The European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) and Eurelectric, the association representing the electricity industry at a pan-European level, recently signed a joint statement on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) which endorses the use of the GRI Guidelines and the Electric Utilities Sector Supplement.

The signing of this statement on 22 June 2009 represents the first time an entire European industry has formally endorsed the GRI Guidelines.

The recommendation to adopt these additional reporting requirements by a partnership of such significant civil society organizations will set a strong benchmark for the industry and will allow for improved comparability and transparency of sustainability information.

EPSU’s Jan Willem Goudriaan, responsible for the energy sector said: “CSR is an approach of continuously striving to do better than legislation and standard practice requires. By endorsing CSR and the global reporting standards as an industry, the electricity companies indicate their commitment to be recognized as employers of reference. We have set a benchmark of what constitutes acceptable behavior of electricity companies. Those companies that do not live up to the standard give the sector a bad reputation”.

Read full press release here.