Reporting: Sustainability, Environmental, Social and Global Reporting Initiative

Good Afternoon,

We are looking for some clarification on some KPI's for GRI. We will be reporting to Level C. We are a privately held worlwide company with a very few competitors. We do not think our owner would like for the details of the financails to be disclosed.

KPI 2.8 requires Net Sales, Total Capitalization broken down in terms of Debt & equity.

My question is I thought I read somewhere there were different rules for privately owned companys that did not require us to report in such detail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Re: GRI KPI Question

What is GRI? Global Reporting Initiative

Re: GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) KPI Question

It's not under ISO 50001 which is Energy

Check this link for help https://www.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx

Re: GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) KPI Question

mguilbert said:

Good Afternoon,

We are looking for some clarification on some KPI's for GRI. We will be reporting to Level C. We are a privately held worlwide company with a very few competitors. We do not think our owner would like for the details of the financails to be disclosed.

KPI 2.8 requires Net Sales, Total Capitalization broken down in terms of Debt & equity.

My question is I thought I read somewhere there were different rules for privately owned companys that did not require us to report in such detail.

Click to expand...

I contacted a person who works for the GRI in New York and she replied:

All rules apply equally to every type of organization.

• Valid reasons for omission (not reporting)
For Profile Disclosures:
Reasons for omission are not permitted for the Profile Disclosures, unless the reporter can demonstrate that a disclosure a) refers to an Aspect that is legally impossible to report on or b) that is completely absent from the organization’s particular sector.

Click to expand...

When you think about it, the whole point of reporting is to become a more transparent organization. If we are concerned in disclosing information as financial data, I can only imagine how much more concerned we would be disclosing more sensitive issues.

Re: GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) KPI Question

Hi

I would like to start with a caveat - I am not an accountant. My view is based on the study of quite a few GRI reports.

The following is the extract of the relevant part of the GRI G3 Guidelines:

"Total Capitalization broken down in terms of debt and equity (for Private Sector Organizations)"

Please clarify if your company is a PRIVATELY HELD (Ownership/Partnership) or a PRIVATE SECTOR company.

In the former there is no equity issued to shareholders; the owners have the full stake in the company.

In the Private Sector company, the company's shares are traded in the stock exchange. These companies are expected to publish their annual financial report every year.

If yours is PRIVATELY HELD, information on Capitalization broken down into debt and equity is not relevant and hence Indicator 2.8 may be reported as NOT APPLICABLE

On the other hand if it is a Private Sector company, then your company has to issue a Financial Annual Report. Your Company's Annual Financial statement will have the information on equity, debt and sales. Probably you may refer to them in the Sustainability Report as per GRI.

Since the Level of your report is C (the lowest level of reporting), it is better to report at least the minimum that needs to be reported as per GRI at this level. I have referred to a few published GRI reports which have referred to Financial Annual Report for Indicator 2.8

Hope the above helps.

With kind regards,

Ramakrishnan

Thanks. Our company is owned by one person. No shareholders or other investors. I thought this was true but I do understand Sidney's and his contacts view. Our owner does not want his personal income from this company to be public. All creditors are given strict confidentiality agreements and our company generally pays for large Capex improvements with cash not credit.

Just for your infomation. I contacted GRI. Below is our email excahnge.

Reply from GRI.

"You can indicate that it is “proprietary information”.

Please see the Content Index attached.

Best wishes,
Elina Sviklina

Elina Sviklina
Manager Report Services

Global Reporting Initiative
P.O. Box 10039
1001 EA Amsterdam
The Netherlands  [email protected]
+31 (0) 20 531 00 12
+31 (0) 20 531 00 31
globalreporting.org"


From: Karlien van der Staak On Behalf Of Guidelines
Sent: woensdag 15 februari 2012 16:36
To: ReportServices
Subject: FW: Sec.2.8 for privately held companies

Initial Email

"Good Morning,

My employer is looking to issue a GRI report but we have one concern. First I would like to give a little background info on our company. We are a private sector company that is wholly owned by one person (no shareholders or investors). Our owner has the full stake in the company. Our owner does not want to disclose our Net Sales, Total Capitalization broken down in terms of debt and equity, and Quantity of products provided (see 2.8). We have no issue with reporting on the number of employees. Do we need to disclose these financial numbers to issue a GRI Report to level C?

Thanks,"