More Background

The GRI is a long-term, multi-stakeholder, process whose mission is to develop and disseminate globally applicable Sustainability Reporting Guidelines for voluntary use by organisations reporting on the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of their activities, products and services. Nearly 1000 organisations worldwide report using the GRI Guidelines today.

The GRI was convened by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) and UNEP in 1997. At the time of WSSD in spring 2002 the GRI became a permanent institution with a Board of Directors and headquarters in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Today the GRI is an official collaborating centre of UNEP. It also works in cooperation with the UN Secretary-General Global Compact, with which it has a cooperation agreement.

The first draft Guidelines of the GRI were released in 1999. These were followed by the 2002 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (PDF - 772 KB). The 3d revised of G3 version of the GRI framework was launched in 2006. The framework, with at its core the Guidelines, represent the foundation upon which all other GRI reporting documents are based, and outline core content that is broadly relevant to all organisations regardless of size, sector, or location. All organisations seeking to report using the GRI framework can use the Guidelines as the basis for their report, supported by other GRI supplementary documents as applicable.

Objective

The GRI Guidelines provide a framework for reporting on an organisation’s economic, environmental, and social performance. The Guidelines:

• present reporting principles and specific content to guide the preparation of organisation-level sustainability reports;
  
  
• assist organisations in presenting a balanced and reasonable picture of their economic, environmental, and social performance;
  
  
• promote comparability of sustainability reports, while taking into account the practical considerations related to disclosing information across a diverse range of organisations, many with extensive and geographically dispersed operations;
  
  
• support benchmarking and assessment of sustainability performance with respect to codes, performance standards, and voluntary initiatives; and
  
  
• serve as an instrument to facilitate stakeholder engagement.

The Guidelines are not:

• a code or set of principles of conduct;
  
  
• a performance standard (e.g., emissions target for a specific pollutant); or
  
  
• a management system.

Capacity building

The new GRI business plan provides for training and education. The GRI has developed a series of educational and learning services that aim to build the capacity of organizations to use the G3 Reporting Framework. GRI has course curriculum available online or in-person tutorials, seminars, workshops, and courses. Courses are aimed at report preparers and report information seekers alike. GRI is also investigating developing a “knowledge certification” scheme for practitioners in the sustainability reporting field. This scheme would assist consultants, assurors, and other service providers in the application of the GRI Reporting Framework with their clients. UNEP is exploring with the GRI Secretariat ways of promoting capacity building in reporting in developing countries.