Global Reporting Initiative G4 Guidelines: A New Screenplay for CSR Reporting

This week, CSR and sustainability professionals around the world are anxiously awaiting the launch of the G4 Guidelines from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the leading global CSR and sustainability reporting framework. The G4 Guidelines – the latest iteration since GRI released the G3.1 version in 2010 – will be announced on Wednesday at GRI’s Global Conference on Sustainability and Reporting in Amsterdam and is expected to change the landscape of reporting in a meaningful way.

While it’s tough to know how the final Guidelines will look until the launch later this week, Cone Communications’ Jennifer Garner got a sneak peek at some of the significant changes in store at a recent GRI G4 kick-off event.

• Materiality: The Star of the Show The G4 Guidelines will require companies to think more broadly about material issues and will offer guidance on how to evaluate the impacts their business creates throughout the value chain. Companies will be asked to report on impacts created throughout the value chain and include a discussion about how they are addressing those issues. However, G4 likely will not require companies to disclose comprehensive data or metrics associated with each entity along the value chain.

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