Making Reporting Relevant: Two sustainability databases

As businesses become more transparent, so databases populated with the information that businesses now disclose are becoming more sophisticated and opening up wondrous possibilities for discovery, comparison, benchmarking and all sorts of interesting facts and figures compilations. Hot off the press is the new GRI Database of Sustainability Reports, which is a repository of over 7,600 sustainability and integrated reports (GRI-based and non-GRI-based) which is searchable and offers possibilities for interesting benchmarking options. Another fascinating data base which drills right down to source ESG data, sector by sector, is the new Justmeans Insights platform which is a data visualization and performance dashboard. (see the Press Release here).    The new GRI Sustainability Report Database is the product of several years work and broad collaboration with the GRI Data Consortium  (my company, Beyond Business is the Data Consortium Partner for Israel). It is still in pilot phase, but is looking pretty good. The Database site was launched officially this week with a press release  and a launch webinar which you can view here (Webex recording). Many bloggers have already rushed to report on the key features of this new database, such as Raz Godelnik on Triple Pundit, and Environmental Leader and Sustainable Planet...   ... The other database that is worth watching takes transparency a step further. Data Visualization from the Justmeans platform is quite spectacular. Take a look at this blog post by Harry Stevens to get an impression of what the platform can do. The Insights platform uses data collected by the CRD Analytics Global 1000 Smartview (R) 360 methodology (which powers the Nasdaq OMX Sustainability Index) for sustainability reporting companies with market capitalization of at least $1 billion. Insights makes a wide range of performance data available sector by sector, in comparable form with instant graphic visualization. So far, three sectors are available (Pharma, Computers and Peripherals and Semiconductors) and over time, more sectors will be added. This presupposes that analysis by sector is the way to go and there is some merit in comparing apples with apples, or in the case of the Pharma industry, drugs with drugs.   Click here to continue reading and comment