A global fundraising initiative has been launched to enhance GRI’s ability to deliver the leading sustainability standards, helping organisations embrace responsible business practices.

The Global Standards Fund will bring together an international coalition of like-minded foundations, governments, private sector organizations and individuals who all want companies to integrate transparency at the core of their operations.

The Fund, which aspires to grow to an annual value of €8 million by 2022, will ensure:

• The continuous review and updating of the GRI Standards, the world’s most widely used for sustainability reporting, so they stay aligned with international norms and leading practice.
• Maintaining the GRI Standards as a free public good, safeguarding their independent, multi-stakeholder development.
• The further development of Sector Standards – GRI’s new programme to improve reporting across 40 high-impact sectors.
• Global advocacy that drives adoption of the Standards and furthers GRI’s work with all stakeholders to increase decision making based on understanding impacts.

Marco van der Ree, GRI Chief Development Officer, said:

“The GRI Standards help thousands of organizations around the world to communicate their impacts and, in doing so, stimulate accountable business practices. We need to ensure we have the resources to match our ambition to further expand this work, which is why we have launched the Global Standards Fund.

We are seeking a diverse range of partners to be a part of the Global Standards Fund, who are ready to commit to GRI’s mission and believe in the power of transparency as the enabler of a sustainable future. This is even more important as organizations around world look to sustainable solutions to overcome the COVID-19 crisis.”

Paul Tang MEP, a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, said:

“To achieve the transition to a sustainable economy we need future proofed, objective and regularly updated standards for measuring progress. The GRI Standards cover a wide range of topics – such as biodiversity, human rights, climate change, tax – that stimulate companies to improve, and help governments and civil society bring corporate behavior in line with a just and green economy. That is why I fully support the work of GRI.”

GRI’s work is partly funded by several government agencies and foundations, among which is the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

Anders Gerdin, Programme Manager at Sida, said:

“Sida is convinced that sustainability reporting can form a solid base for real change. Reporting is not an end in itself – but a force of transformation. GRI is uniquely positioned, through its large global network and convening power, to play a strong normative role towards business and stakeholders.”

Downolad Further information on the options for supporting the Global Standards Fund

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

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By registering for the next 2-day FBRH GRI Standards Certified & ISEP recognised course you will be taking the first step in gaining the many benefits of sustainability reporting.

Most importantly, you will gain the knowledge to use the GRI Standards, project manage your own first-class sustainability report and:

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References:

This article is based on published information by GRI. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the publication’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.globalreporting.org/information/news-and-press-center/Pages/Funding-the-transition-to-a-sustainable-future.aspx

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