GRI G4 Process. Companies are signing on to participate in setting the next release of the GRI standards, called “G4”. Through this process they commit to working in collaboration with the GRI Secretariat to advance the Initiative. Some are also signing on to underwrite the GRI or otherwise support their work.
Progress:
The first public comment period (PCP) for G4 ran for 90 days between August 26 and November 24, 2011. The PCP attracted approximately 2,300 participants in total, 1,832 of whom provided a submission to the online survey. During this period, GRI also held workshops on the survey contents, and accepted submissions addressing G4 outside of the survey platform, for example, by email. Some of the main findings:
- The essential elements that a sustainability report should contain are: sustainability strategy, governance structure and approach, material impacts, risks and opportunities, material topic indicators and goals related to those indicators.
- GRI should define and require a set of topics (and indicators) per sector for reporting.
- GRI should offer guidance on how to link sustainability reporting and integrated reporting.
- GRI should address some new topics in the guidelines, and update some existing topics. The most popular topics suggested include business ethics, greenhouse gas emissions, eco-innovation, life cycle assessment, water, and biodiversity.