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Sustainability standards, financial reporting must be on equal footing

GRI's new chief says increasingly propagated stakeholder capitalism would be meaningless without accountability.

 Michelle Quah
Published Sun, Mar 6, 2022 · 09:50 PM

    AS environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns grow in importance and priority on the agendas of businesses, the way in which companies handle these obligations must also evolve - from merely reporting them, to being accountable for them.

    And the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) - which pioneered and developed a comprehensive sustainability reporting framework widely used around the world - intends to play a key role in this transformation, under the charge of a new chief executive officer (CEO).

    Speaking to The Business Times 2 months after taking office, Eelco van der Enden says he wants to drive GRI's vision of accountability, with reporting as the catalyst: "We need sustainability standards that are mandatory and enforceable, and on an equal footing with financial reporting. How else can we speak of stakeholder capitalism?

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