Be a GRI certified professional for better strategy and financial performance

Tuesday, 10 April 2012 00:42 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Stemming from the success of the first certification program, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce will organise a two full day certificate program on ‘Certified GRI (Global Reporting Initiatives)’ from 24 to 25 April at the Hotel Taj Samudra.

The Certified Training Program teaches sustainability reporting knowledge and skills accepted around the world. The program helps report makers and users to utilise the GRI Framework and GRI reports more effectively to make their businesses sustainable. The program is well structured and an internationally recognised certificate will be awarded to the participants, from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Netherlands upon completion of an online examination. It provides a great exposure to participants from private sector companies and those who have already received benefits by adopting best reporting practices.

Shikhar Jain, Senior Counsellor – Corporate Sustainability Management, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development, India, will be the resource person of the program. Public and private sector organisations can register for this important program through the Event Unit of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Contact Sriyani on 011 558 8877 or 011 244 9190. Seats are limited and registration has to be done prior to the program date. In the context of the widespread and growing recognition of economic, social and environmental costs and benefits, sustainability accounting and reporting practices have developed considerably in recent years. Accounting for sustainability and preparation of reports present key environmental, social and economic information alongside more conventional financial information to give a more rounded and balanced picture of the organisation’s overall performance, enable environmental and social performance to be better connected with strategy and financial performance and thereby embed into day-to-day operations and decision making. The challenge however, is to ensure that sustainability information is included in mainstream reporting, is strategically important and forms part of the decision making process of the business, reflecting the organisation’s strategy and the way it is managed.

The 12 years of experience by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the institution to develop the internationally accepted, multi stakeholder led Guidelines, with more than 1800 GRI registered reports has resulted in a much better understanding of the reporters and their reporting practices. The training program will be an opportunity to understand the GRI framework; the business case of sustainability reports with the process of reporting and its use in the development of credible and comparable sustainability report.