GRI and CDP issue guidance to help companies disclose impacts

GRI, pioneer of the most widely used sustainability reporting standards, and CDP, host of a global collection of self-reported climate change, water and forest-risk data, have just released their latest linkage guidance to support companies in their reporting on climate-related impacts.

The updated documents from GRI and CDP will enable organizations to report on their critical climate change and water impacts, and ultimately take steps to reduce these impacts, using the very latest guidance.

Estimates by the International Finance Corporation and Carbon Trust predict the global cost of climate change impacts will stand between US$ 2 trillion - US$ 4 trillion by 2030.  

The latest guidance comes at a timely moment ahead of Earth Hour on Saturday 19 March and following the 21^st annual meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP21), which set a new target for organizations and governments to take action to reduce their impacts on climate change to ensure we stay well below the 2-degrees Celsius threshold.

Of all the reports held in the GRI Sustainability Disclosure Database for 2015, 21% (more than 3,000) reported on climate-related impacts using both CDP and GRI. The US saw the highest share of reports referencing both GRI and CDP – 55% during 2015, and these figures are expected to increase as more organizations begin monitoring their impacts on climate-related issues.