The Global Reporting Initiative has released a taxonomy for tagging sustainability data in reports and has released the results of the first public ment period on the development of G4, its future guidelines.

The XBRL taxonomy should make it easier for report users – including regulators, investors and analysts – to find and analyze data, GRI says.

Developed in njunction with Deloitte herlands, XBRL, which stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language, is an open-source tagging language similar to the XML system used worldwide for tagging data in financial reports. By using the language, panies can make their data readable by both humans and puters, making the data more aessible and easier to transfer, GRI says.

Acrding to the results of the public nsultation on the development of its new guidelines, G4 should define sector-specific sets of ics and indicators for environmental reporting. In the new system, GRI should also offer guidance on how to link sustainability reporting and integrated reporting, ments said.

Acrding to respondents, GRI should address some new ics in the G4 guidelines, and update some existing ics. The most popular ics mentioned include business ethics, greenhouse gas emissions, e-innovation, life cycle assessment, water and biodiversity.

The ments summary is dated February 10, but GRI released it Friday.

GRI also released guidelines on oil and gas reporting in February. The guidelines allow oil spills, carbon emissions and safety to be reported by panies in that sector.

GRI’s own sustainability report was released earlier this month. The report showed that emissions from the body’s secretariat had increased year-on-year.