Maria Lee, WOCAN Core Associate, participated in the 5th Global Reporting Iinitaitve (GRI) Global Conference from 18 – 20 May in Amsterdam. This year topic was ‘Empowering sustainable decisions’. The event brought together more than 1,000 sustainability leaders from around the globe to exchange on sustainability best practices, innovations and trends that are empowering sustainable decisions and changing the world.Organizations are increasingly being encouraged by their stakeholders to measure, account for and take responsibility for their economic, environmental, social and governance performance including gender.
The conference held a well attended session on ‘Gender Equality and Sustainable Reporting’ where Katherine Fritz from International Center for Research on Women(ICRW), Cecile Oger from Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), Christine Koblun from GRI and Ana Fernandes from IKEA discussed how reporting organizations can have positive impacts that promote gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community.
Christine explained that there is increasing disclosure on gender from their members’ side. Gender has moved from a stand-alone chapter to a mainstreamed topic in the new GRI sustainability guidelines, for example in the reporting on operations implemented with local communities and Social impact assessments, including gender impact assessments, based on participatory processes (GRI: G4-SO1).
Maria Lee also met with Alyson Slater, Director for Regional Network and Sustainable Development at GRI and member of the W+ Advisory Council.
