As companies make efforts to define material impacts in their Sustainability Reports, Elaine Cohen, Author of Understanding G4: the Concise Guide to Next Generation Sustainability Reporting - shares why there should be robust process standards for the determination of material impacts.
Earlier this year, I had quite a lot of fun as a GRI-appointed Quality Control Officer, whose role is to attend GRI training courses as an observer and report back to GRI if certified GRI training is being conducted professionally, competently and in line with GRI standards. This is fascinating for me, mainly because it's so interesting to hear what training delegates ask about and comment on during the course. In one session, a delegate asked the ultimate G4 (now GRI Standards) question - the very same one that I asked GRI Standards leading architect Bastian Buck of GRI, three years back: