Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
but not for time, it puts NGOs and community representatives at a great
disadvantage. “I had a difficult time making the case to my boss that the
time I spent on this project was justified” remembered one NGO partici-
pant. And the representative of the indigenous communities dropped out
midway, feeling out of place among the business-savvy westerners and
their abstract concepts. However, the process of producing the Sector
Supplement accomplished something very significant: it mobilized the
individual participants to bring to the open, in a nonadversarial envi-
ronment, those issues that were most important to them. It produced
an agreement on the agenda for a social discourse about the impact of
mining industry while not overstretching the capacity of the fragile coali-
tion with a more difficult discussion about what level of performance is
acceptable.
At the time of this writing, all ICMM members are required, as a
membership precondition, to issue sustainability reports in accordance
with G2 and the Sector Supplement. This is considered a pilot stage for
the Supplement. Over the next year or so, and prior to producing the
final version, GRI Secretariat will establish a Structured Feedback Pro-
cess under the supervision of its Technical Advisory Council to capture
the new learning that emerges through the use of the Guidelines. This
process will once again engage a wide range of stakeholders, including
the reporting companies and users of the GRI reports. “This is how you
create a meaningful dialogue, isn't it?,” noted a representative of one
mining company.
