Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in collaboration with Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) conducted the third and final workshop of the Technical Series titled “Practical Tips for preparing your next report: Bringing it all together” on 20th May in Sri Lanka. This workshop focused on practical tips that can be adopted by the organizations to prepare their sustainability reports.
The session was facilitated by Dr. Aditi Haldar, Director, GRI South Asia and Ms. Rubina Pal, DFAT Programme Manager, GRI South Asia. In addition to this, there were other dignitaries such as Mr. Rajeeva Bandaranaike, CEO, CSE and Dr. Thomas Davis, First Secretary Development, Australian High Commission, Sri Lanka. Experts were also invited from VNV Advisory Services, and Dialog Axiata. The session was conducted online.
Addressing the participants Ms. Rubina Pal noted that adopting sustainability reporting is more important now following the outbreak of COVID-19. Embedding ESG into the fundamentals of the company is key to showcase business resilience. She also noted that the process of reporting will help in enhancing trust among stakeholders and analyse the risks and opportunities that would make companies future ready.
CSE and GRI have been working closely since early 2018 to create a conducive environment for publicly listed companies to report on their sustainability impacts. CSE also published the ESG guidance document (Communicating Sustainability: Six Recommendations for Listed companies) with technical inputs from GRI. GRI collaborated with CSE to initiate focused technical series workshop for listed companies that are yet to start reporting using the GRI Standards. 35 listed companies signed up for the Technical Series on “Preparing a Sustainability Report”. The series comprised of 3 workshops spaced out over a period of time. While the first two workshops of the technical series focused on the ‘Why’, ‘How’ & ‘What’ comprises reporting, this workshop helped address some of the key challenges and questions around preparing a sustainability report. In December GRI and CSE celebrated their 2 years collaboration with a Bell ringing ceremony. GRI’s work with CSE is supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Australian Government. The practice of sustainability reporting aims to contribute to more sustainable trade in the region on the long-term.