Einde inhoudsopgave
Sustainability Reporting in capital markets: A Black Box? (ZIFO nr. 30) 2022/1.2.1.1
1.2.1.1 The Global Reporting Initiative
A. Duarte Correia, datum 20-11-2019
- Datum
20-11-2019
- Auteur
A. Duarte Correia
- JCDI
JCDI:ADS169081:1
- Vakgebied(en)
Financieel recht / Bank- en effectenrecht
Ondernemingsrecht / Jaarrekeningenrecht
Voetnoten
Voetnoten
As defined in GRI’s website at https://www.globalreporting.org/AboutGRI/WhatIsGRI/.
According to the GRI, The Due Process Protocol is designed to ensure that the work of the GSSB promotes the public interest and is aligned with GRI’s vision and mission, and it is overseen by the Due Process Oversight Committee (DPOC). See, https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/questions-and-feedback/developing-the-gri-standards/.
The stakeholders are among others, the investors, companies, organizations, institutions, stock exchanges, sustainability indices and the consumers.
See, KPMG International Survey (2015). Available at: https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2016/02/kpmg-international-survey-of-corporate-responsibility-reporting-2015.pdf.
KPMG refers to the launch of the GRI G4 guidelines’ complexity, the inclusion of sustainability information in the annual report and the integrated report, as possible reasons for the decline of the use of the GRI guidelines. See, KPMG International Survey 2015. Available at: https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2016/02/kpmg-international-survey-of-corporate-responsibility-reporting-2015.pdf pp.42.
KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting, 2017, pp. 28. Available at: https://integratedreporting.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/kpmg-survey-of-corporate-responsibility-reporting-2017.pdf.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines itself as “a network-based organization that has pioneered the development of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework.” This reporting framework developed by GRI “sets out the principles and Performance Indicators that organizations can use to measure and report their economic, environmental, and social performance.”1 The GRI guidelines are voluntary. They were first published in 2006 and since then freely available to the general public. The basis of the GRI framework is the GRI Standards, which are the fifth version of the guidelines developed by GRI in 2016. The GRI Standards have updated the former G4 Guidelines launched in 2013, restructuring the G4 Guidelines “into a set of modular, interrelated standards – the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards.”2 The GRI Standards are issued by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), an independent standard-setting body created by GRI with the responsibility for setting globally-accepted sustainability reporting standards, according to the ‘Due Process Protocol’.34
The guidelines are complemented by the sector supplements, which are unique indicators for industry sectors, and by the national annexes, which provide unique country-level information. By developing these guidelines GRI provides a unique set of tools to help stakeholders5 to disclose and compare information, increasing transparency in the financial markets and facilitating accountability. Companies may use the GRI guidelines to disclose non-financial information in a uniform, transparent and accurate way. GRI aims to help mainstreaming sustainability reporting.
In 2015, KPMG reported that 60% of the 43 countries surveyed used the GRI guidelines. Also 74% of the G250 companies in 2015 have used the GRI guidelines in comparison to 81% in 2013.67In 2017, the percentage has rose to 75% in the G250 companies.8The GRI Guidelines have been the leading sustainability reporting framework used.