CARROTS AND STICKS – PROMOTING ... - Global Reporting Initiative

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62 Carrots and Sticks - Promoting Transparency and Sustainability Country/Region Standards, Codes and Guidelines � The Consumer Protection Bill, 2009 – The Consumer Protection Bill (soon to be enacted) has no mandatory implications for sustainability reporting. There is a Chapter on the “right to disclosure and information” but that is more around product labelling than sustainability reporting. However, GRI G3 has a whole section on “product responsibility performance indicators” covering aspects like customer health and safety, product labelling, marketing communications and customer privacy which are also part of the bill. Therefore, the Consumer Protection Bill should motivate companies to take product responsibility more seriously, identify risks, and report more detail on the implications of the bill. www.thedti.gov.za/parlimentary/bills/ ConsumerProtectionBill.pdf � The Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), 1999 is legislation that carefully controls the behaviour of public entities and has some compulsory reporting requirements although only to government. More specifically, it sets the scene for government to get good value for money. It is all about good management and performing well. The PFMA applies to national and provincial government, whilst the Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003 is applicable to local government. These Acts have similar requirements and introduce the same treasury norms and standards for the whole public sector in South Africa. This means that all areas of government, whether local governmentdriven or provincially driven, will operate within the same financial framework. www.treasury.gov.za/ legislation/pfma/Default.aspx � Mineral Resources and Petroleum Bill, 2009 – The Mineral Resources and Petroleum Bill requires affected companies to disclose Social and Labour Plans to government describing how they will address the social impacts of their operations during and post operation. Voluntary standards The � King Report on Corporate Governance, 1994 is a non-legislated code on good corporate governance. The King Report on Corporate
Country/Region Standards, Codes and Guidelines Governance is the definitive document for South African corporate governance. The King Report has been updated and was released on 1 September 2009 (King III). This was preceded by recent global developments as well as the new Companies Act. It reflects changes focused on requiring business to integrate the management of financial and non-financial issues (risk management and audit). King III requires integrated sustainability reporting and third party assurance. It applies to all South African companies and is a listing requirement for the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It has been prescribed that entities follow an integrated reporting format, which means describing financial, social and environmental factors in a holistic manner within the report. A company’s “material matters”, including sustainability risks, should be disclosed in a timely manner. There is a strong focus on responsible corporate citizenship in King III. In South Africa corporate citizenship includes, among many other things, issues related to transformation, human rights, human capital, social capital, safety and health. www.iodsa.co.za The � Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Socially Responsible Investment Index (SRI Index), 2004 encourages companies in the FTSE/JSE All Share Index that choose to participate to report publicly on sustainability related issues. www.jse.co.za/sri Carbon Disclosure Project: � South Africa started participating in 2007. Various � Industry Specific Black Economic Empowerment Charters, 2003. The development of industry-specific black economic empowerment (BEE) charters in South Africa is an on-going process. However, charters have already been developed for several key sectors, including mining, the petroleum and maritime sectors, tourism and financial services. Reporting against the criteria of this Act and the associated charters has driven the structure of some reports. Various � State-Owned Enterprise Shareholder Compacts, 2002. Many of the state-owned enterprises have shareholder compacts with the Government Shareholder. Some of these compacts Carrots and Sticks - Promoting Transparency and Sustainability 63
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CARROTS AND STICKS - PROMOTING TRAN
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Contents Forewords 2 1 Executive Su
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Core environmental issues today - c
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in its regulatory role, to ensure a
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of the comprehensive “corporate s
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There is a large variety of regulat
Page 13 and 14: of the GRI sector supplements as we
Page 15 and 16: “The vision of the Danish Governm
Page 17 and 18: Emerging trends at the global level
Page 19 and 20: assurance standards are evolving wh
Page 21 and 22: Standards, Codes and Guidelines con
Page 23 and 24: Standards, Codes and Guidelines Eco
Page 25 and 26: Country/Region Standards, Codes and
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Page 77 and 78: 5. Country profiles Carrots and Sti
Page 79 and 80: In June 1997 Herbert De Souza, Beti
Page 81 and 82: well as a list of companies that vi
Page 83 and 84: market-based instruments. A small p
Page 85 and 86: Figure 1: Issues addressed in susta
Page 87 and 88: Stock Exchange (Brazil) and the Joh
Page 89 and 90: Annex 1 1. Carrots and Sticks - Pro
Page 91 and 92: Power’ Options: How Governments C
Page 93 and 94: An external Advisory Committee cons
Page 95 and 96: Production Printing process: Printe
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CARROTS AND STICKS – PROMOTING ... - Global Reporting Initiative

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