Reporting Sustainability – Getting control of your image

GRI Based Sustainable Development Reporting

What is sustainability?

Industrialization and globalization have changed the context of business, accelerating

economic growth and intensifying social and environmental risks and impacts. A
sustainability program is the sum total of corporate strategies, policies, goals and initiatives
based on drivers of economic, social and environmental risk, return, resources and
reputation. Sustainability program ensures that amid environmental, social and even
economic uncertainty, an organization is able to adapt and remain viable for the long-term
interest of the owners.

Growing relevance of Sustainability reporting

Sustainability reporting as a practice, over the last ten years has evolved from being a
fringe one to a mainstream practice. Some of the drivers of the same are

1. There is an increasing volume of queries on sustainability performance of

product/services providing organizations from customers and socially responsible
investors. In some cases, the RFPs by prospective clients can as k information about
sustainability activities of the company, thus making it a part of market access
requirement.
2. In not-so-distant future, for a company to be a supplier to corporations such as Wal -
mart, it would need to disclose its performance on parameters such as workers working
conditions, greenhouse gas emissions and use of natural resources such as water.
3. Reporting ones performance on sustainability front has a definite marketing value,
either intended or intended. It can help in garnering recognition from third parties in
form of green/sustainability rankings.

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4. As a continuation of a fierce competition in the marketplace on all parameters,

competition in public relations is ensuring that information requests such as Carbon
Disclosure Project are becoming mainstream means of communicating with conscious
investors and public.
5. Activities that are voluntary today can become mandatory by law in future. Proposed
ideas such as CSR credits can make sustainability and corporate social responsibility a
key governance measure for action and reporting
6. Companies that have good performance in sustainability and reporting it have better
ability to attract and retain talent.

Global Reporting Initiative

GRI started in the US based nonprofits CERES and the Tellus Institute. It started as a
framework for environmental reporting in the early 1990s with the aim of creating an
accountability mechanism to ensure companies followed the CERES Principles for
responsible environmental conduct. GRI gives the reporting organization a flexibility of
choosing the level of compliance to the stipulated guidelines and the checking in form
suitable to the organization (self, third party or GRI itself). Across the globe, over 1000
organizations across countries, sectors and scales self declare the use of the GRI Guidelines
in their sustainability reports, and a multitude of others use the guidelines on a more
informal basis without self-declaration. In India, leading companies such as ITC, Infosys and
Dr. Reddy’s have their sustainability reports complying GRI guidelines.

An organization should base its sustainability report on GRI’s guidelines since

1. Businesses, through their operations have impact on the environment and the society
they operate in.
2. Many organizations undertake initiatives, spending significant resources – monetary
and non-monetary in executing these initiatives.

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3. Socially responsible investors such as FMO do follow and stimulate others to use Global
Reporting Initiative’s G3 guidelines
4. Publishing a report complying G3 guidelines at the GRI forum can give the organization
visibility at international level along with the best in class companies across the globe.
Such a visibility is a powerful differentiator in the eyes of stakeholders such as investors,
suppliers and employees.

Indian companies – Building reporting systems

As more and more Indian companies understand the importance of sustainability in their
regular business operations and in approaching foreign investments, they have started the
process of identifying and establishing their approach to sustainability, monitoring the
process internally and generating Sustainable Development Report of their own. More and
more reports are being generated every passing year. The reports are also getting featured
on the sites on Global Reporting Initiative as shown in the pictures below.

a - Sustainable Development Report - Jain Irrigation

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b - Sustainable Development Report - L & T

More about the reporting guidelines

The Reporting Framework provides guidance on how organizations can disclose their
sustainability performance. The Guidelines (“G3”) are the foundation of the Framework.
The Framework is applicable to organizations of any size, constituency or location, and has
been used already by many hundred organizations around the world as the basis of their
sustainability reporting.

The schematic on the next page shows how the GRI’s G3 guidelines can be applied to the
sustainability efforts of an organization to generate a focused Sustainable Development
Report. The next schematic lays out the various aspects of G3 guidelines as a part of the
overall GRI framework on reporting sustainability.

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 Reporting Sustainability – Getting control of your image

c - Sustainable Development Reporting

d - GRI Reporting Guidelines

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 Reporting Sustainability – Getting control of your image

We can!

EcoLogic Consultancy is a focused carbon, renewable energy and sustainability consulting

firm. We do have relevant experience in carbon accounting, carbon emission reduction and
sustainability reporting and communication. We have undertaken focused training and
certification for GRI Certified Training Program organized by CII-ITC Centre of Excellence
for Sustainable Development (CESD). The certificate issued to us is attached.

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 Reporting Sustainability – Getting control of your image

About Us

EcoLogic Consultancy came into existence with the purpose of “To help our clients in
understanding, establishing sound Environment Management Systems, and pursuing sustainable
business solutions through our various services to abate direct and indirect impact on ecological
balance.”

We have expertise in the areas of carbon accounting and management, sustainability and carbon
branding, energy management systems, voluntary/compliance carbon markets and environment
management.

To know more about EcoLogic, please visit http://www.ecologicconsultancy.in.

To schedule a meeting and discussion with us, do reach us on

Kedar - +91-9665407848 – kedar@ecologicconsultancy.in

Indrajeet - +91-9028788430 – indrajeet@ecologicconsultancy.in

EcoLogic Consultancy