Global Reporting Initiative

Abstracts in English, Southern Sotho and XhosaThere is a paucity of research on corporate governance (CG) in state-owned entities (SOEs), specifically with reference to disclosure practices in sustainability reporting (SR). Extant research mainly focused on private entities, and rarely used hybrid research approaches and methodologies, and sector-specific concepts, with a focus on theory- and framework development. Therefore, the current research was primarily aimed at exploring CG and SR disclosure practices of South African Schedule 2 SOEs. The main RO was to investigate the evidence of an association between selected CG variables and SR performance indicators of South African Schedule 2 SOEs. Supplementary to the main RO, the study also explored the nature and scope of the disclosure practices SOEs’ in reporting on CG and sustainability, the extent of SOEs’ adherence to performance standards, and possibility of a trend in the disclosure practices regarding CG and SR. To address g...

Sustainability reporting (SR) has become a standard practice for many organisations worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to explore and develop our understanding of the global airline industry's SR practices. Content analysis was employed to map which reporting frameworks the global commercial airline industry has recently used to report their nonfinancial impacts. Additionally, comparisons were made in the application of SR between geographical regions. The results indicate that two-thirds of the global airline companies had not published sustainability reports online (reporting period 2019). The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) was the most widely used reporting instrument from the five major non-financial reporting organisations' frameworks. Also, over two-thirds of the reports had used the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a reference framework or referenced SDGs in other ways. This paper provides one of the broadest overviews of global airline SR practices. It is expected that the results will be of interest to practitioners and scholars in aviation SR.

The objective of this paper is to examine the nature and extent of sustainability reporting practices by the listed companies in Bangladesh. In order to fulfill this objective, the research has examined the content analysis of annual report (2015-2016) and website of the top 50 listed companies (according to market capitalization). Based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 guidelines, the study investigates three broad areas i.e. economic, environmental and social with 40 indicators. The findings of the study demonstrate that organizations in Bangladesh address few sustainability issues. Companies focus more on community development which is 90%, followed by employment and employee benefits (67%). The level of disclosures in website is meagre where only 26% of the sample companies disclose at least one indicator. Organizations' attention on issues like environment, human rights and product responsibility is limited in relation to other issues. The extent of disclosure is also poor that is 66% of the companies use less than 25 sentences in sustainability reporting. Moreover, only 16% of the sample companies use separate sustainability reporting section. The limited disclosures on sustainability issues may be because of voluntary sustainability reporting in Bangladesh.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the best-known framework for voluntary reporting of environmental and social performance by business worldwide. Using extensive empirical data, including interviews and documentary analysis, we examine GRI's organizational field and conclude that since its modest beginnings in 1999 GRI has been by several measures a successful institutionalization project. But the institutional logic of this new entity, as an instrument for corporate sustainability management, leaves out one of the central elements of the initial vision for GRI: as a mobilizing agent for many societal actors. This emergent logic reflects GRI's dominant constituency – large global companies and financial institutions and international business management consultancies – and not the less active civil society organizations and organized labor. We attribute these developments to factors such as building GRI within the existing institutional structures; the highly inclusive multistakeholder process; and the underdeveloped base of information users. From the institutional theory perspective, this case shows how the process of institutionalization is deeply affected by initial strategies of the founders, and how it reproduces existing power relations. From the governance perspective, this case leads us to question the power of commodified information to mobilize civil society and to strengthen governance based on partnerships.

An analysis of Social Environmental Accounting (SEA) in ASEAN based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Index

"This paper is an attempt to study a) the level of adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Index between countries, b) the level of disclosure of GRI performance indicators by companies, and c) the change in disclosure trends over time, in Southeast Asia.

A content analysis of 284 CSR reports from 107 companies between 2001 and 2012 was conducted, using the GRI 3.1 index. Companies were scored for their compliance with the disclosure requirements. These scores were then analysed at regional, national, industrial and ownership levels.

CSR reporting practices in ASEAN correspond strongly with various factors, including political pressure from government and stock exchange rules, institutional factors such as the availability of training and support, exposure to international pressures, and social pressure from NGOs.

Across the region, there is an increasing trend of voluntary CSR and GRI adoption, reflecting the increasing awareness of CSR. Disclosure quality appears to be improving. However, this study still observes poor compliance with the “report or explain” principle, with companies choosing to disclose items which improve legitimacy while omitting others.

Amongst the countries, an upward trend can be seen in CSR and GRI adoption in 5 ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand), with early signs being observed in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. No GRI adoption was observed in the other two ASEAN countries (Brunei, Myanmar), and no CSR reporting observed in Myanmar. The quality of disclosure on the whole is improving, but at varying degrees. This is thought to be a result of different national factors, mainly relating to CSR drivers.

Companies in industries which are subject to greater scrutiny from regulators and NGOs are more likely to show improvements in their disclosures. The consumer goods industry showed inconsistent disclosure trends, suggesting a lack of regularity in CSR reporting activity in the industry.

While listed companies outnumber private companies in the sample, their disclosures were on a par with private companies until 2005/2006. Amongst the public companies, those based in Singapore demonstrated the poorest CSR disclosure scores, while Thai-based companies performed the best.

