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Sustainability reporting: Bridging the divide between business and sustainable development ... UN Global Compact's triennial Leaders’ Summit in New York

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Sustainability reporting: Bridging the divide between business and sustainable development 02 October 2013

​On 20 September, at the UN Global Compact's triennial Leaders’ Summit in New York, the UN unveiled a new business engagement architecture that presents a major opportunity to leverage sustainability reporting to drive the private sector’s contribution to sustainable development. ​The new implementation architecture, launched by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, addresses the pivotal role of business in helping to make the global vision of sustainable development a reality. The UN Secretary General took the stage together with Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact (UNGC), GRI Chief Executive Ernst Ligteringen, and Peter Bakker, President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), to address an audience of more than 1000 business leaders from around the world.

Kell, Ligteringen and Bakker came together to affirm plans for mutual collaboration between the three organizations to support and empower business to take action on sustainable development. Each will bring unique strengths to the partnership – UNGC as a principle-based organization, GRI as an effective reporting standard, and WBCSD as a deep content-based organization.

The collaboration can be seen as an important strategic step in the post-2015 development agenda. The concept of universally applicable Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) was first put forward at the Rio+20 Summit in June 2012. While the SDGs are yet to be determined, it will be necessary for all actors, including the private sector, to work toward these goals and to measure and monitor the contribution they make. A key factor will be the need for businesses to demonstrate accountability and transparency by publicly disclosing their sustainability impacts, according to widely accepted guidelines.

To achieve alignment with key partners, GRI plans to work with UNGC and WBCSD to develop private sector guidance that will help companies enhance their sustainability management and reporting with a view to global sustainable development goals and targets.

A wide range of internationally recognized standards can be used alongside the GRI Framework. The latest iteration of GRI’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines - G4 - includes specific references to the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, making it easier for organizations to understand the synergies and complementarities in these standards, and use them in conjunction with one another.

GRI and UNGC are currently working on a linkage document for the G4 Guidelines, which will be launched by the end of the year.