Sweden pioneers a global first in sustainability reporting

Citation

(2008), "Sweden pioneers a global first in sustainability reporting", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 19 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/meq.2008.08319dab.001

Sweden pioneers a global first in sustainability reporting

Article Type: News From: Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Volume 19, Issue 4

The Swedish Government has announced that all 55 state owned companies in Sweden have to file an annual sustainability report based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (G3) Guidelines before the 31 March each year, from 2009 onwards. This is a landmark announcement in this history of sustainability reporting and GRI. The Swedish Government has been the first government in the world to introduce such sustainability reporting measures.

The 55 Swedish state owned companies this announcement affects are drawn from a variety of sectors, such as forestry, infrastructure, and telecommunications. Some of them, such as the large multi-national energy company and Organizational Stakeholder Vattenfall, are already GRI reporters while others will be first time reporters.

All the state owned companies will greatly benefit from using the GRI G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines as both an internal management tool and external reporting framework. It is expected that this development will further stimulate other Swedish companies to begin disclosing such information using the GRI framework for sustainability reporting. At present, around 25 Swedish companies have self-declared their use of the GRI Guidelines. GRI welcomes the leadership of the Swedish Government in giving priority to sustainability reporting and will support them with the implementation of this initiative.