This paper provides insight into the quality of disclosure and adoption of the GRI index by companies in Southeast Asia at various levels. To my knowledge, it is the first study to use the GRI index to investigate disclosures at regional, national, industrial and ownership levels.""

Companies commonly issue sustainability or corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. This study seeks to understand worldviews of corporate sustainability, or the corporate message conveyed regarding what sustainability or CSR is and how to enact it. Content analysis of corporate sustainability reports is used to position each company report within stages of corporate sustainability. Results reveal that there are multiple coexisting worldviews of corporate sustainability, but the most dominant worldview is focused on the business case for sustainability, a position anchored in the weak sustainability paradigm. We contend that the business case and weak sustainability advanced in corporate sustainability reports and by the Global Reporting Initiative are poor representations of sustainability. Ecological embeddedness, or a locally responsive strategy that is sensitive to local ecosystems, may hold the key to improved ecological sensemaking, which in turn could lead to more matur...

Las memorias de sostenibilidad o informes de responsabilidad social de las empresas surgen como información voluntaria que busca evidenciar las acciones de las organizaciones desde tres ámbitos: económico, ambiental y social. En el caso colombiano se han venido dando unas tendencias propias relacionadas con estas dinámicas. Por lo cual la presente investigación pretende analizar la evolución de las memorias de sostenibilidad desde la perspectiva contable a partir de la revisión del
contexto colombiano; centrándose en las de las empresas del sector real supervisadas por la Superintendencia de Sociedades con base en los lineamientos del Global Reporting Initiative [GRI] como estándar de mayor aceptación en el mundo. Para ello, se analizan las memorias de sostenibilidad, teniendo en cuenta características financieras, sectoriales, jurídicas y ambientales, a través de inferencias estadísticas. Del análisis
empírico efectuado se evidencia una evolución cuantitativa en el número de memorias de sostenibilidad presentadas por las empresas del sector real, de igual forma que la cantidad de activos e ingresos, entre otras variables, que influyen positivamente en la posibilidad de presentar memorias de sostenibilidad.

This paper presents: (1) a comparison between different tools that have been developed to assess and report upon academic institutions’ sustainability efforts; (2) a modification of one of these tools, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Guidelines, for use in universities; and (3) a tool developed by the author, the Graphical Assessment of Sustainability in Universities (GASU), that offers a condensed graphical overview of the myriad of indicators from the GRI modification. The GASU was designed to facilitate the analysis, longitudinal comparison and benchmarking of universities’ sustainability efforts and achievement.

Social Accounting is an instrument of measuring organizational performance that takes a comprehensive approach (usually including social, environmental and economic factors). Conventional financial accounting is increasingly seen as insufficient in revealing the full picture of a business’ performance (Mook 22; Mook and Sumner 160). By ignoring negative social/environmental externalities, conventional accounting (CA) influences our values and behavior – directing our attention only to financial performance and not other factors. Using academic literature, I investigate the core issues of conventional and social accounting, and especially the latter’s ability to produce genuine sustainability data that is of high quality. The specific SA systems that will be analyzed below are the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Consumer Co-operative Sustainability and Planning Scorecard. There are serious criticisms, which I outline below, of GRI and GRI-like systems as mere management tools intended to protect corporate brands. Although SA systems may face credibility issues because, for example, they allow high flexibility in terms of material issue selection, it is also true that civil society stakeholders have not shown enough interest in using them or trying to make these systems more reliable. Co-operative enterprises claim to have broader objectives than just financial success, which makes them and Social Accounting apt for each other, according to some scholars. Using empirical data from an online survey and in-depth interviews of co- operatives in Ontario, I explore the obstacles co-operatives face in implementing SA systems, which include costs, time requirements, lack of understanding of its benefits, and others.

El turismo es uno de los sectores que ha incidido
positivamente en el crecimiento económico de Colombia en los
últimos años. No obstante, ello no se ha evidenciado en la asunción
de acciones de Responsabilidad Social Empresarial -RSE- por parte
de las organizaciones del sector.
En gran parte, dicha limitación se origina en la diversidad de
iniciativas reguladoras enfocadas en el tema. Por ende, a partir de
la metodología cualitativa este documento busca contribuir a la
reflexión en cuanto a RSE en la hotelería, caracterizando de manera
sintética las principales iniciativas reguladoras y desarrollando un
análisis crítico a partir de la información obtenida en entrevistas a
dichos actores, tomando como referencia la óptica radical humanista
propuesta por la Escuela de Montreal.
Los principales resultados evidenciaron un tejido social en
construcción alrededor de la RSE hotelera en Colombia, así como,
una ausencia de iniciativas especializadas que estén adaptadas al
marco local y que permitan desarrollar a partir de la autonomía de
las organizaciones un accionar que impacte positivamente a los
actores sociales del sector

Since its conception in 1999, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has become a leading template for voluntary sustainability reporting by companies. Emerging on the crest of the debate about corporate social responsibility, appropriate roles for business, government, and civil society in the sustainability transition, and private forms of global governance, it is also a descendant of 1970s social movements. Drawing on extensive empirical data collected through interviews and documentary analysis in four countries, the institutional entrepreneurship framework is used to analyse three types of tactics deployed by GRI champions: discursive, material and charismatic. Central to GRI entrepreneurs' success was maintaining balance between the individual and collective interests of their diverse constituencies, between inclusiveness and efficient pursuit of technical objectives, and between building a new institution and not challenging existing institutions and power relations. This strategy, though perhaps appropriate under the circumstances, left a legacy of unresolved tensions. How these are resolved will determine GRI's future shape and function.

