In a push to strengthen the quality of sustainability reporting in the corporate sector, the United Nations Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) today announced an agreement to align their work in advancing corporate responsibility and transparency.

Under the terms of the agreement, GRI will develop guidance regarding the Global Compact’s ten principles and issue areas to integrate centrally in a next iteration of its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, a comprehensive framework developed to facilitate transparency and accountability for businesses and other organizations seeking to disclose their environmental and social performance. At the same time, the Global Compact will adopt the GRI Guidelines as the recommended reporting framework for the more than 5800 businesses that have joined the world’s largest corporate responsibility platform.

The agreement is intended to provide companies in the Global Compact with a clear set of reporting principles and indicators to meet the initiative’s compulsory annual disclosure requirement, also known as the Communication on Progress. The GRI Reporting Framework is applicable to organizations of all sectors, sizes and regions and also offers a series of supplements developed to address sector-specific circumstances and challenges.

The two initiatives enter into this new alignment to further develop their combined strengths – the Global Compact’s strategic advancement of key sustainability issues, and GRI’s reporting framework.

In addition to creating a reporting framework that will be implemented universally, the new collaboration is also intended to provide a benchmark for financial analysts and other stakeholders to better analyze and identify risks and opportunities as they relate to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

“As corporate responsibility has moved into the mainstream of business strategy and operations, the convergence of the two corporate responsibility initiatives with the broadest reach is a crucial development,” said Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact. “Together, the Global Compact and GRI have a unique opportunity to provide a clear roadmap to sustainability and change business practices on a global scale.”

”The agreed collaboration, combining the expertise and efforts of GRI and the UN Global Compact, will allow us to significantly extend our outreach and support an increasing number of companies and stakeholders around the world which seek to improve their sustainability performance,” added Ernst Ligteringen, GRI’s Chief Executive.

About the United Nations Global Compact
Launched in 2000, the United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies around the world to align their strategies and operations with ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of broader UN goals. Through the development, implementation, and disclosure of responsible corporate policies and practices, business can help ensure that markets advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere. The Global Compact is not a regulatory body, but a voluntary leadership platform for dialogue and learning. With more than 8,200 signatories in more than 135 countries, it is the world’s largest corporate responsibility initiative. www.unglobalcompact.org

About The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
The Global Reporting Initiative has pioneered the development of the world’s most widely used Sustainability Reporting Framework and is committed to its continuous improvement and application worldwide. This framework sets out the principles and indicators that organizations can use to measure and report their economic, environmental, and social performance. www.globalreporting.org

About The Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency
From 26 to 28 May 2010, Amsterdam will play host to the world’s largest gathering of leaders, thinkers and doers in the field of sustainability reporting for the third time. This years’ timely theme is ‘Rethink. Rebuild. Report.’ The conference will explore how to reach GRI’s vision that disclosure on environmental, social, and governance performance is as mainstream as financial reporting by the year 2020. www.amsterdamgriconference.org

2010 UN Global Compact Leaders Summit: Building a New Era of Sustainability
24-25 June 2010, New York
Chaired by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2010 will bring together more than 1,000 leaders from all sectors to elevate the role of responsible business and investment in bringing about the needed transformation to more sustainable and inclusive markets. www.leaderssummit2010.org 

Media Contacts

Matthias Stausberg
Spokesperson
UN Global Compact Office
+1(917) 367-3423 (tel)
+1(917) 214-1337 (mobile)
stausberg@un.org

Gudrun Döhl
Manager Conference Marketing and Communications
Global Reporting Initiative
+31 (0)20 531 00 67
dohl@globalreporting.org