The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – provider of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework – this week announced the opening of scoring for the second biennial Readers’ Choice Awards in which the readers of sustainability reports have their say on the state of reporting today.

Sustainability reports allow businesses and other organizations to disclose their performance on a range of economic, environmental, and social issues. This information is increasingly sought by investors, employees, consumers, regulators and others who are looking for information on how an organization is responding to critical sustainability issues including climate change, resource use, human rights and product responsibility.
“Fundamentally, the impact of a solid reporting process is improved sustainability performance over time. It cannot be an end in itself,” wrote Jean-Philippe Renaut, Program Manager of SustainAbility, a Communications Partner of GRI. “The uniqueness of the Readers’ Choice Awards is its enquiry into the impact of reports on readers and companies, coupled with a robust selection of the best contributions from the past year."
The number of organizations issuing such reports has reached a record high, but what do the readers of the reports think of them? In their eyes which reports deserve recognition?
Referring to both the 2008 Readers’ Choice Survey and the complimentary survey for reporters that GRI released on 19 November 2009, Wim Bartels, Partner at KPMG Sustainability Netherlands said, “We believe that the combination of the Readers’ Survey and the Reporters’ Survey this time around will provide us with very valuable insights about the information readers really want. We will analyze the two perspectives in order help organizations provide readers with the information they need and want.”
There’s no judge, and no jury in the GRI Readers’ Choice Awards. It is the readers of sustainability reports, and them alone, who decide which reports deserve recognition.
The awards and survey results will be announced at the 2010 Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency, to be held on 26 – 28 May 2010.

The website www.Sustainability-Reports.Com is data partner for the Readers Choice Award (RCA). Participating companies are included in the RCA-scope.