Integrated reporting compliance with the Global Reporting Initiative framework : an analysis of the South African mining industry

Abstract

In this day and age sustainability is gaining increasing importance seeing as this is of utmost importance to stakeholders. Yet, very few people are aware of the true meaning of sustainability. Stakeholders, also being the users of the annual report, need to be aware of the impact a company has on the environment and the society as well as their financial performance in order, among others, to make informed decisions regarding investments. For all financial years ending on or after 1 March 2010, all companies listed on the JSE have to report on sustainability (this is a JSE listing requirement). Yet, no statutory requirement for adherence to reporting standards relating to sustainability exists. This creates the risk that sustainability reports will omit negative impacts or be otherwise misleading, yet the company is still seen as adhering to listing and thus statutory requirements. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) developed their Sustainability Reporting Framework in order to serve as a benchmark for measuring sustainability. This Framework includes the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (including basic principles and standard disclosures that need to be included in the report), Sector Supplements (including sector specific issues) as well as the Technical Protocol (which guides the entity in defining the content of the report). This is currently the only formal guideline available and is widely used around the world. Given the importance of the mining industry in South Africa, this article considers the quality of integrated reporting of the South African mining industry. This is done by undertaking a quantitative, applied, descriptive methodology in order to answer the research questions. Thus compliance with the globally accepted GRI Sustainability Framework has been evaluated and analysed. Using a sample of 13 of the mining companies included in the JSE Top 40 companies, the results show that these companies use the GRI G3.1 Guidelines in producing their sustainability report and that adherence improves annually. Some companies, however, do not apply the Sector Supplements which was designed to include industry-specific impacts.