Reporting Initiative (GRI) published its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines in 2000
“to design and build acceptance of a common framework for reporting on the linked
aspects of sustainability—the economic, the environmental and the societal.”^28 The
key stated aims of the GRI guidelines are to facilitate decision making, to meet stake-
holder needs and to provide a management tool. Organizations that integrate their re-
porting in this way argue that it improves reputation, decision making, performance,
and risk management and builds good relationships with key stakeholders.^29 They
also claim that it facilitates the ability to attract, motivate and retain high-quality staff
and facilitates innovation, creativity and learning which allows a faster response to
changing customer needs.^30 KPMG,^31 in their latest survey of Corporate Sustain-
ability Reporting, noted a move away from the separate reporting solely focusing on
HSE or environmental issues, to include performance in social or community devel-
opment. This was seen as an initial movement toward more integrated sustainability
reports on social, environmental, and economic performance information. Novo
Nordisk provides an example of best practice (see Exhibit 23.11).
23.5 SUMMARY. Corporate social and environmental reporting has evolved con-
siderably over the last few years. Most notable has been the increased formal in-
volvement by government regulators, which has progressed from providing general
guidance on the type of information suggested as useful, to the introduction of
mandatory reporting requirements, specifically on environmental issues. This has
corresponded with the development and acceptance internationally of more compre-
hensive voluntary guidance statements such as AA1000 and GRI. Such guidance
statements have been utilized to provide the basis of country specific guidance state-
ments and the formulation of individual corporate reporting policies. AccountAbility
are also developing detailed assurance guidelines.^32
Second, while many recent studies have noted a significant increase in the quan-
tity of disclosure on social and environmental issues, the most significant change
that has occurred over recent years has been the adoption of a broader range of re-
porting mediums. Traditionally, the annual report has been the primary source of in-
formation on corporate performance. However, with the advent of the Web, and the
move toward more tailored reporting as observed through the issue of stand-alone
environmental and community reports, companies now have the ability to more
strategically approach external reporting and provide an emphasis on stakeholder
involvement.
Finally, the reporting of social and environmental information is heading for a
transformation with companies now exploring the integration of various performance
measures. This is highlighted with companies experimenting with triple bottom line
reporting and issuing sustainability reports. Hence, internationally we could expect
that social and environmental reporting will become more comparable in the future
with greater intervention by regulators, but with companies producing information
more tailored to identified users and also more integrated to provide a more complete
overview of corporate performance.
23 • 20 CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL REPORTING(^28) Global Reporting Intiative, 2000, p. 1.
(^29) Adams, 1999.
(^30) Nelson, Singh, and Zollinger, 2001.
(^31) KPMG, 2002.
(^32) AccountAbility, 2002.