Organization's Compliance with GRI's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines: A CASE of Royal Dutch Shell in Europe

The Royal Dutch Shell in Europe complies with GRI standard sustainability reporting guidelines that are covering its nine factors mainly include the environment, stakeholder engagement, and social (2019). Through all these factors, the organization is addressing and approaching its broad performance to prove its impact holistically. Currently, Shell is taking help from GRI to communicate the main issues on human rights, climate change, and safety measures. The purpose of the GRI sustainability report is to give direction to an organization in disclosing, measuring, and performance accountability to all its stakeholders in achieving sustainable development (Mangion, D. 2011). The 2019 sustainability report of Shell in context with its environment and stakeholder engagement has shown positive contributions to its sustainability performance. Based on the GRI sustainability reporting framework, the following outcomes and results have been obtained during the reporting period of Shell’s compliance regarding environment and stakeholder’s engagement that further used to benchmark, demonstrate, and comparing.

Environment – the organization has implemented and followed a variety of environmental laws and obliged its reporting and regulations within the region they are operating. It has covered the cost including the operating expenses of third-party claims, sanctions, fines clean up, and avoiding other unauthorized discharges like waste handling, self-disposal, soil, water, and air. Hence, the organization is following the GRI standard for the safety and security of the environment within its region.

Stakeholder engagement – the organization is striving to maintain healthy relationships with its employees, communities, governments, non-government organizations, suppliers, and contractors, and lastly with a report review panel. This is the way they are responding to its internal and external stakeholders for its sustainable performance and development.

The emergence of technology is resulting in rapid growth and progressive development in sustainability and positive reporting in an organization’s outcomes, activities, and strategies (Ball and Bebbington 2008). The sustainable report (SR) is specifically designed to measure the organizational external sustainability practices (social, environmental, and human rights matters) where this has been taken as volunteer participation (Dickinson et al.2005). SR mostly predominates the performance of an organization. GRI enables various public and private sector organizations to follow the standard but international sustainability practices under a certain set of guidelines for producing better results and outcomes (Dumay, J., Guthrie, J., & Farneti, F. 2010). Like other organizations (OECD, 2006), Shell is also responding to these exercises and guidelines from different perspectives and processes. Hence, the findings portray that GRI SR guidelines are to be developed and followed according to the present needs while no compromise for the needs of future generations; through this organizations like Shell will survive, sustain and grow (GRI 2006).

References

 1. Accessed from: https://reports.shell.com/sustainability-report/2019/

 2. Ball, A. and Bebbington, J., 2008. Accounting and reporting for sustainable development in public service organizations. Public Money and Management, 28(6), pp.323-326.

 3. Dumay, J., Guthrie, J. and Farneti, F., 2010. GRI sustainability reporting guidelines for public and third sector organizations: A critical review. Public Management Review, 12(4), pp.531-548.

 4. Dickinson, D., Leeson, R., Ivers, J. and Karic, J., 2005. Sustainability reporting by public agencies: International uptake, forms and practice. Victoria, Australia: The Centre for Public Agency Sustainability Reporting.

 5. Mangion, D., 2011. GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines for Public and Third Sector Organizations.

 6. OECD (2006) Intellectual Assets and Value Creation: Implications for Corporate Reporting, Paris: Corporate Affairs Division, Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.