Seminar “The Evolution of Corporate Reporting and the Role of GRI”
Global Sustainability Standards Board/
Global Reporting Initiatives
Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Sustainability Standards Board of Japan/
Financial Accounting Standards Foundation
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)/Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), the Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Sustainability Standards Board of Japan(SSBJ)/ the Financial Accounting Standards Foundation (FASF) held the seminar “The Evolution of Corporate Reporting and the Role of GRI” to support practitioners of sustainability reporting on November 13, 2024. The GRI Standards issued by GRI is one of widely used sustainability reporting standards, specifically in Japan, many companies use the GRI Standards for their voluntary disclosures such as sustainability report and integrated report.
In this seminar, the GSSB members including the chair of the GSSB, Carol Adams explained the activities to date and future prospect of GRI/ the GSSB to deepen the engagement with constituents in Japan.
| Program |
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Please note that the archive videos contain a mix of the original audio and simultaneous interpretation.
The archive videos in Japanese are available here.
Presentation material is available here.
| SPEAKERS |
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Carol Adams (Chair of the GSSB) |
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Carol is a Chartered Accountant and a Professor of Accounting at Durham University Business School. Her research is concerned with the role of accounting and reporting in the relationships between business, society and the environment. She has led the development of sustainability reports and advised on sustainability and integrated reporting to major organisations. Recent policy work has included advising the UNDP on its SDG Impact Standards and CIPFA on public sector sustainability reporting. Carol chairs the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland’s Sustainability Panel and is a member of the A4S Technical Expert Group. Throughout her career Carol has sought to advance practice and policy with respect to integrating sustainability considerations into organisations through applied research, leadership roles, standard setting roles, board roles, advisory work and educating the next generation of business leaders. |
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Bastian Buck (Chief Standard Officer of GRI) |
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Responsible for the ongoing development, implementation, and enhancement of GRI’s Sustainability Reporting Standards and collaborations with other standard setters Bastian has been with GRI since 2006 and has undertaken a wide range of roles related to sustainability reporting standard setting. He oversaw the launch of the G4 Guidelines in 2013, and the introduction of the GRI Standards three years later. Bastian has led the GRI Standards Division as Chief Standards Officer since 2013. Bastian has represented GRI’s perspective on sustainability reporting in engagements with stakeholders in more than 50 countries and is highly experienced in orchestrating international, multi-stakeholder consensus-seeking processes. A German national, Bastian holds a MSc in Business Administration, focusing on sustainable development, from Erasmus University Rotterdam; and a BSc in Economics from Maastricht University. |
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Tomoo Machiba (Member of the GSSB) |
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Tomoo has over 20 years of experience in developing and advising corporate and government strategies on sustainability and net-zero transition, including ESG disclosure practices, in different parts of the world. After starting his career as newspaper journalist, he moved into the sustainability world by working at SustainAbility on benchmarking corporate environmental reports for the UNEP Engaging Stakeholders programme. He then served as a project manager at the GRI Secretariat between 2002-04 and helped update the GRI Guidelines and draft sector supplements and the GRI Boundary Protocol, organizing multi-stakeholder working groups. Through the following work with UNEP, OECD, IRENA, UNIDO and UAE government, Tomoo has promoted sustainability performance measurement and reporting as a core part of implementing SDGs, developing national KPIs and business tools and conducting capacity building. Most recently, working as a partner of low-carbon economic transition at ERM, he helped global firms to compile GRI-based integrated reports and provided climate risk analyses for TCFD-compliant disclosure. Tomoo is currently serving as Managing Director of the Zeroboard Research Institute at Zeroboard Inc., a leading GHG/ESG data solutions provider in Japan and Asia-Pacific. He is informing the clients of the development of sustainability disclosure frameworks and legislation such as GRI Standards, IISB and CSRD, while advising on the advancement of the digital solutions. He holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Sussex, UK. |
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Tetsuya Mogi (Chairman and President of the JICPA) |
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Tetsuya Mogi became a board member(in charge of Auditing and Quality Control Standards) of JICPA in 2013, and an executive board member (in charge of General Affairs Management, Regional Chapters, Regional Revitalization and External Affairs) and vice president of Tokyo regional chapter (special appointive) in 2019. Current position from 2022 . |
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Yasunobu Kawanishi （Chair of the SSBJ） |
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Yasunobu Kawanishi is the Chair of the Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ) since 2022 after serving as its Vice-Chair from 2019 to 2022. He has also been Chair of the International Forum of Accounting Standard Setters (IFASS) from 2019 to 2022. Since July 2022, he is also the inaugural Chair of the Sustainability Standards Board of Japan (SSBJ). Prior to becoming the Vice Chair of the ASBJ, he has worked as staff of the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) as well as the ASBJ. He started his career as an auditor at a firm that is currently part of KPMG AZSA LLC in Tokyo. |
About GRI and the GSSB
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the independent nonprofit organization that is the architect of the common global language to assess and report on environmental, social and economic impacts, manage and take action. GRI provides standards, tools and training that empower organizations of all sizes to create sustainable, long-term value and unlock positive change in the world.
The Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) is the independent entity under GRI’s governance with sole responsibility for setting the world’s widely used standards for sustainability reporting – the GRI Standards. The GSSB members represent a wide range of expertise and multi-stakeholder perspectives on sustainability reporting. The GSSB works exclusively in the public interest and according to the vision and mission of GRI.
About the JICPA
The JICPA started as a voluntary organization in 1949 and later became a corporation under the CPA Act in 1966. The JICPA has always been committed to remain transparent and independent as a self-regulatory organization for the accountancy profession. In serving the public interest and strengthening the accountancy profession, the JICPA has also been committed to maintaining the quality of services provided by members and upholding the professional ethics, values, and standards. Registration with the JICPA is mandatory for all professionals wishing to work as CPAs in Japan and, as of December 31, 2023 over 35,000 CPAs are registered. More information can be found through the link below: https://jicpa.or.jp/english/
About the Sustainability Standards Board of Japan (SSBJ)
The Sustainability Standards Board of Japan (SSBJ) was established in July 2022 under the FASF and is a private-sector organization. The legal framework for sustainability disclosure standards is to be determined by the FSA, and the SSBJ will develop domestic standards in line with such framework, once it is established. The SSBJ is a member of the Jurisdictional Working Group of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and has been appointed as one of the inaugural members of the Sustainability Standards Advisory Forum (SSAF). For more information about the SSBJ, visit its website at https://www.ssb-j.jp/en/