ACCA: Rio+20 corporate sustainability commitments "too weak"

G4 reporting - make it mandatory

The new G4 Sustaiability Reporting guidelines sound promising. "Better targeted, more concise and more powerful reports."

I am hopeful that this will translate into a greater willingness to participate by Australian (an indeed international) companies.

With mostly depressing news elsewhere about how humans are continuing to trash the planet it is time that we started lobbying the ASX and ASIC to make reporting compulsory.

There is significant evidence that reponsible companies enjoy a greater level of staff retention and that employees feel more motivated to contribute to an organisation that cares about the planet.

The rsultant improved productivity feeds into the bottom line of companies and as observed in many sectors sustainability leaders are well placed to become sector leaders.

I am hopeful that stakeholders (including shareholders) can or will focus on the economic and environmental sustainability of companies they support as the climate change and biodiversity threats continue to grow.

Making G4 reporting mandatory for all listed companies would feed back into government policy and break the nexus between big business lobbyists and government.

Is there support for this?