Experts from GRI say this means that guidance for people producing sustainability reports should be kept up to date with emerging trends in software use and digital reporting.
GRI provides the world’s most widely-used framework for producing sustainability reports. The Sustainability Reporting Framework lets large and small companies, non-profit organizations and government bodies worldwide assess their sustainability performance and report on the results. Transparency through reporting on economic, environmental, social and governance factors drives the sustainability of individual organizations and, ultimately, the global economy. GRI’s key goal is to make sustainability reporting a mainstream practice.
There are many software options for a company wanting to produce a sustainability report, from developing tools in-house to purchasing software designed by providers. The results of the new survey emphasize the importance of software to companies that want to report on their sustainability performance. This confirms the need for GRI to check the legitimacy and accuracy of content from the GRI Guidelines used in software.
The new survey includes information about 99 companies and other organizations globally that registered at least one sustainability report with GRI between 2006 and 2010. The results of the survey show an increase in sustainability reporting within the sample, with 61 percent (61) of companies producing reports in 2006, rising to 94 percent (93) in 2009.
Companies that produce reports on their sustainability performance are increasingly reliant on software. This highlights the need for guidance like the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework to remain relevant in today’s digital world, and accessible in digital formats. 64 out of the 99 people who responded to the survey produced a sustainability report in 2006, and 21 of those companies used software to produce their reports. In 2010, 44 of 89 organizations are using software.
GRI supports organizations that use software to produce their sustainability reports by checking software that contains content from the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework. GRI’s Certified Software & Tools Program ensures that all software that includes GRI content uses it correctly. There are currently five software programs certified by GRI, produced by Microsoft, SAP, PE International, S2D2 and EnviroCIP.
Nelmara Arbex, Deputy Chief Executive of the Global Reporting Initiative, said: “Today’s survey brings to light an interesting trend in reporting, and confirms the rise in the use of software and digital reporting tools that we expected. By checking the use of GRI content in these tools, we can ensure that companies producing their sustainability reports know the tool they are using applies GRI content in an accurate way.
“The next generation of the GRI Guidelines will address the issue of software and digital applications in sustainability reporting, with information and Indicators that can be used electronically. This kind of application will also encourage more companies to report in the future, helping us on the path to a sustainable economy,” added Nelmara Arbex.
The survey team contacted 856 companies that produced at least one sustainability report using the GRI Guidelines between 2006 and 2010. These companies feature on the GRI Reports List, which includes sustainability reports based on the GRI Guidelines that GRI is aware of. 99 people responded within the two week survey time.