The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) produces globally recognized sustainability reporting frameworks and offers tools to help organizations set goals, measure progress, and manage sustainability performance. Read this article that gives an overview of the GRI and its reporting guidelines.
How does an organization begin to approach measuring sustainability improvements? How can these be compared to other organizations and communicated with transparency and trust to stakeholders?
History
The GRI was formed by the United States-based non-profits Ceres (formerly the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies) and Tellus Institute, with the support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1997. It released an "exposure draft" version of the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines in 1999, the first full version in 2000, the second version was released at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg - where the organization and the guidelines were also referred to in the Plan of Implementation signed by all attending member states. Later that year it became a permanent institution. In 2002 GRI moved its secretariat to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Although the GRI is independent, it remains a collaborating center of UNEP and works in cooperation with the United Nations Global Compact.
A member of the board of the Dutch National Contact Point (NCP) of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, Herman Mulder, was appointed as a chairman of the GRI in 2011. In the past, Mr. Mulder was senior executive vice-president at ABN AMRO and is now a chairman of True Price.