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Environmental
Enforcement Indicators
Report Title:
Sustainability
Reporting Guidelines on Economic, Environmental, and Social Performance
Source: Global Reporting Initiative, June 2000
Author: Global Reporting Initiative
Web Link: http://www.globalreporting.org/
Date of report
review: September 7, 2001
Report notes:
- The Global
Reporting Initiative (“GRI”) is an effort to establish
uniform reporting guidelines for varying organizations (primarily
businesses) to report on environmental, social, and economic dimensions
of their activities. Activities include products and services
(not only material goods) produced at primary facilities and subcontractor
plants throughout the organizations command.
- The Global
Reporting Initiative started in 1997. It is steered by 17 organizations:
industry and policymaking alike. For example, General Motors Corp.,
World Resources Institute, and UNEP are members of the steering
committee. The United Nations Foundation and several major U.S.
private foundations and the U.S. EPA fund the initiative.
- The reporting
guidelines, principles, and categories are developed with the
help of a multitude of international accounting bodies, environmental
and social reporting organizations, and development agencies.
The GRI reporting method is divided into categories - aspects
- indicators.
- The environmental
performance category includes: Energy; Water; Emissions, Effluents,
and Waste; Transport; Suppliers; Products and Services; Land-Use/Biodiversity;
and Compliance.
- The Compliance
category recommends that aspects like the “magnitude and
nature of penalties for non-compliance with all applicable international
declarations, conventions, and treaties, and national, sub-national,
regional, and local regulations associated with environmental
issues (e.g., air quality, water quality)” be reported.
- Currently,
the GRI is receiving feedback on its guidelines. An independent
GRI should be formed by 2002.
Suggested
initiatives:
Questions
for further research:
- Whether
the GRI is knowledgeable about the data collection experiences
of the Pilot Environmental Sustainability Index working group?
- To what
extent the U.S. EPA has evaluated the guidelines, principles,
and indicators of the GRI?
- How closely
the GRI guidelines parallel EPA’s and affiliate regulatory
agency’s current reporting methods?
- What incentives
exist for organizations to employ the GRI’s guidelines?
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