 |
Marjolein Baghuis, Director Marketing and Communications at Global Reporting Initiative, GRI
Your Global Conference on Sustainability and Reporting will take place from 22 to 24 May. What makes it "the must-attend sustainability event of 2013"?
GRI’s global conference is the largest event on sustainability and reporting in the world, bringing together 1,500 thought leaders and practitioners from over 80 countries. There are sessions for a diverse range of people: learning sessions for those new to reporting, policy sessions for those interested in the forces shaping the reporting environment, sessions on trends for the forward looking leaders, and much more.
And of course it will be the moment to launch the next generation of the GRI Guidelines – G4. For more information on the conference and the great speaker line-up, please visit www.griconference.org.
Why did you choose Amsterdam as destination and the RAI Amsterdam as venue?
All GRI Global Conferences have been held in Amsterdam, but not only because this is where the global GRI Secretariat is based. As a city, Amsterdam was one of the first to launch its own sustainability report, and the RAI has been recognized multiple times for its sustainability program.
Besides, Amsterdam is a very convenient conference location, with excellent connections from around the world, good public transportation, and more. With many anniversaries and grand openings in 2013, the city has actually called 2013 "the year of ambition". We hope all our conference participants will take that sense of ambition home with them after the conference and be inspired to drive forward the transition to a sustainable global economy.
For those who cannot come to Holland: Will the sessions be live streamed and featured in social networks?
All plenary sessions and selected parallel sessions will be captured and shared after the event. During the event, we will encourage all conference participants to share the conference experience and highlights through their social media channels.
We will have a conference app to facilitate this. The debate is already underway now through #GRI2013!
The Global Reporting Initiative provides all companies and organizations with a comprehensive sustainability reporting framework. Why should international associations care?
Increasingly, associations are inspiring their members to integrate sustainability into their core strategy and business model. This integrated thinking not only benefits society at large, but also the individual companies that get started on this transition.
For your members, this can provide a competitive edge – a way for them to differentiate themselves. Reporting is a fundamental part of this sustainability journey. It helps organizations around the world to engage their shareholders in a narrative about their sustainability performance.
What are the main two challenges for the GRI these days?
GRI’s mission is to make reporting standard practice – so our key challenges are to increase the number of organizations that report, as well as to ensure that the quality of reporting improves continuously. The new G4 Guidelines are there to help drive report quality, but also to make reporting more focused and therefore easier.
To increase awareness and uptake of sustainability reporting, we use many communications channels to reach out to our network and beyond. The Global Conference on Sustainability and Reporting is a landmark moment, an opportunity to bring people together from across the world to accelerate the transition to a sustainable global economy.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) promotes the use of sustainability reporting as a way for organizations to become more sustainable and contribute to a sustainable global economy. GRI’s mission is to make sustainability reporting standard practice. To enable all companies and organizations to report their economic, environmental, social and governance performance, GRI produces free Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. GRI is a not-for-profit, network-based organization; its activity involves thousands of professionals and organizations from many sectors, constituencies and regions. Contact: info@globalreporting.org. www.globalreporting.org