China is among the top three countries in the world with regards to the size of its economy and success of its business. When it comes to the quality of services and products, Chinese organizations are considered world class. However, up to date one aspect of conducting business has not reached wide popularity, namely corporate sustainability reporting. The project China RATE sought to initiate the spread of corporate social and environmental reporting amongst manufacturing and service industries in China. It hoped to raise awareness and optimize the reporting procedures of Chinese companies to make their businesses more sustainable. By training organizations on issues such as transparency, environmental responsibility and international GRI guidelines, it aimed to enable them to create a better long-term approach which would lead to greater success and profits.
ASSIST, in partnership with TUV Rheinland, conducted awareness raising sessions with company CEOs, trained local companies on GRI guidelines and provided technical consultancy to selected companies on GRI implementation. The awareness raising activities targeted top decision makers to ensure company commitment to corporate sustainability reporting. Fifty participants from different companies in China attended a series of training on GRI standards, international and local standards as well as on local carbon strategies. These trainings built the local capacity of these participants to become trainers themselves and spread their knowledge among industry partners. Finally, the project gave five companies intensive consultancy on GRI guidelines and helped them with their sustainability reporting.
