LEED certification: meaning and requirements
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In this article, we'll explore what LEED certification means, what it involves, and how it can help businesses to minimise their carbon footprint.
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Industries
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The GRI (Global Reporting Initiative): How to Implement it?
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For companies, transparency is essential to gain the trust of stakeholders. Whether it's to reinforce its employer brand, health and safety impacts, significant waste related impacts, create local community engagement, complying with a legal form, reducing energy consumption, or to maintain its relationship with its customers – the issues surrounding sustainable development are increasingly present.
In order to do so with sincerity and clarity, nothing is better than to rely on defined indicators and a structured methodology. This is where the Global Reporting Initiative's reference framework, also known as GRI G4, comes in.
The Global Reporting Initiative is a reference tool with guidelines for measuring the involvement of companies in the issue of sustainable development, but it is not mandatory.
👉 What exactly is the Global Reporting Initiative? Which companies are concerned? Greenly gives you its thoughts on the GRI.
What is the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)?
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
“ The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is first and foremost a voluntary approach on the part of companies. There is no GRI "label". Only companies that wish to be as transparent as possible, mitigate negative environmental impacts, and avoid greenwashing turn to this tool to use its various indicators. ”
The Global Reporting Initiative is an international non-profit and independent initiative where many participants develop rules for companies that care about sustainability issues.
There are numerous actors involved, including:
- NGOs;
- consulting firms;
- universities;
- private companies.
These guidelines allow companies to report on the economic, social and environmental dimensions of their activities, products and services following a specific methodology.
The main objective?
To see where companies stand on environmental and social issues.
The Global Reporting Initiative highlights the concrete and committed actions that have been put in place to reduce the sometimes harmful impact of companies. The defined guidelines make it possible to measure the performance of the various actions taken.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), history
The Global Reporting Initiative was created in 1997 in the United States from the merger of CERES (Coalition for Environmental Responsible Economies) and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme).
In France, the ORSE (Observatoire de la Responsabilité Sociétale des Entreprises) is working on the implementation of this standard by companies.
Since 1997, there have been many steps towards the GRI as we know it today:
- the first guidelines were defined in 2000;
- In 2002 and 2006, the indicators were revised;
- in 2013, the guidelines were again modified and renamed GRI G4
- in 2016, some references are based on the guidelines of the United Nations' SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).
Today, these GRI G4s are based on 69 indicators that are broken down into two levels according to their degree of importance:
- core indicators ;
- additional indicators.
All these indicators are based on 6 different areas:
- the economy ;
- the environment
- human rights
- social relations and working conditions
- responsible products;
- society.
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The benefits of applying the GRI standards in your company
Why use the GRI G4 as a benchmark in your company?
In addition to having a better perspective on the actions taken, it allows for a more in-depth comparative vision to become aware of the impact of the measures taken.
The French legislative framework is favorable to GRI standards
Today, with the Grenelle II law (article 225), companies with more than 500 employees are obliged to provide documentation attesting to "the way in which the company takes into account the social and environmental consequences of its activity" and to show "its societal commitments in favor of sustainable development".
“ Using the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines allows the company to reinforce its commitment to transparency and to be part of a process with measurable actions. ”
For instance, GRI standards could help to improve sustainability reporting and transition assistance programs for upgrading employee skills. Companies could avoid unwanted attention from governance bodies and understand significant risk associated with failing to create transparency.
In view of the announcements concerning the ecological stakes of the next few years, it is highly likely that these measures, which encourage companies that play the commitment card, will be reinforced.
Having indicators to monitor your CSR performance
When you want to engage in a CSR policy with ambitious objectives, it is better to base your KPIs on clear and relevant guidelines.
The GRI G4 is an additional tool to measure performance and actions to see the impact of the CSR approach. As it is based on 69 criteria and scans 6 different areas, this exhaustiveness can be used to define precise and ambitious ecological objectives, while avoiding the 4 pitfalls that hinder effective CSR.
Using the Global Reporting Initiative to create your CSR strategy gives you the certainty of having an innovative approach focused on economic, environmental and social performance. The CSR reports are carried out in a standard form following a methodology based on the GRI G4.
Gaining clarity for your non-financial reporting with the GRI
Non-financial reporting has been a regular feature of business practices for several years now, and thanks to the Global Reporting Initiative, 4,000 companies have already published a sustainability report.
