 to the session on Sustainability Reporting. So, in last couple of session we discussed about the other tools of sustainability like impact and assessment tool we discussed about the life cycle assessment and in case of management tool we discussed the design for environment. So, in this class we are going to discuss the reporting tool that is on sustainability reporting. So, let us understand what is sustainability reporting? So, sustainability reporting is an organization practice of reporting publicly on its economic, environmental and social impact and hence its contributions to positive or negative towards the goal of the sustainable development in accordance with the globally accepting standard. So, we look at this definition possible a few things what we can highlight over here. One this is organization practice second this is not only economic impact this is also economic environment and social impact. Third contribution to positive or negative to the goal of sustainable development and the last one is the globally accepted standard. So, if you summarize these highlights this talks about reporting publicly about the economic environment and social performance of the organization which may be positive which may be negative. Now, the typical question comes how sustainability report is different from the annual reports. Annual report is financial report it also consider the health, environment, safety and all the social responsibility. But sustainability reporting is the standalone report which follow the accepted standard what should be the part of the sustainability disclosure and accordingly the sustainability report is being prepared. So, sustainability reporting is the disclosure and communication of environmental, social and governance goal popularly known as ESG goals as well as companies progress towards them. So, from the reporting will come to know what is the goal what the organization has set in and also how much is the progress they have made to achieve the goal. This sustainability reporting also known as non-financial reporting, triple bottom line reporting, CSI reporting, business responsibility reporting and integrated reporting. So, in the different economy in the different context you will find that reporting the norms for reporting for some country possibilities, non-financial reporting for someone it is stable reporting for someone it is business responsibility reporting. But most widely accepted reporting is typically sustainable reporting which follows the guideline of the GRI standard. Now, there are many more sustainability framework that how typically the reporting should be done you will find many more that available as the sustainability framework for the reporting or the communication. These slides reports 5 sustainable top 5 sustainability framework and this includes CDP that is that is the Carbon Disclosure, then Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Global Reporting Initiative, GRE SP and SSSP. So, most of the time it will find most widely accepted is the GRE standard. So, let us see the background of this GRE and how GRE standard is being used for reporting the sustainability or preparing the sustainability report. So, what is GRE? GRE is the Independent International Organization and they are pioneering sustainability reporting since 1997. They produce one of the world's most prevalent standard for the sustainability reporting and that is developed with true multi-stakeholder contribution and also rooted in the public interest. Now, what is the role? They help the organization to prepare sustainability report based on stakeholder engagement and also focuses on the material topics. And this GRE framework typically provides a full and balanced picture of the organization, the material topics, material coverage, related impact and also how these impacts are being managed. Now, a fair report is in accordance with the GRE standard. It can be produced as a standalone sustainability report or it can reference information close in the variety of location informers if either it is in the electronics or the paper based format. Any report prepared in accordance with GRE standard is required to include the GRE content index which is presented in one location and also include the page number and URL of all disclosure reported. Now, this is what the milestone or we can say the evolution of the GRE framework over a period of time. So, 1997 the launch of the GRE happened and 2000 they published the first version of GRE guideline. Then in 2003 they launched the Organizational Stakeholder Program. Then 2008 they started the certified training partner program and 2018 they phase out the G4 guideline. And in 2014 they also form the Global Sustainability Standard Board and the current sustainability board is current sustainability standard is based on this GSSB that is Global Sustainability Board, but it takes the manual and the implementation from the G4 guidelines. So, this GRE standard it incorporate the key concept of disclosure from the G4 guideline and G4 implementation manual as I was mentioning in case of previous slide, but it comes with a new improved structure and the formal. And the standards are issued by Global Sustainability Standard Board and this is the independent GRE's independent standard setting body. So, mostly we use G4 guidelines, implementation of the manual and the standards issued by the Global Sustainability Standard Board that is for the G4 framework. Now, this GRE standard there are two types of standard the set of standard what GRE includes there are two types one. We have three universal standard which is applicable to all the organization and 33 topic specific standard that is organized into economic environment and social series. So, organization select and use only the relevant topic specific standard based on the material topic, based on their business, based on the product or service they offer based on that they pick the topic specific standard, but the first set of standards that is those are universal to all the organization. So, in universal standard we have again three kind of