GRI Matchmaker Program Puts Students' Smarts To Work For Sustainability
Monday, March 31, 2008 / KW
Check out this story about a smart new program that brings together corporations, the GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, and university students who are learning about the principles of sustainable business. Under the new GRI Matchmaker Program, companies are linked with undergraduate and graduate business students who offer their services in assessing, evaluating, and critiquing the companies' sustainability reporting efforts. The student teams, guided by business professors, act almost as free consultants, creating benefits for both the learners and the companies they study.
The article describes successful collaborations between businesses and student teams from two universities, Boise State University in Idaho and the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. The potential exists for broadening the students' participation in the future--for example, by having student teams assist in compiling the data used in producing company reports.
Today the GRI Matchmaker Program is small, but it suggests other possible links between companies and universities around sustainability performance and reporting. It's a natural outgrowth of one of the central ideas of sustainability--that businesses should strive to identify and nurture mutually beneficial links with all their stakeholders. When the right relationships are forged, colleges, universities, and the students and professors associated with them can became powerful associates and advocates for companies and sustainable business practices--not just potential anti-corporate protestors and adversaries.
As we discussed here, companies like IBM are discovering the practical benefits of transparency, including the fact that working cooperatively with community groups, advocacy organizations, and NGOs can actually reduce some of the burdens that transparency imposes on corporations. The GRI Matchmaker Program shows one way companies can add colleges and universities to that list.
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Add a comment - The article describes successful collaborations between businesses and student teams from two universities, Boise State University in Idaho and the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. The potential exists for broadening the students' participation in the future--for example, by having student teams assist in compiling the data used in producing company reports.
Today the GRI Matchmaker Program is small, but it suggests other possible links between companies and universities around sustainability performance and reporting. It's a natural outgrowth of one of the central ideas of sustainability--that businesses should strive to identify and nurture mutually beneficial links with all their stakeholders. When the right relationships are forged, colleges, universities, and the students and professors associated with them can became powerful associates and advocates for companies and sustainable business practices--not just potential anti-corporate protestors and adversaries.
As we discussed here, companies like IBM are discovering the practical benefits of transparency, including the fact that working cooperatively with community groups, advocacy organizations, and NGOs can actually reduce some of the burdens that transparency imposes on corporations. The GRI Matchmaker Program shows one way companies can add colleges and universities to that list.
Labels: Boise State, GRI Matchmaker Program, Reporting and Transparency, University of Calgary
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By 
Peter T. Knight, on
March 31, 2008 2:36 PM
All power to the GRI and its Matchmaker initiative. But I do hope the good professors at Boise and Calgary do not let their students drink too deeply at the GRI fountain. This is not a spout of truth, but a fire hose of process. While the GRI guidelines certainly help lift the corporate veil, slavish adherence produces unreadable documents that communicate very little of substance.
It would be much better for the students to learn how to tell the corporate story simply. If the GRI guidelines help, good. If they hamper the narrative, dump them.
Peter T. Knight