Global Reporting Initiative and Sustainable Reporting Essay

Global Reporting Initiative and Sustainable Reporting - Essay Example The increase in regulatory scrutiny, the emergence of new standards and the heightened interest on the part of public and private policymakers are the reasons why sustainability reporting becomes imperative for organizations today. To demonstrate this, this paper will explore one of the most widely recognized sustainability standards, the Global Reporting Initiative. Reporting Standard The Global Reporting Initiative was established in the year 1997 and sponsored by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies; the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) was formed for the purpose of outlining a set of guidelines that would deal with the economic, environmental and social consequences of organizational activity (Brown, 2005, p.90). Because of this objective, the initiative is often called as â€Å"sustainability reporting.† Its declared mission is â€Å"to create conditions for the transparent and reliable exchange of sustainability information through the development an d continuous improvement of its Sustainability Reporting Framework† (GRI 2007). ... ainability Reporting Guidelines mandates that â€Å"a sustainability report should provide a balanced and reasonable representation of the sustainability performance of a reporting organization† (SRG, p.3). The significance of this initiative for companies rests on the determination of the sustainability performance. By defining, outlining and documenting the economic, environmental, social and governance areas for specific economic activities, an organization through the report, could identify its achievements in the context of its sustainability objectives. It is able to better benefit from the impact of its sustainability performance because the report contains correct and legitimate feedback. The benefits of a transparent organization, which will be explored further later on, is particularly maximized. This is the reason why companies release sustainability reports. In the International Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting in 2008, for instance, it was found that a lmost 80 percent of the companies in the Global 250 issued sustainability report (White, p.47). The same report cited numerous other reasons. They include ethics, economic considerations, brand reputation, innovation and learning (p.47). These variables reflect the changing dynamics of doing business today as stakeholder relationships changed. It appears that profit, which traditionally govern such relationship, is no longer the sole concern especially on the part of investors or that profit is no longer exclusively driven by purely economic activities. The case of AstraZeneca is an excellent example of how sustainability reporting could achieve a valid and acceptable sustainable reporting. The company has incorporated environmental and social aspects into its existing accounting and reporting