...An internal United Nations-commissioned study, obtained by the Financial Times, argues that moves by companies to report on their labour standards and environmental footprints will remain a "niche practice" limited to trans-national companies based in industrialised countries. Few small and medium-sized enterprises, or companies in emerging markets, are set to join the "sustainability reporting" club, according to the study [commissioned by the UN Environment Programme]...The leaking of the report is awkward as next week hundreds of companies are to attend a GRI congress in Amsterdam where a new set of indicators are to be launched...Their preparation, costing €9m ($11.5, £6.1m), has been financed partly by companies including General Motors, BP, Microsoft and Alcan...Mr Steiner [Achim Steiner, UNEP executive director] told the Financial Times that the study - which has already stirred controversy within the UN and GRI [Global Reporting Initiative] - "poses legitimate questions", but he believed that non-financial reporting had a bright future...