SIRAN's Global Reporting Inititative

Efforts to expand corporate social responsibility reporting among the United States’ largest companies took a significant step forward as the result of a coordinated effort by the Social Investment Research Analyst Network (SIRAN), a coalition of corporate social research analysts formed in 2004.

In January 2005, SIRAN launched an initiative to evaluate the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting of America's largest companies, as part of an effort to urge companies to report publicly on social and environmental issues according to standards established by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). CERES, the Boston based environmental non-profit organization, created the GRI reporting format in 1997, as a way to standardize corporate social responsible reporting.

Since January, SIRAN analysts participating in this study have contacted CEO's of companies on the S&P 100 to uncover the nature of the companies’ CSR reporting. As of June 2005, the analysts' efforts have proved fruitful: SIRAN reported that 40% of companies on the S&P 100 index report annually on their social and environmental performance; 58% devote an autonomous section of their corporate website to social and environmental issues; and 24% base the format of their annual CSR report on the GRI guidelines. By year-end, SIRAN expects that this project will bring the percentage of S&P 100 companies who publish a CSR report referencing the GRI to 25%.

Steve Lippman, who serves as SIRAN's co-chair, reported in a press release from SIRAN that he is encouraged by the study's findings. Mr. Lippman sees the increased prevalence of CSR reporting among large US corporations as evidence that companies are responding to a variety of stakeholders' calls for increased disclosure of corporations’ social and environmental profile.

For more information on SIRAN please visit their website at www.siran.org. For more information on the Global Reporting Initiative, please visit www.globalreporting.org.