Rio+20 should adopt an approach
to making sustainability reporting standard practice say leading business
organizations
Ban
Ki Moon asked to lead establishment of global policy framework for
sustainability reporting
Rio
de Janeiro 15 June 2012 - leading business organizations are calling on
governments to commit to concrete action at the Rio+20 Conference, encouraging
all companies to start measuring and reporting sustainability performance and
impacts. This, they say, will enable business to accelerate sustainability
towards a Green Economy.
The
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD) and the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable
Development (CEBDS) are urging heads of delegations, ministers and heads of
state to act now to make sustainability reporting standard practice – in
particular, to encourage all listed and large (public and private) companies to
report their sustainability performance on a report or explain basis.
Business
plays a vital role in speeding up the transition towards a green economy.
Realizing that there are risks and potentially competing impacts to consider,
the transparent measurement and reporting of sustainability impacts of corporate
activities must become standard business practice.
Ernst
Ligteringen, Chief Executive of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): “For the
past 15 years, leading companies have been reporting on their sustainability
performance, benefiting the companies themselves, as well their diverse
stakeholders and society. Today, thousands of companies release a sustainability
report, and the number continues to grow year on year. At the 2002 Johannesburg
conference, this practice was commended; the opportunity in Rio is to adopt
policy to make this standard practice.”
Peter
Bakker, president WBCSD: “Sustainability reporting is a strategic tool for
companies big and small. What gets measured gets managed. The combination of the
ever growing pressures on the availability and price of resources and the
necessary move towards pricing externalities means that smart companies will
want to understand their impacts. The question in Rio+20 is how can governments
help accelerate the development and adoption of these tools and
practices.”
Mrs.
Marina Grossi, executive president of CEBDS: “We are convinced that mandatory
reporting will trigger a strong multiplying process. The weight of big companies
on their supply chain will spread this practice among its suppliers, providing
benefits to a wide stakeholders network – that are also encouraged to follow
their steps. Also, ‘Report or Explain’ presents an extra layer of accountability
to those stakeholders and easiness to companies to adapt to this new
scenario.”
Call
for global policy framework
GRI,
WBCSD and CEBDS are also calling for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to develop
a process and a timeframe to establish a global policy framework to create the
appropriate enabling conditions for more widespread sustainability reporting. In
February this year, Ban Ki-moon stated that business and investors have a true
opportunity to show leadership and contribute to the goal of mainstreaming
corporate sustainability: “Let us work together to forge a global policy
framework for disclosing such information – and for explaining why companies do
not.”
This
policy framework can be built on existing reporting initiatives. GRI produces a
comprehensive sustainability reporting framework that is widely used around the
world. WBCSD is the leading organization on sustainable development in business,
and CEBDS is the Brazilian branch of the WBCSD network. Many WBCSD and CEBDS
member companies are among the thousands worldwide already reporting their
sustainability performance using the GRI Guidelines. In addition, the WBCSD has
(co)developed reporting standards for Greenhouse Gases and Water, and the
International Integrated Reporting Council has begun work on the linkages
between an organization’s strategy, governance and financial performance and the
social, environmental and economic context within which it operates.
CEBDS
also sent a letter to Brazilian President, Mrs. Dilma Roussef, asking for a
legislation that makes reporting by big and/or listed companies inside its
border mandatory, starting in 2014, after a 12 month discussion
period.
Stock
exchanges respond
As
well as governments, stock exchanges have a role as regulators in encouraging
more companies to be transparent and report their sustainability performance.
Sao Paolo stock exchange BM&FBOVESPA and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
(JSE) are already working with their member companies to help business be more
transparent, and have responded positively to today’s call.
Sonia
Favaretto, Director Sustainability at BM&F BOVESPA, said: “BM&FBOVESPA
understands how transparency in the provision of information is fundamental for
markets to function well. Sustainability reports play a crucial role in this
context. Our point of reference for this type of report is the GRI methodology.
For this reason, at Rio+20 and in partnership with GRI we shall launch ‘Report
or Explain’ in sustainability reports and similar. We believe that the
publication of sustainability reports is a powerful instrument for the
transformation of corporate management and culture.”
"Companies
and investors face a new value reality given the challenges of sustainability.
The JSE aims to positively influence our clients to build resilience and
longevity, and to encourage increased transparency through our listing
requirements and tools such as the SRI Index Series, and we support global
efforts to promote transparency on material issues across financial,
environmental and social dimensions, including through a report or explain
approach to reporting," said Corli Le Roux, Head of the SRI Index and
Sustainability at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
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