universal norms and standards regarding environmental, economic and social issues, the authors detail the architectural changes under G3, and provide some detail to how the draft G3 Guidelines will look.
What you had was good - gems from a governance guruCorporate Responsibility Management
- Governance is about company directors upholding their responsibilities to shareholders and the law. In this paper, Mervyn E. King (senior counsel and former judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa, and chair of South Africa’s corporate governance committees that issued the King Report in 1994 and the “King 2” in 2002), discusses with Alyson Slater why sustainability should be a key component of any governance agenda.
New Wine, New Bottles: The Rise of Non-Financial Reporting(PDF)
- The authors suggests that in a few short years, a new generation of non-financial reporting will have moved from the extraordinary to the exceptional to the expected, and in the process will establish a new standard of transparency unimaginable even a decade ago. The paper outlines various issues that are associated with the debut of non-financial reporting. These include drivers, engagement, benchmarking, leadership, that reporting is a process, and the costs of non-transparency. The author argues that for forward-looking companies, opportunities abound to stake out leadership positions among investors, customers, communities, activists and other stakeholders, while reaping the benefits associated with trust and integrity in global markets.
Executive Briefing: The Future of Corporate Responsibility Codes, Standards and Frameworks (PDF)
- Executives no longer wonder whether to use the array of codes, standards, guidelines and frameworks available that guide integration of corporate responsibility with business strategies and management processes; they wonder about which ones to use, and in what combination. This clear, comprehensive executive briefing helps companies answer these questions in order to better understand the relationship between the diverse tools, and to offer a perspective on how they might evolve and converge in the future.
Developing next-generation GRI Guidelines - Making Indicators more focused, relevant and comparable across sectors (PDF)
Corporate Responsibility Management
- There are two major foci of the G3 plans: innovations to update the guidelines, and the transition to a new business model for GRI. Still one year until their draft release, the authors explain how the G3 Guidelines aim to capture the knowledge and experience on sustainability reporting that exists globally to develop the G3 as more robust, user friendly and technically sound reporting guidelines. Elements of the new business model, including new services aimed to build capacity around use and uptake of the G3, are also described.
On the Reporting Path - Determining New Directions with G3
Sustainable Development International
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Work streams to develop the G3 Guidelines are well and truly underway. Can GRI achieve more robust guidelines, a more self-reliant business model, whilst also meeting parallel goals of consistency and creativity? This article lays the evidences and invites you to be the judge.
Towards a Susutainable Business Model for GRI
Sustainable Development International
- GRI is facing a critical time in its evolution: transitioning to a sustainable business model while funding development of a new set of sustainability reporting guidelines. GRI is not alone in facing this conundrum as many standards-setting organizations grapple with maintaining independence and neutrality, especially while offering a public service, in the face of pressure to generate revenue rather than rely on handouts. Here, the author explores the lessons that can be learnt from other international standards setting organizations.
Multisectoral Networks in Global Governance: Towards a Pluralistic System of Accountability (PDF) Government and Opposition
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Contributing to the theoretical debate exists about the relationship between global policy negotiations and its resultant “democracy deficit”, this paper outlines the elements of a pluralistic system of accountability with regard to one of the most ambitious institutional innovations in global governance: multi-sectoral public policy networks. GRI is cited as an example of such a public policy network, unique in its efforts to leverage this networked governance structure both institutionally, and in practice.
One size doesn't fit all: GRI Sector Supplements to the rescue! (PDF)
Sustainable Development International
- To achieve the best possible results for report preparers and information seekers, it is increasingly evident that organizations need a reporting structure that both covers all the basic sustainability issues, but is also tailored to their sector’s specific needs. The author describes how and why GRI have created Sector Supplements in response to this demand, and also provides some examples of how the Sector Supplements are used in conjunction with the core Guidelines to enable effective inter- and intra-sectoral reporting.
The Evolution of Business Reporting: Make Room for Sustainability Disclosure
Environmental Quality Management
- Current practice by those producing sustainability reports suggests that financial reporting and disclosures on sustainability information are typically divorced. The authors urge for a new approach to business reporting that maintains traditional financial information (driven by accounting standards) supplements with information from sustainability reporting. The authors argue that such integrated reporting, as pursued in GRI’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, would help organizations predict risks, maintain their comparative advantage, respond to emerging stakeholder demands, and provide valuable information to investors, amongst other benefits.
Walking the Talk on Sustainable Development in the Public Sector (PDF)
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Amongst the definite and increasing interest in public agency sustainability reporting, there equally exists concern amongst such organizations whether this might be the latest management fad. By drawing on recent trends and research into public sector reporting, the author provides advice for those public sector organizations seeking to engage in sustainability reporting practices.
You spoke, we listened: Towards the next generation of GRI GuidelinesSustainable Development International
- Two years after the release of the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, GRI entered into dialogue with over 400 experts worldwide to find out how to make them even better. This article describes how their feedback was used to construct a work programme that builds on the existing framework, yet increases utility for reporting organisations and information seekers alike. As a result, intensive work will occur over the next 18 months, with the launch of the next generation of Guidelines expected in 2006.
A decade of sustainability reporting: developments and significanceInternational Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development
- This article combines a historic and future-looking account of sustainability reporting practices. First, the author provides an empirical assessment of past and current sustainability reporting: including frequency of uptake, and content of reports, specifically focusing on economic aspects and business drivers, stakeholder dialogue and feedback, and benchmarking of performance. Looking to the future, the author describes the significance of reporting and introduces the concept of ‘implementation likelihood’, and the components of an analytical scheme to assess this for sustainability reports.
GRI's Economic Performance Indicators: Measuring Impacts One Stakeholder at a Time (PDF)
- If organizations are to successfully understand and improve their contribution to sustainable development, they will have to expand their disclosure from financial information to broader economic information. Financial performance primarily measures the profitability of an organization; economic performance relates to how the economic status of the stakeholder changes as a consequence of the organization’s activities. The author suggests that many current CSR reporting practices focus on financial performance, which, by nature, less appropriately communicates an organizations impact on sustainable development.
The Transparency evolution
- Recently endorsed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the GRI is based on the conviction that clear, consistent, comparable and periodic reporting of information meaningful to companies and stakeholders alike can serve as the basis for a continuous feedback loop that will drive improved performance essential to sustainable development. The author introduces the unique way the GRI reporting framework is created, the flexibility of the framework, and suggests that GRI’s principles-based, rather than rules-based, approach is powerful. The author suggests that sustainability reporting could valuably complement environmental and social legislation and, although only a few countries evidence established track records of sustainability reporting, concludes by predicting a rapid increase in sustainability reporting in the coming years.
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