Ernst Ligteringen es director ejecutivo del Global Reporting Iniciative (GRI).Y se ha desempeñado en este cargo desde 2002, cuando el GRI fue establecido como una organización independiente con una secretaría internacional en Ámsterdam.
En esta entrevista nos cuenta sobre su experiencia como director ejecutivo del GRI, la conferencia en Ámsterdam recién pasada, el G4, sobre la RSE en América Latina y Chile; y mucho más.
1.- Desde 2002 que usted es director ejecutivo del GRI ¿Cuáles son las principales tareas en el día a día de este director?
As GRI’s Chief Executive I am the principal person responsible for implementing GRI’s strategy as defined by the Board of Directors and to work with my colleagues and the GRI network to advance GRI’s mission successfully. The other part of my job is that of spokesperson for the organization. In this capacity I travel frequently to talk about how greater transparency can help organizations and society to find their way to a sustainable future.
2.-¿Cómo ha sido su experiencia en todos estos años?
Managing an organization which is in essence a large network of people from very different backgrounds to create and promote a common language for reporting on ESG performance is certainly challenging and but also very rewarding.
3.- ¿Cuáles cree que fueron los principales lineamientos de la Conferencia Anual desarrollada en Ámsterdam?
The Amsterdam Global Conference saw the clear acceptance of the need to take seriously the need for a transition to a sustainable economy. Sustainability reporting was accepted as a key component of doing business in a sustainable economy: GRI’s propositions, first, that all large and medium-sized business in OECD countries and large emerging economies should by 2015 be reporting on the ESG performance or explain why if they do not, and second, that an integrated reporting framework should be developed, tested and implemented by 2020, were generally accepted.
4.- ¿Cuál es la importancia de desarrollar la versión G4?
GRI believes corporate reporting should come to integrate financial and ESG reporting and that this practice should be established by the end of the decade. To this end GRI is also a founding member of the International Integrated Reporting Committee. We are asking ourselves what would be best way that GRI could contribute to the work of the IIRC and the establishment of an integrated reporting framework? The development of a G4 version of the GRI Guidelines is a possibility, but a decision still needs to be taken. Considering it is a practice being explored by only a few pioneering companies at this point and considering many companies look to GRI for guidance on ESG reporting, the G4 could be a stepping stone. It could improve GRI’s guidance overall and additionally provide some assistance to companies that want to know more about integrated reporting. Any final integrated reporting standard, which would take much longer to develop would benefit from this increased experience with integrated reporting among GRI reporting guidelines users.
5.- ¿Cree que el GRI ha sido un buen instrumento para el desarrollo de la RSE desde su creación? ¿Por qué?
Part of being a responsible organization is identifying risk and opportunities. Risks and opportunities consist of more than only financial risks. They include risks and opportunities associated with the social and environmental impact of an organization and the impact of these factors on the organization. For an organization to understand these impacts they must be measured, a report is a way to do this. It also helps to communicate with stakeholders that either have an impact on the organization or are impacted by it. A sustainability report is a tool for measurement, dialogue and management.
6.- ¿Cuántas organizaciones a nivel mundial están utilizando la guía del GRI para hacer sus memorias de sostenibilidad?
The short answer is: we don’t know the exact number. The Guidelines are a free public good that can be downloaded from our website. We only know about those reports that people send to us, however there are many more that don’t and many more still that may use parts of the guidelines, but that perhaps do not produce a full GRI report. Figures from external parties such as KPMG do suggest that the vast majority of the largest companies in the world produce a sustainability report and that most of them use GRI to do so. The same and research by others suggest that the total number is estimated at between 1500 to 2000 companies and that their number continues to grow. While this is all positive, GRI believes that the case for sustainability reporting has been proven and we propose that it is in the interest of companies, markets and societies that the practice becomes common by 2015 for large and medium sized companies. That goal means that by then about 88,000 MNEs and many more medium sized companies would be tracking and reporting their sustainability results.
7.- ¿Cómo ve el desarrollo de la RSE en América Latina?
ESG Reporting is certainly gaining traction and becoming an increasingly familiar practice in many companies, but also among other organizations.
8.- ¿Qué países se destacan?
Well, look at the recent Readers’ Choice Awards: Brazilian companies are getting a lot of recognition for their reports and it is one of the countries with the largest number of GRI-based reports in the world.
9.- ¿Cree que Chile tenga un buen futuro en su desenvolvimiento con la responsabilidad social?
Chile has a wealth of natural and social capital which can be an enormous asset for the country in a future greener global economy where the true value of natural resources would appreciated by markets and society and it would therefore be important to manage sustainably and equitably. This is not only a social responsibility but common sense: a necessity.
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