The FINANCIAL — The Centre for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG) with Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF) hosted the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) introductory workshop on sustainability reporting.
The workshop, which was attended by the representatives of governmental, non-governmental and business sectors, was aimed at clarifying the main characteristics of GRI and discussing why organizations should adopt sustainability reporting. Several companies expressed their wish to start using the GRI reporting format at the workshop.
Lela Khoperia, Programme Coordinator of Corporate Social Responsibility at CSRDG thinks that despite the difficult economic and political situation in the country, there is a considerable interest among Georgian companies towards Corporate Social Responsibility and the GRI reporting format. This was also proved by the large number of participants at the GRI introductory workshop.
“As Georgian companies are increasingly orientated at foreign markets, and more and more integrated in the European business community, the need for standardized reporting is more evident than ever before. A GRI based report is a serious document for possible partners and investors, which enables them to measure and evaluate a company’s responsible performance, its impacts on sustainable development and corporate governance. GRI format adds credibility to the report, makes data presented in the report more trustful and reliable, more easily understandable,” she says.
Camrin Christensen, Associate Country Director of EPF notes that companies from around the world engage in GRI sustainability reporting and businesses in Georgia would benefit in the same ways as businesses in other countries do.
“The GRI Reporting Framework provides tools for companies to communicate their achievements and challenges to all interested parties. This openness enhances companies’ reputations, which is especially valuable if you consider that savvy consumers make decisions based upon companies’ business practices in addition to the quality of its products and services,” Camrin Christensen says.
According to Associate Country Director of EPF sustainability reporting is definitely a good public relations tool for companies to inform readers about their successes beyond just numbers. However, reports should be balanced, accurate, and reliable. Companies should be prepared to report on both their strengths and their challenges, but it’s a great opportunity to pinpoint challenges, trouble shoot, and then communicate how the company will address those challenges. Additionally, GRI encourages reporting organizations to acquire external or independent assurance to enhance the credibility and quality of sustainability reports.
Many organizations are currently doing some kind of reporting, but not the full GRI reporting, Camrin Christensen continues. In May of this year, EPF and 11 other international and Georgian organizations joined efforts to promote the concept and practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Georgia. Through promoting CSR policies, they will encourage the harmonization of business practices in Georgia with those accepted in the West.
“GRI is another way that EPF is promoting the idea among Georgian companies to act in a responsible and transparent way. Especially given the discussions of the free trade area with the European Union, Georgian companies should themselves be interested in engaging in responsible practices and then communicating that to the public,” Camrin Christensen adds. “Our programmatic activities are defined by local needs, as determined both internally through extensive research and constant dialogue with stakeholders.”
“As such, EPF has programmatic activities that specifically address environmental, social and economic issues in Georgia, including the Eco-Awards programme, which is implemented with funds from BP to encourage the responsible use of natural resources. EPF is also working to promote the idea of social enterprise, organizations that reinvest profits into a social mission. Through these initiatives, our work to promote corporate social responsibility and our grant making to local non-governmental organizations, EPF works to empower people to effect change for social justice and economic prosperity in Georgia,” Camrin Christensen states.
In 2008, GRI Sustainability Reporting was completed by 1,003 companies worldwide.
There are a series of five steps in the reporting process. These break down as:
1) Preparing internally for engaging in GRI reporting
2) Conducting discussions with stakeholders
3) Defining what to report
4) Monitoring performance according to the defined indicators
5) Communicating the results to the public.
Breaking the reporting process down into these steps makes it clear for companies, but it does demand time and dedication from all staff. Companies could encounter problems if there’s no local buy-in to the process or if certain steps are not completed successfully.
“The GRI reporting framework is the most widely acknowledge reporting standard. It’s used by hundreds of companies worldwide. To date, more than 1,500 companies, including many of the world’s leading brands, have declared their voluntary adoption of the Guidelines worldwide. Consequently the GRI Guidelines have become the de facto global standard for reporting,” Lela Khoperia, Programme Coordinator of Corporate Social Responsibility at CSRDG says.
“In short, the aim of GRI reporting is to provide reliable, measurable and comprehensive information about a company’s sustainability impacts, its responsible performance in environmental, social and economic spheres.”
“The first version of GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines was released in 2000. Since then the number of GRI reporters has been constantly changing. At present GRI reports are produced in 65 countries of the world – in Europe, the USA and Canada, Latin America, Asia and Indonesia. Almost 50% of GRI reporters are based in EU countries, though there are a considerable number of companies reporting in the USA and Canada, also in Asia and Latin America.”
Q. What is the aim of GRI reporting?
A. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a large multi-stakeholder network of thousands of experts worldwide. It has elaborated the most accepted international framework for sustainability reporting.
‘Sustainability Reporting’ denotes the practice of measuring and publicly communicating information about a company’s performance in three areas associated with the sustainable development – environmental, social and economic. ‘Sustainability Reporting’ is a broad term considered synonymous with others used to describe non-financial reporting – for example social reporting, corporate responsibility reporting, etc.
