The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), provider of international sustainability reporting guidance, recently launched new guidelines on transparency and sustainability for electric utility companies at the 2009 Ceres conference in San Francisco. The new guidance will enable electric utility firms to measure and publicly disclose their performance on a range of economic, environmental and social indicators.

This recent guidance is the latest in GRI’s Sector Supplements for specific industries. The Sector Supplements tailor GRI’s Reporting Framework to the industry’s needs and include additional sector specific reporting guidance. Last year, GRI released a Sector Supplement for the Financial Services Sector, and others, including mining and metals and oil and gas, are at various stages of development.

According to reports, electric utilities firms face unique sustainability challenges relating to their greenhouse gas emissions, programmes to improve or maintain access to electricity, the reliability of electricity and provisions for the decommissioning of nuclear power stations, among others.

Veena Ramani, Manager, Corporate Programs at Ceres said: “The GRI Guidelines and the Sector Supplement are integral to material, standard and comparable extra-financial reporting in the industry. This helps key constituencies, including investors and NGOs, assess a company’s plans and performance on sustainability issues.”

To download a copy of the Electric Utilities Sector Supplement visit the website below.

Website: http://www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/SectorSupplements/ElectricUtilities/