Greeves and Ladipo (2004)

Greeves, Lucy, and David Ladipo. "Added Values? Measuring the 'Value Relevance' of Sustainability Reporting." London: Imagination (GIC) and Lintstock, May 10, 2004.

This report compares the financial characteristics of 178 companies reporting under the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) with 798 non-reporters. Finds that early adopters of the GRI had statistically significantly higher operating margins, lower betas, and slower revenue growth. In his Foreword to the report, GRI CEO Ernst Ligteringen comments that these findings "provide a solid analytical validation of a business case for non-financial reporting that has hitherto been necessarily anecdotal or intuitive."

Also includes four interesting case studies on companies participating in the GRI. One memorable quote: "We know what it can cost if we get it wrong; not in specific monetary terms but in the sense of...I remember there used to be a firm called Arthur Andersen."