ACCA Pakistan has partnered with WWF Pakistan to reward and recognise good sustainability reporting via the ACCA-WWF Pakistan Environmental Reporting Awards. At the heart of our judging criteria is GRI the "go to" standard for enterprises to start reporting and drive good business behaviour.
Ever since 2000 ACCA Pakistan has been actively encouraging businesses large and small, quoted and unquoted to adopt the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards (GRI Standards)and start reporting on their economic, environmental and social performance.
Speaking at the launch of the report 'Sustainability Reporting: the Evolving Landscape in Pakistan' Arif Masud Mirza, Regional Head of Policy said "Pakistani businesses are faced with classic headwinds like climate change, political turmoil, law and order, security and so business leaders and policy makers must ensure they counter with tailwinds such as adopting modern corporate reporting, integrated thinking across the management levels, having a regulatory framework that communicates the physical risks to business from not understanding Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) forces."
Author Malik Mirza also spoke about the report, who said, "Sustainability Reporting-the Evolving Landscape in Pakistan attempts to document where we are with non-financial reporting. The report comments on the reputation benefits of sustainability reporting and the adoption of such reporting in Pakistan. The report also mentions the PSX is set to join the MSCI emerging markets index this year and the large body of research by MSCI on the coming of age of ESG performance indicators for investors is becoming increasingly compelling."
The timing of this report coincides with the launch of the new GRI G4 standards, "The GRI Standards make it much easier for companies to report non-financial information, using a well-understood shared language," said Dr Aditi Haldar, GRI, Director Regional Hub South Asia. "The Standards are more straightforward, making them accessible to potentially millions of businesses world-wide. Sustainability reporting, using the GRI Standards, is the best way for a company to disclose its economic, environmental and social impacts, thus providing insights into its contributions - positive or negative - toward sustainable development." -PR