Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Conference in Australia in March

SPONSORED ARTICLE: The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), with the support of the Australian Government, is holding its first regional conference on Sustainability and Integrated Reporting in Melbourne this month.

Australian leaders and opinion formers from business, government and civil society will gather at the first GRI Regional Conference on 26 – 28 March 2012 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

With the theme of Innovate – Integrate – Collaborate, the Australian GRI Conference on Sustainability and Integrated Reporting the Conference will help bridge the divide between organizations in Australia and the Asia Pacific region, and international developments in integrated reporting.

The outcomes of this Conference will help inform GRI’s thinking on integrated reporting and the next generation of its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines – G4.

Speakers at the Conference include:

• Ian Ball, Chief Executive Officer, International Federation of Accountants
• The Hon. David Bradbury MP, Assistant Treasurer
• Jane Diplock, Non-Executive Director, Singapore Exchange, and former Chairman of the Executive Committee for International Organisation of Securities Commissions
• Prof. Mervyn E. King, Chairman of the International Integrated Reporting Council, King Committee on Corporate Governance, and Honorary Chairman of the Global Reporting Initiative
• Ernst Ligteringen, Chief Executive, Global Reporting Initiative
• Damien Walsh, Managing Director, bankmecu
• John Stanhope, Chairman, Financial Reporting Council’s Integrated Reporting Taskforce; Former Chief Financial Officer, Telstra
• Ms. Ibu Ir Nurhaida, Chairman of Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia

Click here to register for the conference.

GRI Recent Developments

Internationally, the results of the first Public Comment Period (PCP) in the development of the next generation of GRI Guidelines reveal that an organization’s sustainability strategy description should be included in a relevant report covering sustainability performance material to that organization.

Around 2300 individuals and organizations responded to the Public Comment Period, 1832 of whom provided a submission via the online survey.

The survey included questions such as ‘what is the minimum content a sustainability report should contain?’ and ‘who should define topics in a report?’, and questions gathering feedback on people's experiences with reporting.

The aim of the PCP survey was to gather information that would inform the decision making process for the steps GRI should take in G4's development.

According to most survey respondents, 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.

The majority of respondents indicated that GRI should define a set of topics (and indicators) per sector for reporting. GRI should also offer guidance on how to link sustainability reporting and integrated reporting.

New topics were suggested during the preparatory phase before G4 development began, and this was confirmed in the PCP survey. According to respondents, GRI should address some new topics in the Guidelines, and update some existing topics. The most popular topics mentioned include business ethics, greenhouse gas emissions, eco-innovation, life cycle assessment, water, and biodiversity.

For more information, please visit the G4 Development pages.

View the results of the first PCP.