Currently, many interest groups demand that the social and environmental aspects be considered as a variable key to understand the performance and strategic position of companies. The objective of the paper is to analyze the disclosure of environmental indicators by oil companies. It is an exploratory and descriptive research. The oil companies publish their sustainability reports and use the environmental indicators of the Global Reporting Initiative. However, the level of the environmental indicators disclosed is not what is expected, nor is there a proactive approach that is conducive to the demands of stakeholders. The results of the study show a moderate disclosure in aspects such as emissions, effluents, waste and biodiversity that are essential for the sector. The oil industry is responsible for a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions, and controlling these emissions is vital to contribute to a low carbon future. In addition, relevant indicators such as materials and energy have a lower disclosure.

Sustainability reporting is now a mainstream activity of global corporations and is an important issue of the decade. Transparency and accountability for stakeholders are most demanding issues in pharmaceutical sectors. Companies or Industries can't survive without sustainable growth. Since, most of the stakeholders are aware of recent problems such as community health, climate change, education and development, business sustainability etc., the demand for disclosures in these areas have also been remarkably increased. Global companies have started reporting on sustainability disclosure for both economic and non-economic activities such as Triple Bottom Line (TBL) reporting along with accountability of external and internal stakeholders towards the goal of sustainable development. This paper examines the sustainability reporting practices of pharmaceutical companies of top 10 economies across the globe. For this purpose, sustainability reports of pharmaceutical companies of top 10 economies based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Non-GRI guidelines for 5 years (2012 to 2016) were collected from the GRI-Database. The number of pharmaceutical companies along with country name that published sustainability reports has been classiiied into four categories such as companies with GRI reports published for 5 years, less than 5 years, Non-GRI reports and mixed reports (GRI &Non-GRI) a total number of sustainability reports published in the given time period were compiled and analyzed. The results revealed that the sustainability disclosures in Pharmaceutical sector are basically dominated by the countries like USA, Brazil, and China whereas, least performing in sustainability disclosure parameter are Canada, Italy, Germany and India.

Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to advance explanations of the communication level of labor disclosures of
Indonesian listed companies.
Design/methodology/approach – Year-ending 2007 Annual report disclosures of 223 Indonesia Stock
Exchange (IDX) listed companies are analyzed. The labor practices and decent work disclosure
component of the 2006 Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines are used as the benchmark
disclosure index checklist.
Findings – The results show a low level of voluntary disclosure (17.7 per cent). The highest level of
communication is for issues related to skills management and lifelong learning programs for employees.
Very few companies disclosed information about health and safety committee and agreements, and
salary of men to women. Statistical analysis reveals that government ownership and international
operations are positively significant predictors of ‘‘labour’’ communication. Isomorphic institutional
theory partially explains the variability of these disclosures. Bigger companies also provide more labor
practices and decent work disclosures.
Research limitations/implications – The main implications of the findings are that Indonesian
companies are not clearly communicating labor responsibility issues as a key precondition of corporate
social responsibility (CSR). They may be obfuscating some information to protect their image and
reputation.
Originality/value – This paper provides insights into the disclosure practices of labor issues, a
specific social disclosure theme which is rarely examined in prior literature, under the umbrella of
institutional theory. The research also includes ‘‘goal factor’’ to be tested as one of the independent
variables.

El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar las memorias de sostenibilidad de los museos españoles y su adecuación a los criterios del Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Se examinan las memorias de Thyssen-Bornemisza, Guggenheim Bilbao y Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC). Los resultados muestran diferencias entre los museos que habían publicados memorias previamente y los que no lo habían hecho. Se concluye que el grado de cumplimiento de los diferentes criterios del GRI es desigual. Palabras clave: Responsabilidad social corporativa, memorias de sostenibilidad, museos, comunicación corporativa.

La expansión de la RSE debe ser evaluada para identificar si consigue la transformación hacia el desarrollo sostenible. En este capítulo se presenta un estudio de caso crítico que se enfocó en evaluar la articulación entre la estrategia de sostenibilidad y la estructura necesaria para su implementación. Por ello se evalúa la aplicación de dos iniciativas o instrumentos: la aplicación de sistemas de gestión medioambiental (ISO14001) y las memorias o informes de sostenibilidad con base en guías del GRI. Los resultados muestran que en el caso estudiado no hay una adecuada articulación entre la estrategia y la estructura, lo que hace ralentizar el impacto de estas iniciativas para la sostenibilidad.