Thread by @bbaue

Good News / Bad News on the Sustainability Context front.

Good news 1st: @GRI_Secretariat has proposed the first major changes to the definition of Sustainability Context since introducing the Principle in 2002.

Here’s the new definition:

globalreporting.org/standards/medi…

@GRI_Secretariat What’s to like about it:

•Explicit use of the term “thresholds”

•Explicit reference to the Paris Agreement, UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights, etc.

@GRI_Secretariat Now for the Bad News:

•No Allocations. Just reporting “with reference to” / “drawing on information and authoritative measures” on these thresholds.

• Performance has been erased from the definition (just like reference to the capitals was erased in G3)

@GRI_Secretariat What does this mean in practice?

If this formulation is left to stand, we would be no closer to bona fide sustainability reporting / actual sustainable performance, because organizations could easily follow this guidance and still be wildly unsustainable, with readers unaware...

@GRI_Secretariat So essentially, this is a step forward on the rhetorical front (the good news), but actually a step backwards on the substantive front (the bad news, with the loss of “performance” and “allocations” absent).

@GRI_Secretariat I encourage folks to read the Public Comment that we at the SustyContextGroup submitted *8 years ago* and yet remains relevant to this day, since GRI has continually *opted against* taking measures at this *necessary* level of ambition.

r3-0.org/wp-content/upl…

@GRI_Secretariat Please feel free to submit public comments to GRI (due by Sept 9) referencing this input, which takes great pains to be *non-prescriptive* and instead proposes a general specification / criteria.

You can submit feedback in this survey r1.dotmailer-surveys.com/754j59b-144lbl…

@GRI_Secretariat Or you can email GRI directly with input, asking why it has opted *against* providing the kind of robust guidance necessary for *meaningful* implementation of the Sustainability Context Principle

[e-mail]

@GRI_Secretariat We have already missed several revision opportunities (G3, G4, Standards) to get #SustyContext right.

I don’t see how we can expect companies to shift to sustainability if the guidelines & standards we provide them aren’t fit-to-task.

Let’s not f*ck this up yet again folks...