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GRI based sustainability reporting in India

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an organization that produces a comprehensive sustainability reporting framework that is widely used around the world. It started with a vision of a sustainable global economy where organizations manage their economic, environmental, social and governance performance and impacts responsibly and report transparently. GRI has a mission to make sustainability reporting standard practice by providing guidance and support to organizations. It’s about disclosure of organization’s economic, environmental, social and governance performance in credible way and subsequently helping them to identify business risks and opportunities to the organization due to these parameters.

Top 10 GRI based Sustainability Reporting Countries 2011
Top 10 Reporting Countries 2011

GRI provide framework to report organization’s sustainability performance. It is known as the sustainability reporting framework and consists of three parts – (1) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, (2) Sector Supplements and (2) The Technical Protocol – Applying the Report Content Principles.  All it provide guidance on how organizations can disclose their sustainability performance in true manner. Organization of any size and type can use this framework to assess their performance indicators in economic, environmental, and social domain. Organization that creates their non financial report based on GRI sustainability reporting framework can be considered as credible output aligned with applicable standards and norms. Such report can be used to demonstrate organizational commitment to sustainable development. It can also qualitatively and quantitatively used to measure and compare organization performance based on environment, social and economic dimensions.

By September 2011, 43 corporate sustainability reports published by different organizations in India. TATA (Automotive) is pioneer in sustainability reporting in India. It has started reporting their sustainability performance from year 2001 based on GRI protocol. Following table shows the list of Indian companies with GRI based sustainability reports;

Sr. No Organization Sector Starting Year 
1 Mumbai International Airport Private Limited Airport operator 2012
2 Ambuja Cements Construction 2011
3 JSW Steel Metals Products 2011
4 Jubilant Industries Limited Chemicals 2011
5 Transport Corporation of India (TCI) Logistics 2011
6 UltraTech Cement Construction Materials 2011
7 HCC Construction 2010
8 Jain Irrigation Systems Agriculture 2010
9 JSW Conglomerates 2010
10 KOEL Energy 2010
11 Maruti-Suzuki Automotive 2010
12 Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) Financial Services 2010
13 Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Energy 2010
14 Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) Financial Services 2010
15 Sree Santhosh Garments (SSG) Textiles and Apparel 2010
16 Grasim Industries Construction Materials 2009
17 Moser Baer India Other 2009
18 V. S. Dempo & Co. Mining 2009
19 Wipro Ltd Computers 2009
20 ABN AMRO INDIA Financial Services 2008
21 BPCL Energy 2008
22 Chemplast Sanmar Chemicals 2008
23 Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories India Healthcare Products 2008
24 Indian Oil Energy Utilities 2008
25 Infosys Technologies India Computers 2008
26 Larsen & Toubro Conglomerates 2008
27 Mahindra Conglomerates 2008
28 MSPL Mining 2008
29 SRF Conglomerates 2008
30 Sterlite Industries Mining 2008
31 Tata Motors Automotive 2008
32 Tata Tea Food and Beverage Products 2008
33 Varroc Engineering Equipment 2008
34 Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Computers 2007
35 Sesa Goa Mining 2006
36 Shree Cement Construction Materials 2005
37 ITC Conglomerates 2004
38 Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd Chemicals 2004
39 Reliance Industries Limited Conglomerates 2004
40 Tata International Conglomerates 2004
41 Ford India Automotive 2002
42 Paharpur Business Centre Commercial Services 2002
43 Tata Steel Metals Products 2002
44 TATA Automotive 2001

Considering the importance of sustainability in businesses, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India has launched Corporate Social Responsibility Voluntary Guidelines (2009). This voluntary CSR Policy addresses six core elements – Care for all Stakeholders, Ethical functioning, Respect for Workers’ Rights and Welfare, Respect for Human Rights, Respect for Environment and Activities for Social and Inclusive Development. At this stage these are voluntary guidelines, but there is a possibility of mandatory guidelines too in the near future.

The companies with GRI based sustainability reports in India have started accounting and then disclosing their impacts on the environment and society.  Sustainability reporting is now becoming a standard practice for global companies and If Indian companies want to be a competitive with their global counterparts; need to adopt GRI based sustainability reporting framework positively.

Reference: Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

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