Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the only global platform for companies and cities to disclose and manage their environmental impacts, and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), providers of the most widely used comprehensive Sustainability Reporting Guidelines in the world, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will see the two not-for-profits work together to align areas of their reporting frameworks.
By working together to promote the harmonization and clarification of corporate sustainability reporting guidelines, standards and frameworks, CDP and GRI will improve the consistency and comparability of environmental data, making corporate reporting more efficient and effective and easing the reporting burden for companies.
This is an important step toward global standardization of corporate natural capital disclosure to capital markets. By enabling more efficient valuation of natural resources in this way, both organizations hope to accelerate progress to a resource-efficient economy.
Ernst Ligteringen, Chief Executive of GRI, said, “The partnership between GRI and CDP will help bring greater clarification and alignment to reporting and enhance its value for a range of information users, including investors. The G4 Guidelines have seen full alignment with CDP on GHG emission indicators. Our collaboration will make an important contribution to rebuilding the architecture of corporate market information related to sustainability.”
CDP’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Simpson said, “We share the common goal of driving investment decisions and corporate actions to value and protect the Earth’s natural capital. This alignment will enable companies to elicit the maximum benefit from their reporting efforts and encourage more sustainable decisions.”
The MoU details commitment across all levels by both CDP and GRI and includes practical areas for collaboration, such as communications, information exchange and the creation of a joint work plan.
The MoU was signed by both parties on 24 May 2013 at the 2013 GRI Global Conference on Sustainability and Reporting that took place on 22-24 May 2013 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Source: GRI.
