Global Reporting Initiatives – GRI Standards

When it is about Sustainability
GRI – Global Reporting Initiatives
is the leader for sustainability reporting
and the catalyst for transparency

Birth and its Purpose of Inception

It dates back to March 24, 1989 when an oil super-tanker struck Bligh Reef and spilled 10.8M Gallons, equivalent to 37,000 tonnes of crude oil on Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. This catastrophic spill was the second largest in U.S. waters, after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in terms of volume of oil released. It was estimated that over 250,000 animals died.

In September 1997, this led to the Global Reporting Initiative being founded in Boston, USA, by CERES and Tellus with involvement of the UN Environment Programme. After a decision to broaden the focus beyond the environment to include social, economic and governance issues, an exposure draft of the ‘GRI Guidelines’ were made available in 1999

September 27, 2022 marks a quarter of a century since the founding of GRI. Since its inception 25 years ago, GRI’s ambitions have continued to shine brighter – underpinned by the belief that transparency is the door to dialogue about impacts, encouraging organizations to adopt sustainable development.

Why Report with GRI Standards?

GRI exists to help organizations be transparent and take responsibility for their impacts so that we can create a sustainable future. GRI helps businesses and other organizations take responsibility for their impacts, by providing them with the global common language to communicate those impacts. It provides the world’s most widely used standards for sustainability reporting _GRI Standards.

1. Trust: Transparent disclosure of non-financial information enhances the company’s reputation and branding, while demonstrating that you care about your day-to-day operations that affect your stakeholders.

2. Risk : Collecting and analysing data on various issues, one can identify and manage risks to avoid costly reactive decisions.

3. Cost cutting: Influenced goals helps you streamline processes and focus efforts on areas of greatest impact.

4. Value + : Building sustainability goals and making continuous improvements in our day-to-day operations.

5. New Opportunities: Understanding the key impacts and risks can create opportunities for innovation and communication between various departments, increasing company revenue.

Sustainability reporting framework by GRI is currently the most widely used framework by multinational organisations, SMEs , NGOs and industry groups in more than 90 countries. In 2017, 63% of the 100 largest companies (N100) and 75% of the Global Fortune 250 (G250) reported applying the GRI reporting framework.

GRI is present in seven regional offices, strategically located around the world, to help advance reporting and respond to the needs of local stakeholders at both the regional and country level. Each office is guided by advisory groups which include high-level representation from the region.

Structure & Framework

GRI is a highly flexible framework for reporting, covering wide range of sustainability topics – from Anticorruption to Water, Biodiversity to OHS, it covers all relevant topics across the ESG dimensions. Organizations select from among these topics to report on their significant impacts. GRI Standards are frequently revised to update existing topics as they evolve and to include new topics.

In 2016, GRI transitioned from providing guidelines to setting the first global standards for sustainability reporting – the GRI Standards. The Standards continue to be updated and added to, including new Standards on Tax (2019) and Waste (2020), a major update to the Universal Standards (2021) and the continued roll-out of Sector Standards.

GRI Standard 2016 is grouped into 2 Categories:

Universal Standards (100 series),

Topic Standards : Divided into 3 categories

Economic topics (200 series),
Environmental (300 series),
Social topics (400 series).

New GRI Standard 2021 is grouped into 3 Categories:

Universal Standards (1, 2, 3 series),

Sector Standards: Applicable according to the Industry

Topic Standards : Divided into 3 categories

Economic topics (200 series),
Environmental (300 series),
Social topics (400 series).

The updated version of GRI of Universal Standards and Sector standards will be applicable from 1st Jan 2023. The new Sector Standards enable more consistent reporting on sector-specific impacts and the universal Standards support the organization in identifying its material topics, and lay out important principles to use when preparing a report.

It is structured as a set of interrelated standards. The Universal standards are applicable to all organizations preparing a sustainability report. Beyond this, an organization defines and selects from the set of topic-specific standards for reporting on its material topics are categorised into 3 separate series: Economic, Environmental and Social topics.

Universal Standards:

Supports the organization in identifying its material topics, and lays out the important principles to use when preparing a report. They also contain disclosures on the organization’s specific context, such as its size, activities, governance, and stakeholder engagement, all of which help to better understand its approach towards the different topics it reports on.

Sector Standards:

The aim is to provide reliable information on the issues that represent the most significant impacts of the sector in terms of sustainable development, reflect stakeholder expectations of the sector’s sustainability reporting, and mainly focus on the most significant impacts.

Used in conjunction with the existing set of GRI Standards, the Sector Standards not only improve transparency and accountability, but also help organizations prepare and report information on material issues and ensure consistency by broadening their reach within the sector.

Sector Standards Groups:

Basic Materials and needs
Industrial
Transport, Infrastructure and Tourism
Other services and Light Manufacturing

Topic Specific Standards:

Economic: The economic sustainability concerns an organization’s impacts on the economic conditions of its stakeholders, and on economic systems at local, national, and global levels. It does not focus on the financial condition of an organization.
Environmental: The environmental sustainability concerns an organization’s impacts on living and non-living natural systems, including land, air, water and ecosystems.
Social: The social sustainability concerns an organization’s impacts on the social systems within which it operates.

GRI Reporting Workflow

GRI Principles

To achieve high-quality sustainability reporting, an organization is required to apply the principles in order to be able to claim that it has prepared the reported information in accordance with the GRI Standards. Quality information enables users to make informed judgments and decisions on organizational impact and contribution to sustainable development.

Accuracy: The organization shall report information that is correct and sufficiently detailed to allow an assessment of the organization’s impacts.

Balance: The organization shall report information in an unbiased way and provide a fair representation of the
organization’s negative and positive impacts

Clarity: The organization shall present information in a way that is accessible and understandable

Completeness: The organization shall provide sufficient information to enable an assessment of the organization’s impacts during the reporting period.

Sustainability context: The organization shall report information about its impacts in the wider context of sustainable development.

Timeliness: The organization shall report information on a regular schedule and make it available in time for information users to make decisions.

Verifiability: The organization shall gather, record, compile, and analyse information in such a way that the information can be examined to establish its quality.

GRI Content Index

The GRI Content Index allows us to create a comprehensive Content Index that helps stakeholders navigate the disclosures and information your organization has reported.

Content indexing makes your reported information traceable and increases its reliability and transparency. Templates include the revised GRI General Standard 2021 and the revised GRI Thematic Standard. In a few simple steps, you can customize and include information such as the subject of your document, list of reported disclosures, and the titles of the GRI standards used that also include Sector standards.

Content index service by GRI : Increase the navigability of your report.

To ensure better reporting, there are 2 options to report with the GRI content index.

GRI Content Index – (Essentials ) It focuses on information that cannot be missed in the index, ensuring correct application and reference. It is recommended for experienced reporting specialists.
GRI Content Index – (Advanced ) In addition to content index essentials, this service covers all disclosures and omissions, and is recommended for less experienced reporting specialists.

GRI has launched the Content Index Tutorial, a new online course to help organizations provide a complete and accurate index that aligns with GRI requirements.