COP and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
The United Nations Global Compact (GC) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) are both voluntary initiatives that play complementary roles in advancing universal principles by promoting organizational accountability and improved performance. The GRI and the GC co-authored to provide practical guidance on how these global frameworks can be used most effectively together, with the goal of enhancing the value and ease with which the GC Principles can be implemented and results can be communicated. This guide provides advice and support for linking sustainability reporting under the new Third Generation (G3) of GRI’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines with the preparation of an annual GC Communication on Progress (COP), which is required of all Global Compact participants. While other guidance is available for preparing a COP, the GRI G3 Guidelines do offer globally recognized reporting guidance that can help produce strong COPs, and are therefore recommended for use by the Global Compact. Click here for on overview how the 10 principles of the Global Compact are linked to the GRI G3 performance indicators.
Use of the GRI G3 Guidelines can enhance Global Compact participants’ communication with their stakeholders in a number of key ways:
• The GRI G3 Guidelines address the status of implementation and performance for each Global Compact principle.
• GRI’s indicators and disclosures ensure presentation of a company’s performance and achievements in an appropriate and relevant context (strategy and vision, management systems and other context-setting information).
• Aside from content coverage, the GRI G3 Guidelines provide guidance on many relevant decisions related to reporting that enhance the quality of the COP.
• The GRI G3 Guidelines offer an incremental approach that allows companies to increase reporting at their own pace. This is consistent with the concept of continuous improvement on which the COP is based.
• Knowledge accumulated in the GRI Guidelines over the last ten years provides a global, multi-stakeholder view on how to assess performance around many of the same issues covered by the GC principles.
Select Guidance Documents
Making the Connection: Using GRI's G3 Reporting Guidelines
for the Communication on Progress
A guideline that
introduces and explores ways to adress GRI and Global Compact requirements
simultansously, and is intended to assist companies in combining their sustainability
reporting and COP.
Global Reporting Initiative G3 Guidelines
A link to the Global Reporting Initiatives Sustainability Reporting
Guidelines, the basis for all other GRI reporting documents.
GRI Based Sustainability Reporting for Small and Medium
Enterprises
This page on the GRI website presents various tools
and publications useful for small and medium sized enterprises entering the
world of sustainability reporting. It offers a step-by-step guidance and
practical how-to advice on using the GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines
For more information please contact Jeff Senne (senne@un.org), Communication on Progress Manager at the Global Compact Office.
(Last update 28 June 2007)
