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

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70 Carrots and Sticks - Promoting Transparency and Sustainability Country/Region Standards, Codes and Guidelines United States the end of July 2011 CRC organisations will have to submit a Footprint Report of their total energy and emissions during the Footprint Year (April 2010–March 2011). Annual reporting will also be required. CRC organisations will have to monitor and report their emissions from all fixed point sources (not just electricity) annually and a director of the CRC organisation will have to sign a ‘statement of records’ confirming that adequate records have been kept. The reporting impact on middle market companies in the UK will be significant. It is likely that a large number of the 5,000 companies included in the CRC will not previously have reported on non-financial information. http://www. decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/lc_uk/crc/ crc.aspx Voluntary standards � Environmental Reporting Guidelines – Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), 2006 issued by the Department for Environmental, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), designed to assist companies with new narrative reporting requirements relating to environmental matters, as contained within the ‘Contents of Directors Report’ of the Company Law Reform Bill. http://www.dti.gov.uk/bbf/financial reporting/ business-reporting/page21339.html Mandatory standards The � EEO-1 Survey requires annual filing by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding employment records, including the racial and gender profiles of employees. The revised survey must be used after 30 September 2007. Section D ‘Employment Data’ (ethnic and racial categories) was the only section revised at this point. It allows employers to report peoples of “two or more races, Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino,” and encourages self-identification rather than reporting by employers. The � Sarbanes-Oxley Act (formally the Public Company Reform and Investor Protection Act, 15 USC 7245 7256), 2002 imposed several new
Country/Region Standards, Codes and Guidelines reporting requirements for US-listed companies to increase corporate transparency (mainly corporate governance). Its Section 404 requirements for top executives to sign off on detailed internal controls have been accused of imposing too heavy a regulatory burden on companies, for example by not explaining the scope of internal and external checks required. Available at http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/gwbush/ sarbanesoxley072302.pdf The � Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) – The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) – Under Regulation S-K, the SEC requires “appropriate disclosure...as to the material effects that compliance with Federal, State and local provisions which have been enacted or adopted regulating the discharge of materials into the environment, or otherwise relating to the protection of the environment, may have upon the capital expenditures, earnings and competitive position of the registrant and its subsidiaries.” In Form K-10 the SEC requires disclosure on legislative compliance, judicial proceedings and liabilities relating to the environment. More specifically, SEC Rule S-K, Item 103 Instruction 5 (Environmental Claims) requires companies to disclose proceedings involving monetary sanctions over $100 000. In addition, disclosure is required for any material estimated capital expenditure for environmental control facilities and for select legal proceedings on environmental matters. For foreign issuers in the United States, Form 20-F requires companies to “describe any environmental issues that may affect the company’s utilisation of the assets.” Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (C&Dis) were reviewed and updated as needed and republished as of 3 July 2008. The last revision was 14 August 2009. These changes have not impacted CSR reporting. In October 2009 SEC reversed the existing policy under Rule 14a-8(i)(7) that had allowed companies to exclude shareholder resolutions requesting information on the financial risks associated with environmental, human rights and other social issues facing companies. In January 2010 the SEC announced that they will provide public companies Carrots and Sticks - Promoting Transparency and Sustainability 71
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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
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of the GRI sector supplements as we
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“The vision of the Danish Governm
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Emerging trends at the global level
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assurance standards are evolving wh
Page 21 and 22: Standards, Codes and Guidelines con
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Page 25 and 26: Country/Region Standards, Codes and
Page 71: Country/Region Standards, Codes and
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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