Congrats Blekinge Institute of Technology Graduates: Strategically Driving GRI Reporting Towards Sustainability

Congratulations to Edwin Janssen, Selene Kfoury, and Rutger Verkouw for their recent completion of “Mind the Gap! Strategically Driving DRI Reporting Towards Sustainability!” These graduates of the Blekinge Institute of Technology focused on discovering how the GRI reporting process and other modes of sustainability preparation could be united with an “Integrated Process” in their thesis. And here at SSC we are proud to say that we aided them along the way through the “Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability” program!

The following is a short description provided by the institute on their findings:

“Sustainability reporting is a vital tool to communicate an organization’s sustainability performance to stakeholders. Sustainability reporting also allows an organization to communicate its vision, goals and strategic plans. In order to be strategic towards sustainability, an organization should have a vision of where it wants to go, and assess where it is today, so as to take the right initiatives towards its vision. This thesis focuses on how GRI sustainability reporting and strategic planning towards sustainability can be combined in an integrated process to help organizations move towards sustainability. The Integrated Process allows an organization to gain a better understanding of its sustainability context; design resilient strategies in light of that context using a back casting from Sustainability Principles approach; and report its sustainability performance and progress in bridging the gap towards sustainability, transparently to internal and external stakeholders.”

To read the entire report, click here!

Strategic Sustainability Consulting Supports Public Comment on G4 "Sustainability Context"

At Strategic Sustainability Consulting, we are so proud to have joined voices with other corporate sustainability practitioners, academics, analysts, and advisors in calling upon the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to improve and enhance its treatment of "sustainability context" in the forthcoming G4 version of its sustainability reporting guidelines. In a public comment submitted September 24, 2012 to GRI by the Sustainability Context Group (of which we are a member), we stated:

Although GRI's Guidelines currently do advocate for the inclusion of Sustainability Context in organizational reports, they fail to provide specific guidance for how to do so. Because of this lack of guidance, very few GRI-based sustainability reports have ever actually included such context--and yet without it, there can be no true or authentic sustainability reporting, in our opinion. For the sake of the credibility--and usefulness--of sustainability report, it is vitally important that this shortcoming be resolved, and that GRI take steps to include specific guidance in G4 for how to implement Sustainability Context in contemporary reporting.

We are deeply grateful for the leadership of Mark McElroy and Bill Baue, who championed the Sustainability Context Group through several intense versions of this letter. In the end, they crafted a solid and practical approach:

Rather than devise a specific procedure for how to implement Sustainability Context in organizational reporting, we believe GRI should provide related guidance in the form of functional specifications, or criteria, for how to do so, in keeping with its charge of providing broad, non-prescriptive direction. This would leave open the door to innovation and competing methodologies for how to apply such context--procedurally--while maintaining a high degree of control over the meaning and interpretation of the Principle itself. Not all interpretations of Sustainability Context will necessarily be true to the purpose, intent, and role of the Principle in reporting, so the specification of criteria is key.

The full statement from the Sustainability Context Group includes a 5-part process that companies can use to assess, calculate, and report on sustainability context. The comment also provides two concrete examples (climate change and water) so that readers can see the Principle in practice.

Sustainability Context is near and dear to our heart (see What Sustainability Context Looks Like, Q&A with Mark McElroy, and The Brutal Truth about Sustainability Reporting) and so we are delighted to have the comment submitted publicly, and look forward to movement from GRI on this important topic.

New Requirements May Be Coming for GRI Reporters – Voice Your Opinion

Have you been keeping up with the latest version of the GRI Reporting Guidelines (G4) set to launch next May?  The next generation of G4 has many significant changes that will have implications for US reporting companies.  Our friend Karl Pfalzgraf, Vice President of Sustainability Assurance at BPA Worldwide, attended the July GRI meeting in DC for Organizational Sponsors and received a full briefing on the proposed changes.  In case you missed our Q&A with Karl, you can check out his insights here. 

Along those lines, Karl recently shared with us a great list of all the new required disclosures on Executive Compensation that we thought you would find useful. Currently GRI has one compensation disclosure and only if you are reporting at the A or B Level. G4 has 11 disclosures. Whether you are currently an A, B, or C Level GRI reporter – you will be required to meet these Standard Disclosures if the proposed changes are incorporated into the final version of G4 when it launches next May.

Karl’s document, Remuneration and Incentives, outlines several new proposed profile disclosures.  There are eleven new disclosures to be exact, beginning with a summary of remuneration policies for governance body members and senior executives.  These new additions delve in to determining remuneration processes, considering your stakeholders throughout this process, defining a remuneration committee, describing how remuneration and incentive-related pay can result in more efficient performance from your team, and much more.  Remuneration and Incentives also provides definitions at the end of the document to ensure you have a complete understanding of the G4.

Don’t let G4 evolve without you, check out these new updates in G4 Reporting Guidelines: Remuneration and Incentives.  If you have concerns about this new level of disclosure, you still have time to let your voice be heard.  The Public Comment Period on the proposed changes to the GRI Reporting Guidelines ends on September 25^th. You can submit your comments here.