GRI stands for Global Reporting Initiative – it’s a non-profit organisation working towards a sustainable global economy by providing sustainability reporting guidance.

GRI has put together an internationally recognised and peer reviewed best practice for sustainable reporting.

In a nutshell, sustainability reporting is a snapshot of an organisation’s economic, environmental and social performance. Think of it as a complete scorecard on performance, with the three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental and social.

GRI – the most used reporting framework

GRI reporting is the most applied sustainability report format in New Zealand.

Companies that completed sustainability reporting in New Zealand in 2012 included Meridian Energy, Westpac, NZ Post and Chow:Hill Architects.  In Australia, companies undertaking sustainability reporting included Woolworths, Telstra and Lion Nathan.

GRI reporting provides a prescriptive process to follow and very clear guidelines to ensure key principles are followed and targets are reported on.

How we help

Being a prescriptive process, GRI reporting requires organisations to work through a series of steps as outlined below:

1. Prepare an overview of what the final report might contain and the process to get there
2. Connect with stakeholders to find out what they want from the report, and their issues
3. Define the content (including disclosures) based on stakeholder input
4. Monitor your performance by collecting relevant data and analysing it in a format for inclusion
5. Report performance through disclosures

We can help you through any of these steps and in doing so will ensure key principles, as prescribed by the GRI for content and accuracy, are met. To discuss your sustainability reporting needs contact us through the online query submission or email Wymond.