New partnership to make sustainability reports more useful to investors

kristySRI/ESG News

Global Reporting Initiative and Deloitte joint press release

For immediate release

Thursday 23 June 2011

New partnership to make sustainability reports more useful to investors

Deloitte and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) start work on new XBRL taxonomy

Rotterdam/Amsterdam, 23 June 2011 – A new format for providing sustainability data will help investors, auditors and analysts use information in sustainability reports more quickly and easily, thanks to a new ambitious program announced today by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Deloitte.

A kick-off meeting on Friday 24 June marks the start of an important work stream in the development of widespread and automated transmission of sustainability data. An agreement outlining the project was signed by Deloitte and GRI.

GRI produces the world’s most comprehensive sustainability reporting guidelines. Today’s new program aims to publish an XBRL taxonomy covering both the G3 Guidelines and GRI’s latest G3.1 Guidelines.

The new XBRL taxonomy will enable organizations to tag their sustainability data in reports. The taxonomy will help organizations improve the quality and integrity of their sustainability performance data. This will help investors, auditors and other report users to access and compare GRI data more quickly and easily without the need for excessive manual work.

Cees de Boer, CFO and COO of Deloitte in the Netherlands, is very positive about the closer collaboration between GRI and Deloitte: “We are experiencing a major shift towards electronic information delivery. This development is already very important in financial reporting and is increasingly being used for both numerical and textual non-financial information. With the shift towards integrated reporting, the XBRL standard becomes a crucial enabler for information architectures and the design of reporting standards. In recognition of GRI’s leading role in sustainability reporting, we are happy to support GRI’s XBRL program. As we already use XBRL for our financial reporting and plan to use XBRL for our sustainability reporting, we will be a pilot user of this new taxonomy.”

Nelmara Arbex, Deputy Chief Executive of the Global Reporting Initiative, explains the importance of the collaboration: “The partnership is crucial to offer GRI reporting organizations the tool to deliver sustainability information in XBRL format, which will enable all stakeholders to organize and access report’s information in a much quicker and easier way. The new program serves as a major pilot on the use and benefits of XBRL-tagged information. Deloitte has been an Organizational Stakeholder of GRI since the very beginning and we look forward to working together on this important project.”

-Ends-

Contact:

For further information please contact:

– Wilma Bontes, press officer Deloitte 06-21272102 | [email protected]

– Lucy Goodchild, Media Relations Manager, the Global Reporting Initiative, +31 (0)20 531 0067, [email protected]

Notes to Editors:

1. About the Global Reporting Initiative

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) drives sustainability reporting by all organizations. GRI produces the world’s most comprehensive Sustainability Reporting Framework to enable greater organizational transparency. The Framework, including the Reporting Guidelines, sets out the Principles and Indicators organizations can use to measure and report their economic, environmental, and social performance. GRI is committed to continuously improving and increasing the use of the Guidelines, which are freely available to the public.

Website: www.globalreporting.org

2. About Deloitte

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and its member firms.

Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries.

With a globally connected network of member firms in more than140 countries, Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and deep local expertise to help clients succeed wherever they operate. Deloitte’s approximately 170,000 professionals are committed to becoming the standard of excellence.