- According to the GRI themselves, the GRI's G4 Guides place emphasis on materiality or relative importance - something which will help businesses focus on their economic, environmental and social impact.
- Inés García-Pintos, Cecabank's Head of Social Investment and Innovation, believes this is “a step in the right direction” which will help make the information more specific, clearer, and more transparent.
The next generation of guides on preparing Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reports – the G4 Guides – will be launched in Madrid on 19 November.
The presentation in Spain of the new Guides, which have seen collaboration from Cecabank and KPMG, will give businesses and other organisations a general introduction to the G4 Guides, as well as the opportunity to attend a round table event with experts in the field, the chance to ask questions, and share their opinions with their peers.
The GRI guides – the most widely used framework for producing sustainability reports – allow businesses and organisations of all types to report on their economic, environmental, social, and governance performance (ESG). The latest version, the G4 Guides, have been reviewed and improved to reflect major current and future trends in the drafting of sustainability reports, and were announced for the first time at the GRI's global conference in May 2013.
Ernst Ligteringen, GRI’s CEO, said that “Material information on sustainability can help businesses adapt and respond to changing demands from markets, investors and regulators, leading to more sustainable and smarter business models, and better strategic decision-making.
By placing an emphasis on materiality and relative importance, the G4 Guides will help organisations “concentrate on the genuinely important economic, environmental, and social effects for their business” when preparing their reports, Ligteringern said. At the same time, disclosing material information “inspires confidence and improves the company’s reputation.”
“This event is an opportunity for Spanish businesses and organisations to find out about new features and improvements of the G4 Guides first hand, and therefore get a better understanding of the implications of the new focus on materiality, and explore what the changes to the G4 Guides mean to people working in the field.”
Inés García-Pintos, Cecabank's Head of Social Investment and Innovation said “It's important that the reporting exercise centres on ASG issues that are relevant to each sector’s and company's business. And this information needs to be specific, clear, and transparent to users. G4 is a step in the right direction.”
José Luis Blasco, Partner in Charge of Climate Change and Sustainability at KPMG Spain, who translated the new guides into Spanish, said “In Spain over 80% of the hundred largest companies produce reports of this kind, and most use the GRI standard. Its maturity is comparable to the most advanced there are. The new version of the Guides offers the chance to produce simpler reports that are more closely integrated with management and, most importantly, are more useful and interesting for readers.
The event will be held at Cecabank’s Auditorium in Madrid, at 28 Calle Caballero de Gracia. To register, please visit the GRI website and click on 'Registrations'.
About the GRI's G4 Guide
As well as improving the relevance and quality of independent sustainability reports, the G4 guide will be a powerful tool for generating substantive information on sustainability which can be included in consolidated reports.
Another key improvement in the G4 guide is the greater ease of use and improved accessibility for those submitting reports for the first time, and its harmonisation with other major global frameworks, such as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the United Nations Global Compact Principles, and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) promotes the uses of sustainability reports as a way of making organisations more sustainable and contributing to a sustainable global economy.
Its mission is to make producing sustainability reports common practice. In order to allow all businesses and organisations to report on their economic, environmental, social, and governance performance, GRI publishes guides on how to prepare sustainability reports.
GRI is a non-profit organisation with a network of multiple interest groups. Its activities involve thousands of professionals and organisations across numerous sectors, groups, and regions.
For more information visit the GRI website: www.globalreporting.org.
