The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has launched a new membership and engagement program aimed at getting the best out of sustainable reporting. The GRI GOLD Community, which builds on the initiative’s collaborative network, calls out to all corporations and organizations advocating transparency as a promoter of a more sustainable economy.
GRI GOLD Community members are provided with multiple benefits, explains Nikki McKean Wood, GRI’s director of corporate and stakeholder relations.
‘We help them improve the quality of their sustainability reporting by providing a dedicated GRI account representative and giving them access to G4 Forefront, a continuous learning program designed to support organizations using the G4 guidelines,’ she says, adding that membership can also benefit IR managers. ‘We provide them with leading-edge knowledge and insights, such as quarterly global market scans and executive bulletins to keep them up to date on the latest developments in corporate sustainability.’
More than 550 entities from 69 countries have signed up to the program, including ‘companies and organizations from across civil society, business, mediating institutions, labor and intergovernmental agencies’, among them Canadian energy firm Suncor.
‘We’ve worked with the GRI for many years as our sustainability reporting has evolved,’ IRO Steve Douglas tells IR Magazine. ‘The new GOLD designation allows us to collaborate with other GOLD members and provides us with a higher profile in GRI publications. Additionally, GRI will review our annual sustainability report and, once approved, the report will carry the ‘Checked by GRI’ logo.’
The community is called upon to play a key role in developing the GRI’s flagship project, Sustainability and Reporting 2025. Members will convene for the first time at GRI’s conference to be held in Amsterdam in May, where they will be offered ‘exclusive content sessions and dedicated networking opportunities, aimed at enabling effective action toward sustainable development,’ according to a GRI memo.
