UN Global Compact recommends the GRI Standards for sustainability reporting

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the UN Global Compact

Under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2010, the UN Global Compact adopted the GRI Standards as the recommended reporting framework for companies to communicate on progress made.

This was the beginning of a historic alliance. The world’s two largest corporate responsibility initiatives joined forces to build a universal framework for corporate sustainability performance and disclosure, aiming to transform business practices on a global scale. The alliance, articulated during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2010, was a crucial step in ensuring convergence in the area of corporate sustainability and allowed both initiatives to focus on their respective and complementary strengths – the Global Compact’s mainstreaming of universal principles and UN goals in business, and GRI’s comprehensive reporting framework.

The alliance provides companies with a clear roadmap to corporate sustainability, using GRI’s reporting principles and best practice indicators to report effectively on key corporate sustainability actions advocated by the Global Compact. Together, the two initiatives can guide companies of varying degrees of sophistication towards more sustainable performance and increased transparency.

Globally, only the GRI Standards provide a complete set of standards that uniquely addresses all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sustainability reporters worldwide do not need to use any other sustainability framework for their report.

Sustainability: the new paradigm for conducting business

We are at a key moment in the evolution of sustainability and it is fast becoming the new paradigm for conducting business:

• Sustainability reporting at centre of EU’s 1 trillion euro Green Deal
• New Eurobarometer Survey: Environmental protection and climate important for over 90% of European citizens
• Climate change: New EU rules could mean the end of ‘throwaway culture’
• 2 out of 4 major consumer trends relate to sustainability (Mintel)
• Mintel research: Key 2018 consumer trends relate to sustainability
• Corporate sustainability and profitability are interrelated (Oxford University)
• High Sustainability companies significantly outperform their counterparts over the long-term, in both stock market and accounting performance (Harvard Business School)
• Deloitte: Business leaders can win the loyalty of Millennials by driving societal and economic change.
• 84% of Millennial investors interested in sustainable investing (Morgan Stanley)
• There is an accelerating growth of people choosing sustainable brands (Nielsen 30,000 consumers in 60 countries)
• Millennials love CSR (Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK)

It is essential for Businesses to be part of the Sustainable “Green” economy – trust is key

Businesses must adequately prepare for the onslaught of sustainability regulations and identify and address the needs of stakeholders that can hold them back or stop them from reaching their objectives. Stakeholders can be, for example:

• Consumers/ clients
• Investors
• Top talent
• Prospective business partners across value chains
• Communities worldwide
• Local authorities
• NGOs.

Businesses typically compete for Capital, Materials, Business and Top Talent. Imagine how much easier it would be to convince key stakeholders that they can trust you, that you are responsible and in for the long term, if you had a first-class CSR/ESG/SDG/Sustainability report.

To support and accelerate corporate reporting on the SDGs, GRI and the UN Global Compact collaborated to develop the following documents:

• The report Analysis of the Goals and Targets, to help companies understand how they are impacting the SDGs and their targets, by providing a list of indicators to make reporting on the SDGs straightforward and simple to execute. Download Analysis of the Goals and Targets

• Integrating the SDGs into Corporate Reporting: A Practical Guide outlines three steps for companies to embed the SDGs in existing business and reporting processes in alignment with GRI Standards and recognised principles. Download Integrating the SDGs into Corporate Reporting

• In Focus: Addressing Investor Needs in Business Reporting on the SDGs provides additional information about investor-relevant aspects of corporate SDG reporting. Download Addressing Investor Needs in Business Reporting on the SDGs

• The SDG Compass* provides guidance for companies on how they can align their strategies as well as measure and manage their contribution to the realisation of the SDGs.  Download the SDG Compass Guide

*Developed by the UN Global Compact, GRI and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

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.

1-day Remote Learning Course

FBRH GRI Certified “Integrating the SDGs into your reporting process” | Venue: London LSE

The main aim of the GRI Certified course “Integrating the SDGs into your reporting process” is to teach participants the recommended methodology for choosing the SDGs their business will address, with case studies of the best practices in integrating the SDGs into your reporting process.

A methodology developed by GRI and the UN Global Compact, to:

• enable and encourage a strong private sector role in both measuring and achieving the SDGs

• make it easier for organisations worldwide to use their reporting through the GRI Standards to support and address the SDGs.

Course information (Remote learning option available):

online

download interactive pdf (optimised for desktop)

Course dates and registration

FBRH has trained some of the world’s largest companies: Aramco, AIB, Aston Martin, Blackrock, Deloitte, Engie, ERM CVS, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Heineken International, KPMG, London School of Economics (LSE), Lundin Petroleum, Manchester Metropolitan University, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, Nord Stream 2 AG, Norwegian Property ASA, Phillips Lighting, PwC,Salterbaxter (an MSL Company), Telenor ASA, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Volkswagen Group UK Limited, Walgreens Boots Alliance, World Business Council For Sustainable Development (WBCSD)… complete list…

References:

This article is based on published information by the UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative (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 links:

https://www.unglobalcompact.org/news/50-06-24-2010

https://www.globalreporting.org/information/SDGs/Pages/Reporting-on-the-SDGs.aspx