Transparency That Drives Impact – Where Next for GRI
CalSTRS CEO Jack Ehnes at the GRI Reporters’ Summit in Arizona
GRI continues to deliver the most effective global sustainability standards, while it is focused on doing even more to support companies to provide high quality, accessible and impactful reporting.
That was a key message from Jack Ehnes – Vice Chair of the GRI Board, and CEO of CalSTRS (California State Teachers’ Retirement System) – as he addressed the GRI Reporters’ Summit in Arizona, USA, yesterday.
The summit offered more than 120 representatives from corporations an opportunity to learn about GRI’s strategic plans and gain practical insights into the latest developments in sustainability reporting. A second ‘North America – East’ summit takes place in June in Washington DC, for stakeholders who could not attend this week’s event.
In Arizona, attendees also heard from Bastian Buck (GRI Chief of Standards) about the new GRI Tax Standard, and from Mirjam Groten (GRI Chief Business Development Officer) on emerging trends to increase the quality of reporting, and how GRI services support this.
Jack Ehnes said:
“The development of GRI, from pioneering guidance on sustainability impacts more than 20 years ago to becoming the global standard setter today, means we provide the only internationally recognized, multi-stakeholder and independent standards for disclosure. That has resulted in a big increase in the sharing of corporate sustainability data to those who can drive attention and impact.
As demand for sustainability data grows, the importance of a strong set of standards is even more in focus. That’s why GRI’s key responsibility is maintaining and accelerating the stewardship of the Standards to ensure they remain best in class – as demonstrated by our publication in December of the first country-by-country reporting standard for tax.
Looking ahead, in addition to delivering world-leading standards, GRI must do all it can to give organizations the support, tools and leadership needed to produce high-quality, accessible and robust data that will drive improvements in sustainability performance.”
See here for the full program of GRI’s North America Reporters’ Summit – West in Arizona. Places are available for the North America Reporters’ Summit – East, in Washington DC on 16 June.
Jack Ehnes has been CEO of CalSTRS (which has a US$250 billion investment portfolio) since 2002. He joined the GRI Board of Directors in November 2018. Jack is widely recognized for his leadership in sustainable investing and responsible business.
GRI published a new global reporting standard for tax (GRI 207) in December 2019.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the independent international organization that helps businesses and other organizations understand and communicate their sustainability impacts. The GRI Standards are the world’s most widely used for sustainability reporting.