There’s increasing evidence on all continents that companies committed to both sustainable development and their external stakeholders are gaining interest in understanding the three areas of sustainability performance and are taking them into account in their decision making.
A considerable number of companies worldwide measure and report on sustainability or certain aspects of it. Subsequently, there was an increasing need for the internationally accepted reporting format to permit meaningful comparisons between companies or provide the rigour and reliability associated with financial reporting. To meet this important need GRI has elaborated guidelines, which provide a framework and a format for compiling and presenting information (quantitative and qualitative) about a company’s performance in the three areas of sustainable development. They also explore how the company integrates consideration of these areas into its decision making and business practices.
Q. Why would a company want to start GRI reporting in Georgia? What are the benefits for organizations?
A. Reporting is an integral part of CSR and as such is considered to be the voluntary obligation of any responsible company. Actually without reporting there’s no CSR, it helps not only to provide information about responsible activities of the company, but also to better plan and manage these activities. And there are already several Georgian companies reporting on their responsible practices on their web-pages or annual reports.
At the same time it’s very important to produce a standardized report, i.e. a report based on an internationally acknowledged standard. Such a standard is the GRI reporting standard.
In an international business environment, the GRI sustainability report represents the calling card of a company. It lists the company’s major positive contributions to the economy and society and answers the most important questions outside actors may have about the company’s performance.
Sustainability reports based on the GRI framework can be used to benchmark organizational performance with respect to laws, norms, codes, performance standards and voluntary initiatives; demonstrate organizational commitment to sustainable development; and compare organizational performance over time.
Q. What are the challenges of the reporting process for organizations?
A. Preparing a GRI based report isn’t a very simple and easy procedure, more so for beginners. It could be difficult to for the company, preparing a GRI report for the first time, to properly plan the reporting process, to gather all the needed information etc. But the positive side of the GRI reporting format is that it enables the organizations just starting their reporting activity to prepare very simple reports, and afterwards, every year, gradually move to the full format reporting. For this reason GRI has elaborated the C Level reporting template, which offers an easy way for organizations to prepare a basic GRI sustainability report.
Q. How big is the threat that sustainability reporting will become just a source of promotion for the company?
A. Sustainability reporting contributes to the success of the company in various ways – through enhancing corporate reputation and loyalty of the employees and consumers, through attracting investors, partners, etc. At the same time, a standardized reporting framework through carefully developed indicators ensures that information presented in the report is reliable and comprehensive.
The GRI report should contain data not only about positive, but also negative impacts of company performance; positive and negative information should be necessarily balanced. This is one of the requirements of the GRI reporting format. Thus a GRI report isn’t just an advertisement booklet about achievements of the company, but a serious document reliably reflecting all aspects of the company’s activities and its impacts on sustainability issues.
Q. How would you assess the role of GRI in solving the environmental, social and economic problems in Georgia?
A. CSRDG is implementing several programmes in various spheres. The main fields of activities of CSRDG are: Civic development; Economy and social policy; Environment protection; Government Decentralizations; Consumer’s rights; Corporate Social Responsibility. Through all these programmes CSRDG is contributing in various ways in solving the environmental, social and economic problems in Georgia.
As to the programme “Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility”, CSRDG has been implementing this programme since 2006 and has conducted several activities in the frames of this programme. Promoting sustainability reporting and a GRI reporting format is one of the priority issues for CSRDG. In 2008 our organization prepared and published a Georgian translation of GRI Reporting Guidelines and C level Reporting Template (a GRI reporting template for beginners).
CSRDG also prepared a Georgian translation of the handbook “Making the Connection” (The GRI Guidelines and UNGC Communication on Progress). As you know, several days ago CSRDG, jointly with EPF was hosting a GRI Introductory workshop in Tbilisi. Now we are working on elaboration of an extensive training programme jointly with GRI for Georgian companies who wish to produce GRI reports. We hope all these activities will gradually introduce a GRI reporting format in Georgia. It goes without saying that through popularizing and promoting sustainability reporting CSRDG also contributes to solving the environmental, social and economic problems in Georgia.
Q. What should be done to popularize GRI in Georgia? Is the greater responsibility on the government or on the business sector side?
A. The decision about producing a GRI based sustainability report is definitely made by the company itself. Reporting is voluntary. It reflects a company’s social responsibility, its transparency and commitment to sustainability issues. However the position of the Government and relevant public policy could also be fairly important. In many countries governments promote GRI Guidelines in various ways, thus declaring their commitment to sustainable development.
Statistics on GRI sustainability reporting in 2008:
Europe 489 48.80%
Asia 149 14.90%
North America 137 13.70%
Latin America 124 12.40%
Oceania 61 6.10%
Africa 43 4.30%
Total 1,003
The biggest increase in reporting outside of Europe happened between 2007 and 2008, when the percentage of companies outside of Europe completing GRI Sustainability Reports increased from 43% to 51%.
Year 2005 2006 2007 2008
Total Companies Reporting 377 516 686 1,003
Europe-based 222 283 389 489
Non-Europe-based 155 233 297 514
41.11% 45.16% 43.29% 51.25%
Written By Levan Lomtadze
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