Work Streams

UNEP FI has led two major initiatives in the field of sustainability reporting:

1. GRI Financial Services Sector Supplement
2. Sustainability Management and Reporting: Benefits for Financial Institutions in Developing and Emerging Economies

1. GRI Financial Services Sector Supplement

From 2003 to 2008 UNEP FI and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) led two international working groups to develop and pilot-test the GRI Financial Services Sector Supplement for the finance sector. The Supplement provides guidance for retail, corporate and commercial banking, insurance and asset management on how to report on the environmental and social performance of their products and services. The indicators of the revised Supplement are now integrated and built upon the existing G3 reporting framework of the GRI.

Both multi-stakeholder working groups have included international financial institutions as well as readers of sustainability reports such as rating agencies and non-governmental organizations. While the environmental indicators were developed from scratch, the group’s work on the social indicators was based on a draft Supplement version developed by a separate working group, led by SPI Finance.

The revised GRI Financial Services Sector Supplement is expected to develop into the standard for reporting on the sustainability performance of financial products and services. Through the pilot-testing and revision of the Supplement the recent UNEP FI / GRI led working group can now present environmental and social indicators that:

• deal with the core business of financial institutions,
• cover key, material environmental and social topics,
• are relevant for banking, asset management and insurance,
• ask for quantitative data wherever possible,
• are practice-tested and revised where necessary,
• are better explained through compilation guidance notes (technical protocols), and
• are embedded into the G3 framework.

The final version of the Supplement can be downloaded at:

• GRI Financial Services Sector Supplement
• Technical Protocols for the indicators of the Supplement

2. Sustainability Management and Reporting: Benefits for Financial Institutions in Developing and Emerging Economies

The Sustainability Management and Reporting project was completed in 2006 with the publication of the report. The report sets out case studies that provide a clear insight into the commercial and environmental benefits of adopting the sustainability management and reporting principles, and ideas on capacity building in introducing SMR especially for financial institutions in developing and emerging markets. UNEP FI plans to develop this publication into its training programme for financial institutions in the future.

Download the report: Sustainability Management and Reporting: Benefits for Financial Institutions in Developing and Emerging Economies (PDF: 447 KB)

Contact

Reporting Coordinator