Report Quality and

AssuranceChair: John Purcell, Policy Advisor Corporate Regulation, CPA Australia; Member, GRI’s

Australian Advisory Group

.

Richard Boele, Managing Director, Banarra

Renzo Mori Junior, Researcher, University of Southern Queensland

Adrian King, National Leader, Climate Change & Sustainability Services, KPMG

Nancie-Lee Robinson, General Manager – Governance, Integration & Reporting, Telstra

GRI Guidelines for assurance of GRI Guidelines for assurance of sustainability reports: Fortune Globalsustainability reports: Fortune Globalsustainability reports: Fortune Global sustainability reports: Fortune Global

500 list 2010 analyses500 list 2010 analyses

Renzo Mori JuniorPhD St d t U i it f S th Q l dPhD Student, University of Southern Queensland

March 2012March 2012

OutlineOutline Aims of the Presentation Literature review Methodology Situation of the Global Fortune 500 (2010) Recommendation

Aims of the PresentationAims of the Presentation

Discuss current situation of the assurance process;p

Present percentage of organisations issuing a sustainability report following the GRI framework andsustainability report, following the GRI framework and including an external assurance;

Assess whether organisations which follow GRI’s guidelines tend to adopt an assurance process;

Provide suggestions to enhance transparency and to contribute toward improvement of the current passurance practices for GRI sustainability reports.

Literature ReviewLiterature Review

Voluntary and not regulated in a majority of Voluntary and not regulated in a majority of countries;

Different assurance providers providing different types of assurance services with different types of

t t tassurance statements;

Some stakeholders are not able to identify those ydifferences and question the benefits of the assurance process in the way it has been provided.

MethodologyMethodologygygy

Analyses of the organisations listed on the Global y gFortune 2010 official website;

Sustainability reports which: Sustainability reports which:

Contain social and environmental performance; Information in English; Issued by corporative, holding or global

i ti ’ t tiorganisations’ representatives.

16 organisations were excluded from the analyses, resulting in a sample of 484.

Sustainability ReportsSustainability Reportsy py p All the sample provided some type of information p p yp

regarding environmental and/or social performance;

85%

15% (71)

(413)

Without formal report With formal report

Sustainability ReportsSustainability Reportsy py p85% with formal Sustainability Report y p

58%42%(173)

85%(413) 58%

(240)(173)(413)

GRI Framework Without GRI Framework

GRI FrameworkGRI Framework

hout GRI Framework42%(173)

9%(15)

91%91%(158)

With Assurance Without AssuranceFramework

58%(240) 57%

(137)43%(103)

With Assurance Without Assurance

ype of Assurance Providersype of Assurance Providersypyp

80

50%

60%

6

7

30%

40%37

20%

30%2

7

13

0%

10%

Accountants Consul tants Mixed Spec ia l is tp

Wi th GRI 58% 27% 5% 9%

Without GRI 40% 13% 0% 47%

General ConclusionsGeneral Conclusions

GRI recommends the use of external assurance; GRI recommends the use of external assurance;

Organisations which follow the GRI framework tend to have their sustainability report assured;

GRI plays an important role in the assurance GRI plays an important role in the assurance process;

GRI ld t th f t t i d t GRI could suggest the use of a content index to provide users with a quick overview of what has been analysed during the assurance processanalysed during the assurance process.

RecommendationRecommendation

Example of how the content index could be used Example of how the content index could be used

Authors ContactsAuthors Contacts

Renzo Mori Junior (PhD Student)Renzo Mori Junior (PhD Student)renzo.morijunior@usq.edu.au

Prof. Peter Best (Supervisor)P t B t@ dPeter.Best@usq.edu.au

Prof Julie Cotter (Supervisor)Prof. Julie Cotter (Supervisor)Julie.Cotter@usq.edu.au