Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

This contributed to the understanding that sustainable development encompasses a number of areas and highlights sustainability as the idea of environmental, economic and social progress and equity, all within the limits of the world’s natural resources.

A sustainability report is a report published by a company or organization about the economic, environmental and social impacts caused by its everyday activities. 

A sustainability report also presents the organization's values and governance model, and demonstrates the link between its strategy and its commitment to a sustainable global economy.

An increasing number of companies and organizations want to make their operations sustainable and contribute to sustainable development. Sustainability reporting can help organizations to measure, understand and communicate their economic, environmental, social and governance performance. Sustainability – the ability for something to last for a long time, or indefinitely – is based on performance in these four key areas. 

Systematic sustainability reporting helps organizations to measure the impacts they cause or experience, set goals, and manage change. A sustainability report is the key platform for communicating sustainability performance and impacts – whether positive or negative. 

To produce a regular sustainability report, organizations set up a reporting cycle – a program of data collection, communication, and responses. This means that their sustainability performance is monitored on an ongoing basis. Data can be provided regularly to senior decision makers to shape the organization's strategy and policies, and improve performance. 

Sustainability reporting is therefore a vital resource for managing change towards a sustainable global economy – one that combines long term profitability with ethical behavior, social justice and environmental care.

An effective sustainability reporting cycle should benefit all reporting organizations. 

Internal benefits for companies and organizations can include:

• Increased understanding of risks and opportunities

• Emphasizing the link between financial and non-financial performance

• Influencing long term management strategy and policy, and business plans

• Streamlining processes, reducing costs and improving efficiency

• Benchmarking and assessing sustainability performance with respect to laws, norms, codes, performance standards, and voluntary initiatives

• Avoiding being implicated in publicized environmental, social and governance failures

• Comparing performance internally, and between organizations and sectors

External benefits of sustainability reporting can include:

• Mitigating – or reversing – negative environmental, social and governance impacts

• Improving reputation and brand loyalty

• Enabling external stakeholders to understand the organization’s true value, and tangible and intangible assets

• Demonstrating how the organization influences, and is influenced by, expectations about sustainable development

Since 1999, GRI has provided a comprehensive Sustainability Reporting Framework that is widely used around the world. The cornerstone of the Framework is the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. As a result of the credibility, consistency and comparability it offers, GRI’s Framework has become a de facto standard in sustainability reporting.

Sustainability is a journey. Along the way, organizations need to set goals, measure performance, and integrate a sustainability strategy into their core planning. GRI’s Reporting Framework allows all organizations to take the first steps towards a sustainable global economy.

Some of the distinctive elements of GRI’s Framework – and the activity that creates it – include:

Multi-stakeholder input. GRI's approach is based on multi-stakeholder engagement; this is considered the best way to produce universally-applicable reporting guidance that meets the needs of all report makers and users. All elements of the Reporting Framework are created and improved using a consensus-seeking approach, and considering the widest possible range of stakeholder interests. Stakeholder input to the Framework comes from business, civil society, labor, accounting, investors, academics, governments and sustainability reporting practitioners.

A record of use and endorsement. Every year, an increasing number of reporting organizations adopt GRI’s Guidelines. From 2006 to 2011, the yearly increase in uptake ranged from 22 to 58 percent. New audiences for sustainability information, like investors and regulators, are now calling for more and better performance data. Annual growth in the number of reporters is expected to continue, as GRI works for more reporters and better reporting.

Governmental references and activities. GRI was referenced in the Plan of Implementation of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. Use of GRI’s Framework was endorsed for all participating governments. Several governments consider GRI’s Framework to be an important part of their sustainable development policy, including Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany.

Independence. GRI’s governance structure helps to maintain its independence; geographically diverse stakeholder input increases the legitimacy of the Reporting Framework. GRI’s funding approach also ensures independence. GRI is a stichting – in Dutch, a non-profit foundation – with a business model that aims for a degree of self-sufficiency. Funding is secured from diverse sources; governments, companies, foundations, partner organizations and supporters.  

Shared development costs. The expense of developing GRI’s reporting guidance is shared among many users and contributors. For companies and organizations, this negates the cost of developing in-house or sector-based reporting frameworks.

Bridge building. GRI’s basis in multi-stakeholder engagement contributes to its ability to build bridges between different actors and sectors – like business, the public sector, labor unions and civil society – and to mediate