In the last two decades, sustainability reporting has gone from an exercise for the largest companies to a necessity to attract investors and meet local and international regulation.

I have always believed that business has the power to help us solve society’s most pressing challenges. That’s why I worked in corporate responsibility functions in the private sector for more than 20 years.

The transparency that comes from corporate responsibility reporting can help us create a better world. That was my message to the people I met at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual meeting in Davos.

The headline to this article is a sobering assessment, but it’s accurate. In the last issue of ESG Magazine, I wrote about how we can get more investors engaged with the SDGs.

When we think about companies and the work they do, we often lose sight of a simple fact: a business is just a collection of people. And, all groups of people tend to build a culture, a collective way of viewing the world.

After two decades working as a CSR professional and just three months leading GRI, I’m more convinced than ever that transparency is a powerful force for change. But I’m also just as convinced that we are still far from end goal: sustainable development.

Ernst Ligteringen’s sudden and unexpected death on June 15th was a devastating shock for me and my colleagues at GRI, the sustainability non-profit that Ernst led for more than 12 years.