SUSTAINABILITY The process toward becoming a sustainable and socially responsible company is a journey that takes commitment and vision. It doesn't happen over night. Companies need to achieve this status in stages. "sustainability’s central principles include meeting current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." [Brundtland et al.] As a LEED Green Associate, with a solid and current foundation in green building principles and practices, we can assist in green design, construction and operations. As a certified GRI report writer, we can assist clients in developing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and GRI Sustainability Reports. And for first time companies just considering this move, we can also assist in preparing a Sustainability Strategy, setting targets for a multi-year horizon, and establishing metrics (performance indicators) to measure their achievement. Read our blog post explaining some of sustainability’s concrete business advantages. If you are ready to pursue a broader vision for your company, and would like to examine the steps toward full reporting "in accordance" with the GRI Standards, let us have a conversation. Contact Us Here

Changes coming with GRI Standards GRI is in the process of transition from the G4 Guidelines to GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards (GRI Standards). Companies can use the G4 Guidelines as their sustainability reporting framework until June 2018, but early transition is encouraged. The GRI Standards are based on the content from the G4 Guidelines but with a new modular structure. There has been a real effort to increase clarity and flexibility, plus a new alignment with international reporting systems

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What's in a name? Sustainable concepts are not new - they are as old as the industrial revolution itself - but their prevalence in business has only really gained momentum in the past decade or so. Therefore, a unified set of vocabulary and procedures are still evolving. A multitude of terms, acronyms and topics fall under the umbrella of sustainability, including Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Triple Bottom Line (3BL) and Corporate Responsibility (CR) reporting, as well as others. More than just an environmental perspective, sustainability includes both good corporate citizenship and governance issues as well as anything that has the potential to create or destroy value (from water management to human rights ). Let's face it, financial data looks backwards. Sustainability reporting is an attempt to look into the future, both for threats and opportunities.

GRI (the Global Reporting Initiative) is the principle global standard for sustainability reporting methodology. They have established a set of Performance Indicators (Metrics) which are organized into four main categories: Economic, Environment, Social and Governance. The Social category is further broken down into Labor, Human Rights, Society and Product Responsibility sub-categories. More than 80% of all S&P 500 companies who publish a sustainability report do so using the GRI guidelines. Our principal, Chris Johnson, has completed GRI Certified Training in the GRI Sustainability Reporting Process.

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