Publish or Perish

by Erich Schwartz – Green Space BC: Business in Vancouver

Historically, environmentalists and government have tended to lead the charge for sustainability, but it is now businesses that have taken charge. The shift in leadership occurred in Copenhagen in 2009 when the negotiations failed. Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, succinctly stated “after Hopelesshagen, governments have been left to the wayside”. While Barbara Kux, Siemens’ Chief Procurement Officer, stated “the Green race is on!” Both statements were made at the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Amsterdam Conference this year on Sustainability and Transparency that was attended by some of the Greenomics team.

The conference concluded with a record attendance topping 1200 delegates from 77 countries made up of executives and senior managers from major international firms, governments, NGO’s and others. The GRI’s mission is to make reporting on environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects of performance as normal and as important as financial reporting. The GRI presented some very ambitious goals including having all medium and large sized companies, totalling 80,000 firms, issue ESG reports by 2015, or explain “why not”. As well, GRI intends to set the standard for integrated reporting (a combination of sustainability and financial reports) by 2020. Of note, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is targeted as a prime case study for the type of content that should be required in a truly transparent sustainability report. For example, detailed safety data would need to be included, since it was stated that BP released an exceptional sustainability report, and yet the disaster still unfolded.
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