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Follow on Google News | Are sustainability reports fit for your purpose? Have your say at the GRI Readers’ Choice AwardsThe Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – provider of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework – and its partners invite both readers and preparers of sustainability reports to participate in their second global survey.
By: The Global Reporting Initiative Both readers and preparers of sustainability reports are invited to register online from today to find out how to participate. Sustainability reports allow businesses and other organizations to disclose their performance on a range of economic, environmental, and social issues. This information is increasingly sought by investors, employees, consumers, regulators and others who are looking for information on how an organization is responding to critical sustainability issues including climate change, resource use, human rights and product responsibility. The number of organizations reporting on their sustainability performance has reached a record high. Each year, thousands of such reports are now issued. Reporters are diverse, and include everyone from consumer brands such as Coca Cola and BMW, large companies from sectors including energy, technology and others through to global cities such as Melbourne and Amsterdam. And the number of people using these reports to gain data on companies is also growing rapidly. Ernst Ligteringen, GRI Chief Executive, said: “The Readers Choice Awards play an essential role in the ongoing evolution of sustainability reporting. In 2008 the readers made it clear that transparency can help to build trust, but the readers aren’t fools. They read these reports with a purpose and they want the truth, and particularly the whole truth - not just selective reporting where companies’ performance is good. The readers also told us that they want to see a link between sustainability issues and a company’s overall strategy. These were important insights that reminded reporters of the importance of full and credible disclosure. This time we look forward to hearing from the reporters too. What are the objectives reporters set in issuing a report? In the eyes of the readers, are these objectives being met? Finding answers to these questions will inform the continuing evolution of sustainability reporting.” Thousands of readers participated in the 2008 GRI Readers’ Choice Awards, when finalists included CILSA, the City of Melbourne, Banco Bradesco, Natura Cosmeticos, BMW, Deutsche Bank, CEPSA, Repsol, Vodafone España, Athens International Airport, Infosys Technologies, ITC, Tata Motors, Italcementi, Findesa, ABN Amro Holding, Royal Dutch Shell, Sasol, BP Group, HSBC Holdings, Vodafone Group and Coca-Cola. - ENDS – For further information on The Readers’ Choice Awards visit: http://awards.globalreporting.org For further information on the Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency visit: www.amsterdamgriconference.org To register as a conference participant, visit: http://www.eventure- Communications Partner: ACCA ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) “ACCA is proud to be partnering with the Global Reporting Initiative for this year’s Readers Choice Awards”, said Neil Stevenson, Executive Director – Brand at ACCA. “For more than 20 years, ACCA has been campaigning to encourage organisations to report on the environmental impact of their activities. It supports the GRI mission to develop and promote standardised guidelines for reports, which will enable readers of those reports to more easily make comparisons between organisations and regions. ACCA will also be working to communicate details of the RCA survey through its network of more than 80 national offices and active centres.” Roger Adams, ACCA’s Director of Policy and its representative on the first GRI board, is a member of the Integrity Committee overseeing the development of this year’s GRI Readers’ Choice Awards. He said: “The survey of the readers of sustainability reports will give a clear indication of how effectively organisations are communicating these key issues. It is not a question of what reporting organizations think should be included - and avoided -in such reports, but of what the end users, investors, clients, environmentalist and other stakeholders want to see. ACCA has long campaigned for greater transparency in sustainability reporting and is wholeheartedly behind this initiative.” Content Partner: Futerra Futerra is a sustainability communications agency, founded in 2001, working exclusively on communications strategy development and implementation for sustainability and corporate responsibility. “The future of reporting should be clear: it’s our last best hope to rebuild trust. But without a stronger alignment between readers and reporters this potential can’t be fulfilled. With the Readers and Reporters survey, for the first time, we’ll clearly see both sides of that story. I believe we’ll find both radical differences in expectation and opportunities we haven’t yet imagined” Helen Spoor, Consultant, Futerra. Content Partners: KPMG Sustainability Spain & KPMG Sustainability Netherlands As part of KPMG's Global Sustainability Services, KPMG Sustainability Spain and KPMG Sustainability Netherlands are advising multinational companies on dealing with the business aspects of sustainability, including transparent and credible reporting. “The 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards provides a unique opportunity to develop and share new insights from the Sustainability Reporting world, understanding whether reporters’ objectives and readers’ needs are aligned, whether this process is building trust amongst stakeholders and whether this is actually creating an impact on improving sustainability performance. “ Etienne Yves Butruille Martinez, KPMG Sustainability Services. Content Partner: SustainAbility SustainAbility is a strategy consultancy and think tank working with senior corporate decision makers to achieve transformative leadership on the sustainability agenda. IT Partner: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, business solutions and outsourcing organization that delivers real results to global businesses, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled services delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model, recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata Group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 148,000 of the world's best trained IT consultants in 47 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $6 billion for fiscal year ended 31 March 2009 and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India. For more information, visit www.tcs.com. "Corporate Social Responsibility has always been the highest priority for the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) & to the Tata Group, which works on a unique business model with 2/3rds of the group's holding company being held by charitable trusts, who invest the profits of the group into areas of social development including art, sports, healthcare, environment and education, among other areas. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a path breaking initiative in the field of corporate governance and sustainability. We are pleased to be associated with it as the technology partner for GRI and will continue to support the success of this venture, particularly in today's world where business sustainability has become a paramount concern for all companies." D P Nambiar, Director Human Resources for Tata Consultancy Services Europe. # # # The Global Reporting Initiative has pioneered the development of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework and is committed to its continuous improvement and application worldwide. End
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