The number of companies and other organizations publicly disclosing sustainability performance has risen markedly over the last year, according to new figures.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) said it is now aware of more than 1000 organizations worldwide who issued sustainability reports based on the GRI G3 Guidelines in 2008–the highest number ever recorded. The figure represents an increase of 46% on the 2007 figure of 685.
The GRI G3 Guidelines set out the principles and indicators that organizations can use to measure and report on their economic, environmental and social performance. The guideance was developed, and continues to evolve, through a process in which representatives from business, civil society, finance, labor, academia and others seek consensus on a common framework for reporting on issues of common concers–such as greenhouse gas emissions, labor standards and human rights.
GRI said Spain leads all other nations, with 128 reporting companies. The United States was second with 100 companies and Brazil, Australia and the United Kingdom rounded out the top five.
Europe is home to 49% of the reporters known to GRI, followed by Asia on 15%, North America on 14%, Latin America on 12%, with 6% from Oceania and 4% from Africa.
Furthermore, many companies listed in the world’s leading stock markets now issue GRI-based sustainability reports including 64% of Germany’s DAX 30, 48% of France’s CAC 40, 22% of the UK’s FTSE 100 and 13% of the US’ S&P 500.
However, with the exception of Germany’s relatively small DAX (30 companies), companies in the major stock market indices reporting on their sustainability performance using the common framework provided by GRI are still in the minority.
“If sustainability data was just something that was ‘nice to know’ about a company–providing niche investors with data for short-term investment decisions or helping employees feel good about their company–then this wouldn’t be so much of a problem. However this information is more important than that," GRI Chief Executive Ernst Ligteringen said. "As we face a sustainability crisis that could ultimately even threaten our very existence as a species, we need to know how our companies are positioned to rise to the challenges, provide solutions and adapt to coming changes."
In order to further increase the quantity and quality of organizational sustainability disclosure, the Board of Directors of the Global Reporting Initiative this year issued the Amsterdam Declaration on Transparency and Reporting in which they called on governments to introduce policy requiring companies to either report on their sustainability performance or explain why they won’t.
Already in Sweden all state owned companies are now required to publish annual GRI-based sustainability reports and policy is in place, or in the process of being developed in Denmark, Norway, China and other countries to encourage the uptake of sustainability reporting.
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