The experience of using GRI Standards in sustainable development reports by Russian industrial corporations

¹ Luzin Institute for Economic Studies, Federal Research Centre «Kola Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences», Fersman Str., 14, 184209 Apatity, Russia
² Belgorod State National Research University (Staryy Oskol Branch), Solnechny Str., 18, 309502 Staryy Oskol, Russia

^* Corresponding author: samarina_vp@mail.ru

Abstract

Some moments in the history of the formation of the concept and the modern components of the mechanism of industrial corporations sustainable development, which comprehensively combines the managerial, economic, social and environmental aspects have been presented in the paper. The experience of disclosing information in the field of sustainable development by the largest metallurgical corporations having assets in the Russian Federation has been presented and analyzed as well. The research has shown that using the unified GRI Standards recommendations, management of each corporation independently determines the number and composition of indices required to assess the Triple Bottom Line. It has been concluded that the lack of a unified methodology for disclosing information in the field of achieving sustainable development results does not allow corporations to compare them, since one of the main principles of scientific research, i.e. the principle of results comparability is violated. The following authors’ position is defended: in order to eliminate the reasons that complicate the comparative assessment of the results of sustainable development of industrial corporations, the reporting methodology needs to be improved.