The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the United Nations Global Compact have announced that they will launch the first outcome publication of their Action Platform for Business Reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on 21 September 2017. According to the press release on the GRI website, the publication An Analysis of the Goals and Targets "demystifies the esoteric world of sustainability disclosures" for companies seeking to report their impact on the SDGs.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) have published a report examining the role of stock exchanges in promoting economic growth and sustainable development. The report notes that by mid-2017 there were 32 stock exchanges providing formal guidance to issuers on reporting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information and that stock exchanges, through their ability to influence the reporting behaviour of their listed entities, are successfully generating a rapid uptake in sustainability disclosure. Please click to access the report on the WFE website.

The UN Environment Finance Initiative’s (UNEP FI) has launched a new guide for practitioners on integrating sustainability across a bank.  The guide is a functional overview of what a sustainable bank looks like and is designed for all employees from senior management to new employees as well as other stakeholders such as banking associations, regulators and supervisors.  The guide is available on the UNEP FI website here.

The United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative announces that the Shanghai Stock Exchange, one of the largest exchanges in the world, has joined the SSE initiative as the first exchange from China. Please click for the press release on the SSE website.