GRI’s global outreach continued this month, as representatives visited Europe, Asia and Africa. UN Global Compact leaders’ summit in Geneva was the event of the month. Ernst Ligteringen represented GRI at this high profile gathering of leadership organizations in the sustainability and business world. Senior executives from all over Europe also gathered in Vienna in July to discuss CSR issues. Ralph Thurm, Associate Director for Business Relations, presented GRI as a case study to increase value for companies internally and externally through transparency.
A visible growth in momentum of the sustainability agenda was apparent in Russia when Ralph Thurm and GRI Associate Teodorina Lessidrenska attended the “Corporate Responsibility Management as a Reality” conference in Moscow. The event, organized by GRI Organizational Stakeholder Agency for Social Interaction (ASI) demonstrated just how far interest in GRI and sustainability reporting is growing in the Russian context. The GRI network looks forward to building upon the Russian interest and participating in expanded growth in the region. A formal launch of the G3 Guidelines in Russia is likely by the end of the year.
Sustainability reporting is in its infancy in China but interest is increasing and the concept of sustainability is taking root. This was manifest at a seminar this month in Beijing on CSR reporting in China, organized by BSR and China WTO Tribune. Technical Director Sean Gilbert spoke on “the Guidelines of GRI – tools of CSR reporting” in one of the panel sessions.
Finally, a workshop was held this month in snowy Cape Town as part of the “Transparency in the Supply Chain” project GRI is running in collaboration with GTZ. This was attended by Leontien Plugge who is managing the project.