UN-ESG

GRI Creates Board on "Sustainability" Reporting

November 30, 2015

The Global Reporting Initiative ("GRI") has launched its Global Sustainability Standards Board, made up of labor, civil society, business, and other representatives, to develop worldwide standards for companies to report their progress in implementing the UN's environmental and social agenda.
EU Committee Presses Companies on Tax Policies

November 25, 2015

At a recent hearing, members of the European Parliament Special Committee on Tax Rulings questioned business representatives on their alleged tax avoidance and considered whether the EU should mandate country-by-country reporting of corporate tax payments within the bloc.
Groups Seek Use of Global Standards in National Policy

November 18, 2015

The International Organization for Standardization, the International Electrotechnical Commission, and the UN Economic Commission for Europe recently convened a conference at which officials from these organizations promoted the use of international standards, often dealing with business conduct, in accomplishing national policy goals.
NGO Calls for Reporting Requirements on Commodity Trading

November 03, 2015

The nongovernmental organization Berne Declaration has called on Switzerland and the international organization the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative to do more to push businesses to publish the payments they make to countries in commodities trading in order to "close the transparency gap" in the extractive sector.
NGO Criticizes Limited Reach of OECD Tax Proposal

October 15, 2015

The nongovernmental organization Tax Justice Network has criticized the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ("OECD") for failing, in its recent corporate tax information sharing proposal, to require country-by-country reporting and to treat parent and subsidiary companies as part of a single entity.
Food Companies Face Lawsuits over Supply Chains

October 15, 2015

Highlighting the complexity inherent in requiring corporate disclosure of supply-chain activity, a set of class-action lawsuits against chocolate companies Mars, Nestle, and Hershey allege these companies violated a California law requiring that they disclose the use of child labor in their supply chains.
NGO Seeks Strong Supply-Chain Reporting Laws

October 14, 2015

In a recent analysis of a California law requiring certain businesses to report on their efforts to eradicate forced labor in their supply chains, the nongovernmental organization KnowTheChain has criticized the limited reach of the law and calls for greater public transparency on which companies must prepare reports.
NGOs Call for Reporting to End Corporate Tax Avoidance

September 30, 2015

The C20 Turkey, an alliance representing nongovernmental organizations throughout the G20 group of countries, has called for the G20 to commit to ensuring that corporate income is taxed where business activities take place and to promote public, country-by-country corporate reporting of all taxable income.
GRI Tracks Progress on Corporate Sustainability Reporting

September 30, 2015

Following the UN General Assembly's adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ("SDGs"), the Global Reporting Initiative ("GRI") has introduced a tool that it says will help governments track the progress of companies in fulfilling a "target" of the SDGs that calls for corporate reporting on efforts toward "sustainability."
Paper Documents Market Responses to EU Disclosure Directive

September 22, 2015

A recent academic article on the market effects of an EU directive mandating the disclosure by companies of certain social and environmental information documents the negative market reactions to the directive among investors in companies with currently low disclosure levels and companies with weak nonfinancial performance.