universal standard three types one, one not one which gives the foundation, one not two which gives the general disclosures and one not three which gives the management approach. Let us see what each of the standards covers or what each of the standard includes. So, GRE 101 foundation this is the starting point of using the GRE standard and it sets out the reporting principle for defining report content and quality. It includes the requirement and describe how the standard can be used and referenced also it includes the specific claims that require the organization preparing a sustainability report in accordance with the standards and for those using selected GRE standard to report the specific information. So, GRE 101 is mostly foundation focuses more on content quality requirements and also if the organization is claiming something any specific claim if they need how that has to be used in the sustainability report. Now, coming to GRE 102 that consists of general disclosure and this is used to report the typical information about an organization based on the context. So, and its sustainability practices it includes information about organization profile, strategy, ethics, integrity and governance and also the stakeholder engagement practices and reporting process. So, GRE 101 is mostly on the fundamental the basic of it, but when you come to GRE 102 this is general disclosure about the organization profile, strategy, ethics, integrity governance and the other practices and processes what they are following. Then getting into GRE 103 which is management approach and this standard is used to report information how an organization manages the material topic and those cover in GRE standard 200, 300 and 400 and other material topic. So, whatever the topic specific standard they pick either from 200 or 300 or 400, how the whatever the material they pick, how typically they should inform that about in their report about the material topic that is what GRE 103. It allows the organization to provide a narrative explanation of why topic is material, where the impact occur the topic boundary. So, if you remember with this also we discussed when we are discussing the life cycle impact that what is the boundary of the, what is the boundary we are set into assess the impact and also what gets into the scope and goal and scope for the impact assessment. So, here also once the material or once the standard the topic specific standard is being taken by the organization then it gives a narrative explanation that why the topic is that specific material, where the impact occurs what is the system boundary for this product or the topic and how the organization manages the impact. So, all this management about the topic specific disclosure that is being followed from GRE 103 management approach framework. These are the topic specific standard and their coverage. So, 200 series all economic 300 series environmental and 400 series social. So, 200 series talks mostly about economic performance, market and anti-competitive behavior, anti-corruption behavior mostly the economic activities. 300 series is environment. So, it starts with materials and also it talks about the compliance and also the supplier environmental assessment. And 400 series if you can see the list is long this consists of social starting from employment till customer privacy about the data privacy and also the socio-economic compliance. Now, when you have to find about the sustainability report of a specific company, how they have a disclosure what is their sustainability report. All this reports are available in sustainability disclosure database. So, if you go to GRE sustainability disclosure database, then it will give the options to find out about a specific company sustainability report. So, this is the yesterday browse result that when I was looking at how much is the sustainability disclosure database or what is the numbers or what is the report. So, in yesterday browsing it is 15,536 organization. They have published 63,852 reports and 38,484 out of that was the GRE reports. Then you can just type the organization name and then that will take you to the specific report or specific company report and gives a detail that how much or how many times they have published or when they have published or what kind of framework they have used. So, I just search for Godrej looking at that just to find out that how much is there, how many sustainability report they have published, what is the recent one, what kind of framework they have used and this is the search result that it gives about Godrej manufacturing, Godrej consumer product, Godrej industrial limited Godrej interior and Godrej property. It gives about the size, it gives about the sector where they operate, it gives the country specific, it gives the region specific and also the details of report that how many times they have published the sustainability report. So, if you look at they have the first one they have published in 2016, 2018 and also in case of consumer product this three times 2013, 17, 18. So, it gives detail of this GRE sustainability report they have published and also followed with standard and which year they have published this. Now there is some recent regulation with respect to the sustainability report very recently announced with respect in the specific context of India that in 10th May 2021 SEBI the security exchange board of India they have issued a circular by implementing the new sustainability related reporting requirement for top 1000 listed company by market capitalization and the new disclosure will be made in the format of business responsibility and sustainability report that is BRSR and there is some changes from SEBI existing business responsibility report and this is a significant step towards bringing sustainability reporting up to the existing financial reporting standard. Now this new regulation emphasis on new format new BRSR format based on nine principle of Indian government's national guidance on responsible business conduct typically known as RBC guidelines and which are intended to define the responsible business