When I was speaking at the GRI conference in Amsterdam recently, I chatted with a Director from a leading multinational NGO about the fact that it’s great that the GRI has released a set of sustainability reporting indicators for NGOs but that collecting the data in order to report it could be a nightmare.

So I spent a few hours and created a simple WordPress site to use for just this purpose.

Pages are used to explain the Indicator Categories. Posts are used for the detailed Indicator Requirements and post Comments are used to provide the content required to evidence compliance with the indicators. A tree is used to navigate the Indicator set.

Using this simple, free tool NGOs can transparently put their GRI-based sustainability reporting progress/process online for access by all external stakeholders while ensuring that the evidential commentary is only added and managed by internal staff.

I haven’t added all the indicators but I think you’ll get the drift…You can find the prototype here.

Shimples. As the meerkat might say.

I have a simple and I think brutally effective suggestion for regulators around the world to effect a step change in sustainability reporting.

The kind of change that, at a stroke, will make sustainability efforts central to any conversation about company performance, raise sustainability transparency globally and force all businesses to seriously engage with sustainable practices and behaviour whether they like it or not.

My simple and brutally effective suggestion is this:

Mandate that every income statement and every balance sheet in every accounting jurisdiction has 2 new lines on it.

On the income statement the 2 new lines are: Sustainability Revenue and Sustainability Expenses.

On the balance sheet the 2 new lines are: Sustainability Liabilities and Sustainability Assets.

That’s just 4 lines to effect a step-change in sustainability reporting, globally.

Can you imagine an income statement without a sales revenue or operational expenses line on it? Then if you believe the sustainability agenda is important to the future of us all, how can you not imagine the same income statement without a sustainability revenue and sustainability expenses line on it?

If regulators don’t have the will to mandate 4 extra lines then take the initiative in your own business and just do it. What’s the downside? If all you can put on those 4 lines to start with is zero, then at least you and all your stakeholders know there is only one way you can go – forwards into a sustainable future.

Just add those 4 lines and see what happens.