GRI guidelines for assurance of sustainability reports: Fortune global 500 list 2010 analyses

Paper

Mori Junior, Renzo, Cotter, Julie and Best, Peter. 2012. "GRI guidelines for assurance of sustainability reports: Fortune global 500 list 2010 analyses." 2012 Australian GRI Conference on Sustainability and Integrated Reporting: Innovate, Integrate, Collaborate (GRI 2012) . Melbourne, Australia 26 - 28 Mar 2012 Sydney, Australia.
Paper/Presentation Title

GRI guidelines for assurance of sustainability reports: Fortune global 500 list 2010 analyses

Presentation TypePaper
AuthorsMori Junior, Renzo (Author), Cotter, Julie (Author) and Best, Peter (Author)
Journal or Proceedings TitleProceedings of the 2012 Australian GRI Conference on Sustainability and Integrated Reporting (GRI 2012)
Year2012
Place of PublicationSydney, Australia
Conference/Event2012 Australian GRI Conference on Sustainability and Integrated Reporting: Innovate, Integrate, Collaborate (GRI 2012)
Event Details
2012 Australian GRI Conference on Sustainability and Integrated Reporting: Innovate, Integrate, Collaborate (GRI 2012)
Event Date
26 to end of 28 Mar 2012
Event Location
Melbourne, Australia
Abstract

Sustainability reports have been used by organisations worldwide in an attempt to provide accountability to their stakeholders, and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)'s Guidelines are frequently used as a model for this type of report. In order to improve transparency and credibility, some organisations incorporate voluntarily an independent third party assurance process in their sustainability reports. As this is a voluntary and not regulated practice, there are different assurance providers providing different types of assurance services. Some stakeholders are not able to identify those differences and question the benefits of the assurance process and the way it is provided. As GRI asserts the importance of the assurance process in its guidelines, this paper aims to assess whether organisations listed on the Fortune Global list 2010 which follow GRI's guidelines adopt an assurance process. Our results demonstrate that organisations which follow the GRI framework tend to have their sustainability report assured. As GRI's guidelines play an important role in the assurance process, suggestions are provided to enhance transparency and consistency contributing toward innovation and improvement in assurance practices for the GRI (G4).

Keywordssustainability reports; reporting; assurance and transparency
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020500102. Business ethics
380202. Econometric and statistical methods
350107. Sustainability accounting and reporting
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Byline AffiliationsAustralian Centre for Sustainable Business and Development
Australian Centre for Sustainable Catchments
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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