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The number of companies worldwide reporting on their sustainability performance has increased dramatically to a record high, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has announced.
The GRI says it knows of more than 1000 organizations worldwide that issued sustainability reports in 2008. This number, the highest ever recorded, is 46 per cent higher than the 2007 figure of 685.
The biggest proportion come from Spain (128), and Europe as a whole is home to about half of reporters. Spain is followed by the US (100), Brazil (64), Australia and the UK (both 56). Fifteen per cent of last year’s reports were produced by Asian companies.
However, reports produced in line with the GRI guidelines remain in the minority. In the UK, only 22 per cent of FTSE 100 companies and just over a tenth of S&P500 business in the US released such reports last year.
GRI chief executive Ernst Ligeringen said the significance of the rise in reporting was unclear if quality still lags behind: ‘If sustainability data was just something that was “nice to know” about a company ... then this wouldn’t be so much of a problem. However, this information is more important than that. As we face a sustainability crisis that could ultimately even threaten our very existence as a species, we need to know how our companies are positioned to rise to the challenges, provide solutions and adapt to coming changes.’
The data follows the GRI’s release of the Amsterdam Declaration on Transparency and Reporting earlier this year, which urged governments to introduce policies requiring companies either to report on their sustainability performance or to explain why they will not.
The GRI says it knows of more than 1000 organizations worldwide that issued sustainability reports in 2008. This number, the highest ever recorded, is 46 per cent higher than the 2007 figure of 685.
The biggest proportion come from Spain (128), and Europe as a whole is home to about half of reporters. Spain is followed by the US (100), Brazil (64), Australia and the UK (both 56). Fifteen per cent of last year’s reports were produced by Asian companies.
However, reports produced in line with the GRI guidelines remain in the minority. In the UK, only 22 per cent of FTSE 100 companies and just over a tenth of S&P500 business in the US released such reports last year.
GRI chief executive Ernst Ligeringen said the significance of the rise in reporting was unclear if quality still lags behind: ‘If sustainability data was just something that was “nice to know” about a company ... then this wouldn’t be so much of a problem. However, this information is more important than that. As we face a sustainability crisis that could ultimately even threaten our very existence as a species, we need to know how our companies are positioned to rise to the challenges, provide solutions and adapt to coming changes.’
The data follows the GRI’s release of the Amsterdam Declaration on Transparency and Reporting earlier this year, which urged governments to introduce policies requiring companies either to report on their sustainability performance or to explain why they will not.
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