Frameworks
Sustainability accounting continues to develop. It is therefore of importance that companies understand the scenery of reporting frameworks, standards and guidelines that may affect the form and content of their reports. There are several organisations that offer services to companies that want to change the traditional financial statement disclosure for sustainability reporting.
In mostly all countries around the world, there are currently no governmental requirements for companies to prepare and publish sustainability reports. Companies that have started to adopt this new method of reporting have faced new challenges in reporting due to the lack of experience. Failing to report accordingly to the guidelines and frameworks provided (see OECD and GRI) would lead them to potentially reduce their credibility of published information.
The GRI, OECD and UNCSD (United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development)are some of the main actors in integrating a policy framework for better integrating the three dimensional level of sustainability by decoupling economic growth from environmental pressures.
The GRI is a multi-stakeholder organization that is committed to developing and maintaining the "Sustainability Reporting Guidelines." The goal is the continuous improvement of sustainability reporting, this is only a protocol that approaches the application levels, there are three levels of reporting A, B and C, but these are not yet legally ratified fundamentals and are only used to assist companies with their sustainable reports.
On the one hand the UNCSD focuses only on the environmental dimension of the sustainability accounting.
On the other hand the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) focuses only focuses only in two frameworks: the analytical and accounting frameworks.
Read more about this topic: Sustainability Accounting, Methodology