The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has just gained, in Brazil, a strong ally in its mission to promote the quality of information related to social impact, environment and governance in the annual reports of companies that use its indicators. On the 3rd, the activities of the GRI Advisory Board began, which will have the attribution of perfecting the convergence of this data, also known by the acronym ESG in English, with the needs of investors.
To fulfill this role, the collegiate will have a multi-stakeholder profile, that is, with representatives of some of the main stakeholders of the GRI activities. The directors will have a term of three years and will have at least four annual meetings, with the possibility of intermediate meetings. Members bring together experiences ranging from academia to business and investment – check out the list below.
“A dream that came true thanks to all the directors who accepted to participate in this journey to improve the transparency of companies in Brazil. This council plays a fundamental role in maintaining the multi-stakeholder character and the independence and neutrality of the GRI. It will also help define strategies and define paths to improve the quality of information disclosed and increase stakeholder participation in the transparency ecosystem, especially non-converted ones”, said Glaucia Terreo, GRI's focal point in Brazil.
GRI Advisory Board will seek convergence
The collegiate is chaired by Sônia Favaretto, who took office after 10 years as director of Sustainability at B3, where she also held the presidency of the Board of the Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE). The executive will have the mission of leading the works of the Advisory Board with the objective of supporting the GRI in strategic decisions and in the evaluation of the fulfillment of its institutional role. For this, it will have the task of establishing permanent dialogue with representatives of market agents and other stakeholders.
Headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the GRI is an international organization that helps companies, governments, financial institutions and third sector organizations understand and communicate the impact of business on issues critical to sustainability.
According to Favaretto, Brazil has made progress in recent years in relation to the disclosure of ESG information by companies, but there is still much to be done in the insertion of these indicators in the decision-making process.
“This is a global challenge and Brazil is very advanced in this. As much as issues related to transparency have been discussed in the country for decades, however, we have to improve information and maintain an ever-increasing dialogue with investors. In this sense, it should be noted that we have four important representatives of this segment on the Board. The change to be made is in the strategic thinking on the boards of companies and in the culture among CEOs”, evaluated Sônia Favaretto.
The president of the GRI Advisory Board in Brazil said that the collegiate's activities are still in their infancy. “It is still too early to set targets. The Board has a participatory profile among all members and focuses on transparency of information. Obviously, as long as there is a theme to be studied in greater depth, we can create working groups”, said Favaretto.
Meet the members of the GRI Advisory Board in Brazil:
Sonia Consiglio Favaretto – chair of the Council
Adriana Lagrotta Leles – Deputy Chairman of the Board
Eduardo Dumans, Constellation
Caio Magri – Ethos Institute
Lauro Marins – CDP LA
Carlo Linkevieius Pereira – CB Global Compact
Carlos Takahashi – BlackRock Brazil
Fabio Alperowitch – FAME
Marina Cançado – Converges Capital
Marcelo Seraphim – UNPRI
Juliana Lopes – pulse
Valeria Coffee – IBGC
Heloisa Bedicks – IBGC
Professor Celso Lemme – COPPEAD
Professor José Roberto Kassai – FEA USP
Nilton Freitas – Bwint
Tatiana Araújo – GRI Stakeholders Council in Amsterdam
Olaf Brugman – member of the GRI Board of Directors and sustainability superintendent at Sicredi
