Number of organisations publishing environmental, sustainability etc. reports according to the Global Reporting initiative (GRI) standard (28.1)

Indicator definition

This indicator shows the number of organisations publishing environment and sustainability reports according to the Global Reporting initiative (GRI) standard in any given year.

Units

This indicator is expressed in absolute numbers of organisations publishing a report in a given year.

Policy context and targets

Context description

In 2001 the European Commission adopted a Recommendation (2001/453/EC) on recognition, measurement and disclosure of environmental issues in the annual accounts and annual reports of EU companies. The Recommendation clarifies existing EU accounting rules and provides guidance to improve the quality, transparency and comparability of environmental data available in companies' annual accounts and annual reports.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters was adopted on 25 June 1998 and entered into force on 30 October 2001 (it was signed by the EU in 1998 and approved in 2005).

The Aarhus Convention establishes a number of rights of the public (individuals and their associations) with regard to the environment. The Parties to the Convention are required to make the necessary provisions so that public authorities (at national, regional or local level) will contribute to these rights to become effective. In particular, the Convention provides for the right of everyone to receive environmental information that is held by public authorities ("access to environmental information"). Applicants are entitled to obtain this information within one month of the request and without having to say why they require it. In addition, public authorities are obliged, under the Convention, to actively disseminate environmental information in their possession;

The Carbon Disclosure Project is an independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest database of primary corporate climate change information in the world. Over 3,000 organizations in some 60 countries around the world measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, water management and climate change strategies through CDP, in order that they can set reduction targets and make performance improvements. This data is made available for use by a wide audience including institutional investors, corporations, policymakers and their advisors, public sector organizations, government bodies, academics and the public.

In September 2010, at the Clinton Global Initiative, the Plastic Disclosure Project (PDP) was launched. This initiative is similar to the annual reporting that many companies now voluntarily undertake in reporting their carbon use. Annual surveys will be presented to industry participants starting in 2011 who sign on to the PDP and volunteer to report their overall plastic use. All types of companies can be a signatory to the PDP, with the main focus initially on the consumer goods sector.

In the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe COM (2011) 571, part of the milestone underboosting efficient productionreads “All companies, and their investors, can measure and benchmark their lifecycle resource efficiency”. 

Targets

No policy targets or objectives have been identified for this indicator.

Related policy documents

No related policy documents have been specified

Methodology

Methodology for indicator calculation

The GRI Report list for each year was filtered for reports published by organisations established in the 32 countries of the EEA.  The total number of reports meeting this criteria were added together for each year. 

Methodology for gap filling

No gap filling was necessary for producing this indicator.

Methodology references

No methodology references available.

Uncertainties

Methodology uncertainty

No uncertainty has been identified in the methodology used by the EEA to process the source data.

Data sets uncertainty

There is little uncertainty for the data set since it is expected that every organisation producing a report under the GRI standard will inform GRI who will publish this in the GRI Report list. 

Rationale uncertainty

The GRI mechanism does not require externally assurance as specified by the policy question though in many cases this has occurred.

The GRI based indicator will not capture all environmental disclosure reporting by European organisations. Many organisations will report using other standards or according to their own formats.