Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) on trends in sustainability reporting has been taken a step further.
To investigate and better understand the effect they would have on their own companies and sustainability reports CLG choose 4 trends From the 17 trends presented by GRI at the Forum on Sustainability Trends and Reports held in November 2015. These trends are climate change, human rights, wealth inequality, and information and technology.
Climate change.
Climate change is at the top of the global agenda and evolving trends in sustainability and corporate information.
In 2016, the World Economic Forum declared the failure in mitigation and adaptation to climate change as the main global risk in terms of impact. Climate occupies a prominent place in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are already attracting significant interest and early adoption, and many organizations already disclose information about climate change.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) took stock of the spread of climate change in the G20 countries and found that corporate reporting practices are improving rapidly.
Among the priorities to explore and improve information on climate change in corporate reports, the GLG recommends organizations to:
•Contextualize and internalize more the challenge of climate change: Learn as much as you can from the best practices, but be sure to review the materiality analysis and the most relevant aspects of climate change for each sector and organization, and improve the data, the metrics and the reports accordingly: If the emphasis is on the supply chain, the priority could be to understand the risks in your supply chain and calculate your scope 3 emissions. If the company’s products and services influence the use of energy and the emissions of others, the design and manner in which they are delivered may be of greater importance.
•Try to understand the interconnections of climate change and other issues.
•Establish and achieve long-term goals (beyond 2020), based on scientific objectives.
•Determine how to align the interests and activities of the reporting organizations with governments, taking into account the different national plans on climate change and the multinational nature of many reporting organizations.
•Develop a clear and concise narrative of the vulnerability of the organization in the light of climate change and the shared challenge it presents.
•Focus on behavior change: what should people and organizations do to address the challenges related to energy consumption and emissions?
Human Rights.
Human rights observes two mega trends that will be fundamental for business operations and will demonstrate the inter connectivity of the trends that were explored by the CLG:
•The emergence of hyper-inequality and the opportunity for shared prosperity: The business plays a fundamental role in the way in which wealth is created, but also in how it is distributed. Respecting and protecting Human Rights is fundamental for the equitable distribution of resources.
•The worsening ecological crisis: The need to transition towards a low carbon economy creates an opportunity to find solutions that benefit the most vulnerable: those who often remain without environmental or ecological protection also often experience a lack of Human Rights and social protection, especially in long and complex supply chains.
The expectations of corporate reports on the many facets of Human Rights are growing day by day and due diligence in that area is now the minimum expected. Investors, rating agencies, and regulators seek information about this diligence and through benchmarking they will be provided with simple and quick comparisons.
The priorities and next steps to be taken to improve the report on Human Rights according to the GLG are to:
•Understand better the Human Rights, not only as a material problem for the organizations but with a more detailed understanding of the importance and of the rights that run the risk of having the most severe negative impact through the activities of the organization and its commercial relationships. To achieve this, Human Rights impact evaluations must be carried out.
•Create awareness and disseminate knowledge through the company and its supply chain is essential.
•Companies must explore how their HR departments can help compliance with Human Rights.
•Integrating respect for Human Rights throughout the supply chain is perceived as the greatest challenge.
•Many companies are interested to share their supply chain information since a single organization can not effectively monitor hundreds and thousands of suppliers.
•The work of risk analysis of the supply chain and the audit are a first step to identify the risks in Human Rights.
GE3S is a sustainability reporting consultant. We have developed 30+ sustainability reports globally. For further information visit us @ ge3s.org or email vishal.kumar@ge3s.org
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