Businesses have signalled that they want the Global Reporting
Initiative to make its sustainability reporting guidelines easier to
follow.
A survey by US-based Business for Social Responsibility of 19 of its
member companies found that ‘almost without exception they were making
the case for them to be more user-friendly’.
Most felt that the best way to improve the guidelines would be to shift
their focus from the provision of largely historical information to a
more forward-looking approach that includes projections of future
progress.
A revised version will be issued in October 2006 after extensive consultation, which has now begun.
Alcan, BP, Ford, General Motors, Microsoft, Royal Bank of Canada and
Shell will fund the work towards the Third Generation Sustainability
Reporting Guidelines, otherwise known as G3.
Judy Henderson, board chair of the Amsterdam-based GRI, said making the
guidelines more user-friendly would be a ‘key outcome’ of the exercise.
