The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): To what extent do the GRI corporate sustainability guidelines enable business to move towards sustainability? What are the organisational-level challenges to implementation of the GRI for different sizes and types of

In order to determine: (1) to what extent the GRI sustainability reporting guidelines enable organisations to move towards sustainability and (2) what the organizational-level challenges to implementation of the GRI for different sizes and sectors of companies are, the author researched and synthesized. (1) The history of corporate social accountability; (2) Feedback on the 2000 GRI Guidelines from staff who participated in writing Suncor Energy's sustainability report to submit to the GRI's Structured Feedback Process (solicited by the GRI Secretariat); (3) The application of the GRI Guidelines to the operations of a small enterprise; (4) Feedback from twenty-five corporations on the 2000 GRI Guidelines (solicited by the secretariat); (5) Comments from a diverse range of non-commercial entities that were asked for or volunteered their feedback to the GRI Secretariat; and (6) Three surveys of corporate environmental/sustainability reporting: (a) International Survey of Environmental Reporting (KPMG, 1999); (b) The Global Reporters (SustainAbility/UNEP, 2000); (c) Stepping Forward: Corporate Sustainability Reporting in Canada (Stratos Inc., Allan Willis & Associates, and Sustainability Ltd., 2001). (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...