The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is pleased to announce its Sustainability Reporting Standards are now available in Arabic. Sustainability reporting is a company’s practice of publicly disclosing its impacts on the surrounding world. It has quickly become common practice among businesses: in 2017, 93 percent of the world’s largest 250 companies reported on their economic, environmental and social impacts. 

All organizations make positive and negative contributions toward sustainable development. The GRI Standards help companies understand and manage their impacts better, improving internal efficiency and encouraging them to think in the long term. Key stakeholders, such as investors and consumers, are also demanding more transparency to make well-informed decisions.

The GRI Standards are the most adopted standards globally. They create a common language for organizations and stakeholders to communicate on sustainability impacts. The GRI Standards are designed to enhance the global comparability and quality of information on these impacts, thereby enabling greater transparency and accountability of organizations.

“The Arab countries have seen significant economic and social progress in the past decades. We are very supportive of this development, and hope that the launch of the Arabic translation of the GRI Standards will further support the ongoing sustainability drive in the Arab countries,” says Tim Mohin, Chief Executive of GRI.

While making progress, the region is also facing major sustainability challenges. For example, the area is now the planet’s most water-scarce and food-import-dependent region, and the only region where malnutrition rates have been rising, according to a recent UNDP report.

Businesses play an important role as an implementer for global targets, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Companies can translate profits into sustained economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection. However, there is a need for help in monitoring and reporting outcomes. The GRI Standards provide a transparent framework that enables companies to share information about progress on their long-term economic, social, and environmental objectives in a manner that is consistent and comparable. Furthermore, effective reporting on companies’ environmental, social and governance aspects can help attract institutional investors to support the effort to sustainable development.

To make this translation possible, GRI wants to thank the sponsors Zamzam Society for Charitable and Voluntary Health Services and Saad and Abdul Aziz Al-Mousa Endowment. We are also grateful for the help of the translator facilitator Sustainability Excellence. 

Download the Arabic GRI Standards