The GRI Readers’ Choice Awards
October 23, 2009 by admin
Filed under Initiatives
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework provider, and its partners invite both readers and sustainability reports teams to participate in their second global survey. The objective of the GRI Readers’ Choice Awards is to determine what sustainability report users worldwide think of sustainability reporting today and also to establish which sustainability reports deserve recognition.
Sustainability reports allow businesses and other organizations to disclose their performance on a range of economic, environmental, and social issues. This information is increasingly sought by investors, employees, consumers, regulators and others who are looking for information on how an organization is responding to critical sustainability issues including climate change, resource use, human rights and product responsibility.
The number of organizations reporting on their sustainability performance has reached a record high. Each year, thousands of such reports are now issued. Reporters are diverse, and include everyone from consumer brands such as Coca Cola and BMW, large companies from sectors including energy, technology and others through to global cities such as Melbourne and Amsterdam. And the number of people using these reports to gain data on companies is also growing rapidly.
GRI Chief Executive, Ernst Ligteringen, said:
The Readers Choice Awards play an essential role in the ongoing evolution of sustainability reporting. In 2008 the readers made it clear that transparency can help to build trust, but the readers aren’t fools. They read these reports with a purpose and they want the truth, and particularly the whole truth – not just selective reporting where companies’ performance is good. The readers also told us that they want to see a link between sustainability issues and a company’s overall strategy. These were important insights that reminded reporters of the importance of full and credible disclosure. This time we look forward to hearing from the reporters too. What are the objectives reporters set in issuing a report? In the eyes of the readers, are these objectives being met? Finding answers to these questions will inform the continuing evolution of sustainability reporting.
For this year’s awards, an Integrity Committee has been set up to maintain the integrity of the Readers’ Choice Survey and Awards. This committee will review the methodology and the outcomes of the Awards process. The results will be released at the Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency to be held between in May 2010. The results will be published and available in digital copy following the conference.
Thousands of readers participated in the 2008 GRI Readers’ Choice Awards, whose finalists included CILSA, the City of Melbourne, Banco Bradesco, Natura Cosmeticos, BMW, Deutsche Bank, CEPSA, Repsol, Vodafone España, Athens International Airport, Infosys Technologies, ITC, Tata Motors, Italcementi, Findesa, ABN Amro Holding, Royal Dutch Shell, Sasol, BP Group, HSBC Holdings, Vodafone Group and Coca-Cola.
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