1.24.2002 ET

(CSRwire) Boston, USA - The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), convened to develop an internationally accepted framework for sustainability reporting for businesses and other organisations, announced today the appointment of fourteen members to its first Board of Directors. This announcement brings a year long independent board nomination process to a close, and positions GRI for its official inauguration as an independent international institution.

"Because the GRI is a multi-stakeholder, international undertaking, its Board of Directors reflects a balance amongst stakeholder groups and amongst geographic regions," said Board Nominating Committee Chair Jonathan Lash, President of the World Resources Institute. "The Committee was challenged to assemble an extraordinary and balanced group of innovators committed to strengthening corporate accountability in the 21st century. I believe we have succeeded in achieving this objective."

The first fourteen members of the GRI Board of Directors, who will serve in their capacity as individuals, are:

· Roger Adams (United Kingdom) -- Executive Director-Technical, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

· Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel (France) -- Assistant Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics

· Fabio Feldmann (Brazil) -- former Secretary of Environment, São Paulo

· Toshihiko Goto (Japan) -- Chair, Environmental Auditing Research Group

· Judy Henderson (Australia) -- immediate-past Chair, Australian Ethical Investment Ltd, former Commissioner, World Commission on Dams

· Hanns Michael Hölz (Germany) -- Global Head of Sustainable Development and Public Relations, Deutsche Bank Group

· Jamshed J. Irani (India) -- Director, Tata Sons Limited

· Robert Kinloch Massie (United States) -- Executive Director, Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies

· Mark Moody-Stuart (United Kingdom) -- retired Chair, Royal Dutch/Shell

· Anita Normark (Sweden) -- General Secretary, International Federation of Building and Wood Workers

· Nyameko Barney Pityana (South Africa) -- Vice-Chancellor, University of South Africa, former Chair, South African Human Rights Commission

· Barbara Shailor (United States) -- Director of International Affairs, American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations

· Bjorn Stigson (Sweden) -- President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development

· Peter H.Y. Wong (China) -- Senior Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Hong Kong; and Board Member, International Federation of Accountants

Following acceptance, one final board member will be named.

"The caliber and reach of this board reflects the critical nature of GRI's mission in a global economy where sustainability reporting is likely to become as routine as financial reporting," said GRI Secretariat Director Allen White. "The Nominating Committee should be commended for selecting this outstanding group of visionaries and institution-builders from business, government, non-governmental, and labour organisations. In these critical first years of GRI, their skills will be essential in creating a truly world-class institution designed to advance accountability worldwide."

The Board's initial duties will include hiring a chief executive, siting a new Secretariat headquarters in Europe, establishing processes and protocols for GRI's governance structure, and other activities accompanying GRI's official inauguration at UN headquarters in New York on 4 April 2002.

Convened in 1997 by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme, the GRI is elevating sustainability reporting to unprecedented levels of rigour, comparability, and completeness. Sustainability reporting discloses the economic, environmental and social performance of corporations and other organisations. GRI has incorporated the active participation of hundreds of business, accountancy, investment, environmental, human rights, and labour organisations from around the world in designing its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. To date, more than 100 major companies have used the Guidelines in shaping their sustainability reports.

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