According to "Carrots and Sticks: Promoting Transparency & Sustainability," a 2010 report produced by KPMG, the United Nations Environmental Program and the University of Stellenbosch business school, there are now a total of 142 country standards or laws related to sustainability, and about two-thirds of those are mandatory and the rest voluntary. Ten governments have a formal reference to GRI in their governmental guidance related to corporate social responsibility.

"The GRI was a big step forward in terms of its immediate mission, which was accountability," says White, who served as CEO until 2003. "It really has made a difference. The question is no longer, 'why report,' but 'why don't you report?'"

The GRI has a fairly complex governance structure. It has a board of directors, technical advisory groups, a stakeholder council, and dozens of working groups. These all need to be balanced in accordance with various stakeholders.

"If we were going to stand tall among all these global initiatives and say we were serious about inclusiveness, keeping the tent wide open, and transparency to and by all parties, we said let's err on the side of hyper-democracy instead of coming up short," says White. "We took a chance doing it because every time you make something more complex, you make it more costly."

But as Clark University professor Halina Brown and her colleagues point out in a paper entitled "The Rise of the Global Reporting Initiative as a Case of Institutional Entrepreneurship," the founders' vision was to set in motion more of a process than an end-product.

The GRI's guidelines, they write, are a "living document"--produced "by the users and for the users." Like software, the Guidelines continue to be revised. There was G1, G2, G3, and now G3.1. The process for G4, which is expected to include developing more guidance regarding the collection of data from supply chains and other things, is just beginning now.

The GRI was founded as a global organization, and the number of companies officially reporting on sustainability issues grew from 50 to about 2,000 today. But White says the U.S. was never forgotten, and last November the GRI established a presence in this country called Focus USA. It was launched at the New York Stock Exchange, which itself has published its own sustainability report and is working on its second as it contemplates sustainability guidelines for companies listed on the exchange.

"There is a huge global movement to re-think our economy that is being effected all over the world," Massie says, "and that's exciting and dynamic and perfectly in keeping with America's idea of innovation and reinvention. And yet it's not part of the [American] political debate right now.

"The U.S., in this area as in many areas," he continues, "has squandered an opportunity for leadership."

A former investment banker and veteran financial reporter, Ellie Winninghoff writes a blog at: http://www.DoGoodCapitalist.com. She can be contacted at: [email protected]. 

First « 1 2 3 4 » Next