Sustainability

Scope

Sustainability reports are becoming common practice for many organizations ranging from businesses to governments to non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) established a reporting framework that is now the most widely adopted model used for sustainability reporting worldwide. If participating, companies will publish a sustainability or environmental, social, and governance (ESG) report annually.

Regulatory citations

• None

Key definitions

• Greenhouse gases: Gases in Earth’s atmosphere that trap heat. Examples include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons.
• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): A non-profit organization that provides businesses with sustainability reporting guidance and keeps a database of sustainability reports.
• Sustainability report: An annual document issued by a company or organization about the economic, environmental, and social effects that arise from its daily activities.

Summary of requirements

When an organization looks to track and improve sustainability/ ESG they should think about goals that fall into each category for environmental, social, and governance. Here are some suggested topics under each category to consider:

Environmental

1. Ecosystem preservation:
   1. Protect, support, and restore the health of crucial natural habitats and ecosystems.
2. Green engineering and chemistry:
   1. Outline chemical products and processes to remove toxic hazards, reuse or recycle chemicals, and reduce entire lifecycle costs.
3. Air quality:
   1. Meet and maintain air-quality standards and lower the risks associated with toxic air pollutants.
4. Water quality:
   1. Lessen exposure to contaminants in water systems and infrastructure (including source water protection), retrofit aging systems, and install next generation treatment technologies and approaches.
5. Stressors:
   1. Lessen impacts by stressors (e.g., pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions, genetically modified organisms) to the ecosystem and at-risk populations.
6. Resource integrity:
   1. Lessen negative effects by reducing waste generation to prevent accidental release and associated cleanup.

Social

1. Environmental justice:
   1. Protect the health of communities over-burdened by pollution by enabling them to better their health and environment.
2. Human health:
   1. Protect, maintain, and improve human health.
3. Participation:
   1. Use open and clear processes that engage applicable stakeholders.
4. Education:
   1. Enhance sustainability education of the public, stakeholders, and possibly affected groups.
5. Resource security:
   1. Protect, upkeep, and restore access to principal resources (e.g., water, food, land, and energy) for present and future generations.
6. Sustainable communities:
   1. Encourage the development, planning, building, or modification of areas to advance sustainable living.

Governance/Economic

1. Jobs:
   1. Improve and maintain present and future jobs.
2. Incentives:
   1. Encourage incentives that work with human nature to promote sustainable practices.
3. Supply and demand:
   1. Encourage informed accounting and market practices to advocate for environmental health and social prosperity.
4. Natural resource accounting:
   1. Strengthen understanding and quantification of ecosystem impacts in cost-benefit analyses.
5. Costs:
   1. Positively influence costs of processes, services, and products throughout the entire lifecycle.
6. Prices:
   1. Encourage cost structures that lower risk for innovative technologies.