Sustainability Reporting Through UNGC at Unisa: Opportunities and Challenges in Mainstreaming GRI Standards and the SDGs

Abstract

As late as 2018, academic publications have still been recommending more research on sustainability reporting in higher education. This chapter focuses on how the University of South Africa (Unisa), an open-distance e-Learning institution, reports sustainability matters under the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and examines the opportunities and challenges in mainstreaming the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study is premised on lived experiences and participatory action research (PAR). Findings reveal that Unisa has made progress in sustainability reporting. It further emerged that there is evidence of reporting on sustainability matters as reflected in both Unisa’s annual and UNGC reports. However, with the advent of twin globally recognised sustainability mainstreaming and reporting frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially through the higher education and colleges SDG Accord and Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Standards, Unisa is awakening to the need to mainstream these to enable both implementation and reporting. Hence, the latest UNGC report embeds the Unisa SDGs Localisation Declaration of November 2019. The chapter recommends a hybrid sustainability reporting model. The work further recommends that both the GRI Practical Guide and the Global Alliance’s SDG Accord be used in localising the SDGs across Unisa to enhance implementation and reporting.KeywordsUnisaUN Global CompactGRI Sustainability StandardsSDG AccordSDGs