Number of companies worldwide reporting on their sustainability performance reaches record high, yet still a minority

Source: Global Reporting Initiative, 5 August 2009

The number of companies and other organisations publicly disclosing their performance against a range of key sustainability indicators has risen markedly over the last year, according to new figures from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
The Global Reporting Initiative is now aware of over 1000 organisations worldwide who issued sustainability reports based on the GRI G3 Guidelines in 2008 – the highest number ever recorded. The figure represents an increase of 46 per cent on the 2007 figure of 685.

Of the sustainability reports that GRI is aware of, more are produced in Spain than any other country, beating the United States into second place. Europe is home to 49% of the reporters known to GRI, followed by Asia on 15%, North America on 14%, Latin America on 12%, with 6% from Oceania and 4% from Africa.