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Governance & Accountability Institute is pleased to present the highlights of its comprehensive "Sector Study on Sustainability Materiality of the SDG Targets GRI Indicators" research project.  Our team examined the Global Reporting Initiative’s GRI G4 roster of corporate sustainability reports that were published from March 2016 through March 2017. 

  • Analyzed a total of 1,387 Sustainability / ESG Reports that utilized the GRI’s G4 Framework
  • Examined the level of disclosure on all 91 GRI G4 Specific Standard Disclosures
  • Categorized the results into 40 ICB* Sectors
     
  • Top GRI Indicators / Disclosures Materiality Rankings for 40 Sectors
    • Ranked 1-91 the GRI G4 disclosures that were found to be most material to least material by reporters for each of the 40 Sectors
    • Linked the GRI Standards Disclosures  to the GRI G4 Disclosures to provide results using the GRI Standard Disclosures as well.
       
  • Top SDG Targets Results Materiality Rankings for 40 Sectors
    • Linked the GRI G4 Indicators’ materiality results with the related 169 SDG targets mapped in the SDG Compass (produced by the collaborators GRI, UN Global Compact and WBCSD) allowed us to analyze the activities of these sustainability reporters related to the SDG targets.
    • Ranked the 169 SDG Targets that were found to be most material to least material by reporters for each of the 40 Sectors (utlizing the SDG Compass to examine linked GRI Indicators)

The objective of this report is to serve as a starting point for discussion and planning around analyzing and determining sector-specific materiality of the SDG Targets and GRI Indicators / Disclosure Topics — as seen through the lens of these 1,387 reporting organizations as well as the perspectives of their respective stakeholders. 
 

Important to Keep in Mind
Organizations in this study published their reports used the GRI G4 for their sustainability, ESG and structured reporting.  Determinations of what is included in an organization's GRI report are informed by the GRI Principles of "Materiality" and "Stakeholder Inclusiveness"  -- therefore the results of our research and scores are informed by the enormous collective materiality assessments, stakeholder engagements, and decisions of these 1,387 reporting organizations.

We believe the combined materiality decisions of these 1,387 reporting organizations from around the world, across 40 ICB sectors, is a powerful "Big Data" set for us to explore in the results of this research report with you.  

We plan to continue to add to and mine this Big Data set and to utilize the underlying data to assist our clients in becoming world class sustainability leaders.  We will share the results in various ways.  We welcome your feedback and ideas on how to utilize the underlying Big Data set that this report is built upon which this report begins to explore.  We welcome your feedback on the results.

* ICB = Industry Classification Benchmark