Why collaboration is top of the agenda for the Global Reporting Initiative

The burgeoning world of sustainability reporting is in danger of fragmenting and sowing confusion unless the growing number of frameworks start to collaborate, the new CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has warned.

In his first press interview, Michael Meehan tells Guardian Sustainable Business of the need to find common ground between the GRI, which mainstreamed the concept of corporate reporting, and new emerging reporting organisations. These include the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), and the US-based Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), which is developing sector specific guidelines.

Collaboration

Relations between GRI and SASB, in particular, have been tense in the past, but Meehan insists that the two organisations should be seen as complementary to each other.

He has already met with leaders from all the other reporting frameworks and says there is a desire from them all to co-operate but hard negotiations lie ahead.

Meehan says the failure to reach agreement would be "catastrophic". "The risk could range anywhere from decreased reporting to decreased quality of reporting. But I think the more like scenario is going to be additional confusion in the marketplace, which is the worst thing."

He goes out of his way to reach out to SASB in particular, saying that he likes its approach and it would be a mistake for the GRI to think it is the only game in town.

"Now we have different frameworks that are looking at very specific applications of sustainability metrics and corporate reporting," he says, "I don't view these as competitive at all."

"But in nascent markets, there's this notion of false competition, whether it's the organisations themselves or more often the market, where they see two frameworks and they go ah, they must be competing. Also central to this is this whole definition around materiality. I can't tell you how many times I've heard we really need to have one definition of materiality. That's up to the frameworks to be able to agree on a set of definitions."

A huge opportunity

Looking ahead, Meehan believes a key opportunity for the GRI is to think of itself as an open platform, in similar fashion to Oracle or Apple, that other organisations can use as a springboard to build businesses or projects.

"When it comes to opportunities for technology in sustainability, we're really just scratching the surface," he says. "That's a huge challenge but also a huge opportunity. For it to be successful, you need very high quality data, great infrastructure, great architecture and great partners."

Meehan acknowledges the GRI needs to stay nimble on its feet, given that the issues that companies are being held accountable for continues to expand.

Another priority for him is to improve the quality of those companies that are already reporting and he points in particular to the poor standards of reporting by businesses in the US and China. Meehan warns that poor reporting leads to greenwashing and a loss of consumer confidence and that in this more transparent world, businesses are increasingly going to be held to account.

While the GRI has tended to focus on larger companies, Meehan says work will continue to encourage smaller companies and organisations such as universities to report on their social, environmental and economic impacts. He also welcomes moves in various countries towards mandatory reporting and tougher regulation.

Evolution, not revolution

It should come as no surprise that Meehan believes that good quality data can change the world, given he has spent many years running metrics-based businesses in the US and Europe that focussed on everything from sustainability management systems to supply chain technologies.

This means that while GRI started out as an activist organisation, Meehan believes it should be supporting evolution in the field of sustainability, rather than revolution.

"I'm a technical guy," he says. "I believe good data is essential, because as an executive, you cannot stand up in front of a board, your stakeholders or your investors without good data in your hands and I think poor data has been an extremely serious limiting factor in the sustainability industry.

"That's where I see a fundamental shift happening in the market now, because the tools are there, the frameworks are there, the standards are there."

Translating data

Referring to the failure of society to act on the scientific knowledge around climate change, he points out that it is not the amount of data you have that is important but how effective one is at making it relevant.

He remembers in the 1980s going to renew his car insurance in a tiny town of 500 people in British Columbia and spotting an ageing poster on the wall from Munich Re showing the climate risks for insurance companies in different parts of the world.

"It gets you thinking about how many organisations have been looking at this for so long." he says. "Despite having lots and lots of data, things haven't changed because it's been very difficult to translate that data into something businesses, investors and stakeholders understand."

So what has Meehan learnt over his career that he believes will be critical in driving GRI to greater success?

"The best way you can generate change, although it can be the most challenging way to do it, is you need to be able to engage the right group of people," he says. "Doing it on your own can be extremely difficult because you just don't get the mindshare that is required to create change.

"So first of all we will pick the arena, then which countries we're going to look at, which include China and the US and so on, then we pick our partners and then our game plan."