- According to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the G4 Guides emphasise materiality or relative importance, which will help businesses focus on their economic, environmental and social impacts.
- Inés García-Pintos, head of Social Investment and Innovation at Cecabank believes it is a “step in the right direction” and that it will help make the information clearer, more concrete and transparent.
The Global Reporting Initiative’s next generation of guides on preparing Sustainability Reports – the G4 Guides – are due to be launched in Madrid on 19 November.
The presentation of the new Guides in Spain, with the participation of Cecabank and KPMG, will give businesses and other organisations a general introduction to the G4 Guides and the opportunity to attend the round table of experts on the subject, ask questions, and share their opinions with their peers.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guides –the most widely used framework for sustainability reports– allow businesses and organisations of all types to report on their economic, environmental, social performance and governance (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 GRI’s global conference in May 2013.
Ernst Ligteringen, GRI’s chief executive, said that the “material information on sustainability can help businesses adapt and respond to changing demands from markets, investors and regulators, and achieve more intelligent and sustainable business models, and better strategic decision-making.
By placing more emphasis on materiality or relative importance, the G4 Guides will help organisations to “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 enhances the company’s reputation.”
“This event is an opportunity for Spanish businesses and organisations to find out about the new features and improvements in the G4 Guides first hand and so better understand the implications of the new focus on materiality and explore what the changes in the G4 Guides will mean for people working in the field.”
Inés García-Pintos, head of Social Investment and Innovation at Cecabank said “it is important that the reporting exercise centre on ASG issues that are relevant for each sector’s and firm’s business. This information needs to be specific, clear and transparent for users. G4 is a step in the right direction.”
José Luis Blasco, partner responsible for Climate Change and Sustainability at KPMG Spain, who was in charge of translating 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 and comparability is among the most advanced. The new version of the Guides offers the change to produce simpler reports that are more closely integrated with the management report and, more importantly, more useful and interesting for readers.
The event will be held at Cecabank’s assembly room in Madrid, Calle Caballero de Gracia 28. To register, visit the GRI website and click on the “inscripciones” link.
About the GRI 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 suitable for inclusion 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 the harmonisation with other major global frameworks, such as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the principles of the United Nations Global Compact, and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) promotes the use of sustainability reports as a way of making organisations more sustainable and contributing to a global sustainable 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 the preparation of sustainability reports.
GRI is a non-profit organisation with a network of multiple interest groups. Its activities involve thousands of professionals and organisations in numerous sectors, groups and regions.
For more information visit the GRI website: www.globalreporting.org.