The GRI guidelines and indicators formalize the method used to make a credible and reliable extra-financial performance declaration. This is not quite the same as CSR because the EPR allows investors to finance projects that are in line with their values.
Gaining points for certifications
Following the Global Reporting Initiative indicators to build your Corporate Social Responsibility policy, in addition to gaining clarity in your objectives and having precise KPIs, is a good thing when you want to label your CSR approach.
This is what EcoVadis allows for example. The company evaluates the actions implemented in its CSR and analyzes the related performances. This evaluation is based on 4 distinct themes:
- the environment ;
- social and human rights
- ethics
- responsible purchasing
These 4 themes are themselves drawn from various international CSR standards:
- the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact
- the conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO)
- the Global Reporting Initiative
- the ISO 26000 standard;
- the CERES principles;
- the Ruggie Framework principles.
By following the G4 guidelines, a company that follows a specific CSR approach has a better chance of obtaining certification and labeling.
How to implement GRI in your company?
Train a CSR team in GRI principles
“ To implement a strong CSR policy that follows the guidelines and indicators of the Global Reporting Initiative, it is not enough to simply pick and choose from the G4 performance criteria. The best way is to create a team dedicated to the environmental and CSR issues of your company and then train them on CSR issues by integrating the GRI principles. ”
It is essential to train both full time employees and part time employees in the ipmortance of managing economic activities, customer health, and supply chain resilience. GRI reporting will be most successful with this type of management approach.
Understanding the issues and problems behind certain actions is a real way to raise awareness and truly engage your employees. Through this, everyone becomes an actor of change and can find more meaning in their work. It's a win-win!
Follow the GRI principles of content and quality
In order to implement the GRI guidelines in your CSR approach, there is a methodology to follow in the framework of your company's CSR reports.
Two basic principles must be respected:
- the definition of the GRI content principles;
- the definition of the quality principles.
👉 In the first case, the GRI Implementation Guide explains that these principles are the ones that will guide the decision making regarding the content to be covered in the report, while examining the activities and impacts of the organization as well as the expectations and real interests of its various stakeholders.
Defining its content principles allows :
- the presentation of the "sustainable development" context in which the company operates
- the involvement of the different stakeholders;
- the ability to be more relevant and show the aspects that have a real impact, or influence the decisions of the stakeholders;
- the ability to be thorough by addressing aspects of reporting in a broad and precise manner to enable everyone to become aware of and evaluate their environmental performance.
The quality principles are a little different.
👉 The GRI Implementation Guide states that these principles help inform choices about the quality of the information provided in the report, including its presentation. Good quality information is fundamental to the ability of stakeholder groups to accurately and legitimately assess the organization's performance and take appropriate action.
Clearly defining quality principles allows you to:
- strike a balance: no aspect of the organization's sustainability performance should be neglected, good or bad;
- compare data to see changes and their value to the organization;
- be clear and precise: it is essential to provide detailed and understandable information so that stakeholders are able to analyze and evaluate the organization's performance;
- be timely: it is important to publish a report at regular intervals;
- be reliable by presenting verifiable and relevant information: the organization must collect, record, complicate, analyze and communicate its processes.
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Complete the GRI standards reference table
Once all the information has been collected and analyzed, how do you format it? It is advisable to complete a table based on the GRI standards reference table.
A report that complies with the Global Reporting Initiative standards must include the 7 distinct categories of information that are divided into subcategories:
- organizational profile;
- strategy and analysis;
- ethics and integrity;
- governance;
- identified aspects and scopes.
- stakeholder involvement;
- reporting procedures.
There are 3 specific subcategories within each of these broad categories:
- economic ;
- environmental ;
- social.
This information should be filled in in a table that should have several well-defined boxes:
- the relevant GRI Standard with the title and year of publication of each GRI Standard that was used as the basis for preparing the report;
- the data element with the number and wording of each;
- the page number and/or URL;
- omissions: for this, refer to GRI 101 for general principles on reasons for omission.
And that's it!
“ Remember that 84% of the world's largest companies apply the GRI guidelines in their sustainable development approach. The Global Reporting Initiative's indicators are true global references, making it possible to measure the performance and impact of the actions implemented. ”
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