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From the Advisor to the Global Reporting Initiative on Labor and European Affairs
I was very interested in your recent editorial (Vol. 2, issue 9) on the issue of ‘code overload’.
As you will be aware, well over 2000 triple bottom-line reports appear annually from most of the world’s leading corporations. All use different criteria, standards and auditing techniques (if any) to underwrite their reporting procedures. The ethical investor and the critical NGO therefore remain unconvinced that any desirable set of codes is being adhered to in practice. Recent disclosures of less than satisfactory environmental and social auditing practices by firms that should know better have increased scepticism.
It is to address this increasingly unsatisfactory situation that the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) was promoted. Its purpose is to establish, through multi-stakeholder agreement, an internationally accepted body of standards for environmental, social and economic impact reporting that would validate any specific code or ethical agreement adopted by a particular company.
You have reported previously on GRI’s successful Washington conference at the end of last year. Reference to the GRI web site at www.globalreporting.org will demonstrate the further development of this valuable initiative, which is very relevant to the problem addressed in your editorial.
Vic Thorpe
I was very interested in your recent editorial (Vol. 2, issue 9) on the issue of ‘code overload’.
As you will be aware, well over 2000 triple bottom-line reports appear annually from most of the world’s leading corporations. All use different criteria, standards and auditing techniques (if any) to underwrite their reporting procedures. The ethical investor and the critical NGO therefore remain unconvinced that any desirable set of codes is being adhered to in practice. Recent disclosures of less than satisfactory environmental and social auditing practices by firms that should know better have increased scepticism.
It is to address this increasingly unsatisfactory situation that the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) was promoted. Its purpose is to establish, through multi-stakeholder agreement, an internationally accepted body of standards for environmental, social and economic impact reporting that would validate any specific code or ethical agreement adopted by a particular company.
You have reported previously on GRI’s successful Washington conference at the end of last year. Reference to the GRI web site at www.globalreporting.org will demonstrate the further development of this valuable initiative, which is very relevant to the problem addressed in your editorial.
Vic Thorpe
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