media releases - Prof. Pityana appointed to Board of Directors of GRI

The GRI was convened to develop an internationally accepted framework for sustainability reporting for businesses and other organisations. It is an independent international institution with representatives from United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Japan, Australia, Germany, Indian, United States, and Sweden on its Board.

Sustainability reporting discloses the economic, environmental and social performance of corporations and other organisations. GRI has incorporated the active participation of hundreds of business accountancy, investment, environmental, human rights, and labour organisations from around the world in designing its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. To date, more than 100 major companies have used the Guidelines in shaping their sustainability reports.

Convened in 1997 by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme, the GRI is elevating sustainability reporting to “unprecedented levels of rigour, comparability, and completeness”, a spokesperson said.

“Because the GRI is a multi-stakeholder, international undertaking, its Board of Directors reflects a balance amongst stakeholder groups and amongst geographic regions,” said Board Nominating Committee Chair, Jonathan Lash, President of the World Resources Institute. “The Committee was challenged to assemble an extraordinary and balanced group of innovators committed to strengthening corporate accountability in the 21st century. I believe we have succeeded in achieving this objective.”

GRI Secretariat Director Allen White said: “The calibre and reach of this board reflects the critical nature of GRI’s mission in a global economy where sustainability reporting is likely to become as routine as financial reporting. The Nominating Committee should be commended for selecting this outstanding group of visionaries and instiution builders from business, government, non-governmental, and labour organisations. In these critical first years of GRI, their skills will be essential in creating a truly world-class institution designed to advance accountability worldwide.”

Aside from Dr Pityana, others on the Board of Directors include:

Roger Adams (United Kingdom) - Executive Director-Technical, Association of Chartered Certified Accounts
Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel (France) - Assistant Executive Director, UNITED Nations Environment Programme, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics
Fabio Feldmann (Brazil) - former Secretary of Environment, Sao Paulo
Toshihiko Goto (Japan) - Chair, Environmental Auditing Research Group
Judy Henderson (Australia) - immediate-past Chair, Australian Ethical Investment Ltd, former Commissioner, World Commission on Dams
Hanns Michael Hölz (Germany) - Global Head of Sustainable Development and Public Relations, Deutsche Bank Group
Jamshed J Irani (India) - Director, Tata Sons Limited
Robert Kinlock Massie (United States) - Executive Director, Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies

Mark Moody-Stuart (United Kingdom) - retired Chair, Royal Dutch/Shell
Anita Normark (Sweden) - General Secretary, International Federation of Building and Wood Workers
Barbara Shailor (United States) - Director of International Affairs, American Federation of Labour - Congress of Industrial Organisations
Bjorn Stigson (Sweden) - President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Peter H Y Wong (China) - Senior Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Hong Kong; and Board Member, International Federation of Accountants.

The Board’s initial duties will include hiring a chief executive, siting a new Secretariat headquarters in Europe, establishing processes and protocols for GRI’s governance structure, and other activities accompanying GRI’s official inauguration at UN headquarters in New York on 4 April 2002.

CONTACT: MARK BROWNLIE


ISSUED BY: DOREEN GOUGH
HEAD: MEDIA AFFAIRS
CORPORATE COMMUNICATION &
MARKETING
UNISA