conduct for Indian company. So, these are the guidelines. So, the new business responsibility and sustainability reporting format will follow the national guideline on responsible business conduct that is RBC guidelines and this RBC guideline is typically defines the responsible business conduct for the Indian company. This RBC guideline and driven by leading Indian international standards and practices like UN guiding principle of business and human rights, UN sustainable development goals, the Paris Agreement and the ILO core convention and the principle address a range of sustainability matters including business ethics and transparency, human rights, environmental safety and fair labour practices. So, the new reporting it will promote the transparent standardised disclosure on ESG parameter and also the sustainability related risk and opportunity among the listed company in India. This approach will help company better to demonstrate their sustainability objective, position and performance to the market and the long term value creation. And this for 2021 and 22 financial year, this should be voluntary the reporting in this format. But from financial year 2022 and 2023, it is going to be mandatory. So, basically they are giving the time to the organisation to prepare or build the way they are reporting till now or preparing in the updated format and this will be mandatory from 2022 and 2023. And this should be applicable to top 1000 listed company by the market capitalisation. Now, the other point is if you look at the entire changes that is happening is there is a increasing, increasing attention or there is a rise of ESG that is environmental, social and governance. And let us see what it focuses on this ESG, what it focus, what E focuses on, what S focuses on and what is G focuses on. So, typically environmental disclosure, focus is on companies environmental disclosure, environmental impact and any effort to reduce the pollution and carbon emission. So, if you look at climate change, natural capital, pollution, opportunity, all these and among this broad title you will find in climate change we are talking about GST disclosure, air emission, responsible finance, mostly what is the sustainable finance or carbon finance. Similarly, for the natural capital, it starts from water mapping to the responsible sourcing, then also it covers the pollution, different kind of pollution and also this is opportunity, what are the opportunity available for the company and accordingly they can fix their goal and also work towards the achieve the goal. Similarly, in case of social disclosure, it refers mostly for creating the social well-being either in the workplace or in society at a large and it includes diverse concepts such as diversity, human rights, philanthropy and corporate citizenship. So, all these things are covered under three broad heads that is human capital, customer and social opportunity. Similarly, for governance it accounts for compensation, shareholder rights and the relationship between the shareholder and the management and it covers three again under three broad heads that is corporate governance, corporate policy and disclosure. Now, let us look at what are the potential challenges for the organization when they prepare for the business responsibility report or the sustainability report. So, these are few of them summarized, there may be many more challenges that comes from the specific organizers on which of a different nature or the specific nature. So, one is how do you engage and communicate with the key stakeholder about what to report and how to meter report, then identifying the sustainability issues mostly the material to include and to prioritize, then how do you establish the realistic goals and targets and also once you achieve the realistic goals and targets, how do you prepare the organization to achieve the published goals and also when your goals and targets are being fixed and also the organization gets prepared to achieve this goal. The other thing what need to be checked or what is considered as a challenge for the organization is that whether the goal and targets is having a conflicting equation with the goals and targets of the organization. Then collecting, organizing, analyzing the necessary information and one of the important challenge is that how the report has to be published or how the communication has to be done so that it should not be just as a marketing tool talking good about the organization rather it gives a true picture of the economic environment and social performance of the company. Then managing expectation around the final report from all the stakeholders, then the challenge is that how do you communicate the negative results, how do you talk about the impact, how do you typically about the negative impact what you are making to the society and also producing a picture of the real performance of the organization. Then the other two challenges are how do you document all these impacts, goals, targets and also the initiatives are being taken to fulfill the goals and targets. How do you document this properly so that whoever read this or whoever collect the data on the company for them it is a clear one which giving a clarity about all these goals, targets, initiatives and also the impact. And the bigger challenge what the organization faces is that if they publish the report in one cycle how they still keep the momentum or still keep the process going on for the next reporting period. So, in this session we have understood what is sustainability reporting, how this is a reporting and communication tool and the background to the sustainability reporting is GRI standard and also how the GRI standard evolve over a period of time, what are the specific standard comes under the universal one and the topic specific one and finally what are the challenges associated with the sustainability reporting. So, in the next session we will see typically the last reporting or the last status of the reporting of the Indian company and how Indian company they are doing with respect to their ESG performance. Thank you.