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Global Reporting Initiative

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GRI
Founded1997 Boston, United States
TypeNon-governmental organization
PurposeSustainability reporting
HeadquartersAmsterdam, Netherlands
Region served
Worldwide
Eelco van der Enden
Deputy Chief Executive
NA
Dani Marunovic
Main organ
Secretariat (administrative office) elected by the annual general meeting
AffiliationsOECD, UNEP, United Nations Global Compact, ISO
Websitewww.globalreporting.org
Formerly called
Global Reporting Initiative

The Global Reporting Initiative (known as GRI) is an international independent standards organization that helps businesses, governments, and other organizations understand and communicate their impacts on issues such as climate change, human rights, and corruption. GRI provides the world's most widely used sustainability reporting standards (the GRI Standards).[1][2][3][4] Under increasing pressure from different stakeholder groups, such as governments, consumers and investors, to be more transparent about their environmental, economic, and social impacts, many companies publish a sustainability report, also known as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) or environmental, social, and governance (ESG) report. GRI's framework for sustainability reporting helps companies identify, gather, and report this information in a clear and comparable manner. Developed by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), the GRI Standards are the first global standards for sustainability reporting and are a free public good.[4]

Since its first draft guidelines were published in March 1999,[5][6] GRI's voluntary sustainability reporting framework has been adopted by multinational organizations, governments, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), NGOs, and industry groups. Over 10,000 companies from more than 100 countries use GRI.[3] According to the 26 October 2022 KPMG Survey of Sustainability Reporting, 78% of the world’s biggest 250 companies by revenue (the G250) and 68% of the top 100 businesses in 58 countries (5,800 companies known as the N100) have adopted the GRI Standards for reporting. GRI is used as a reporting standard by a majority of the companies surveyed in all regions.[7][8]

The GRI Standards have a modular structure, making them easier to update and adapt. Three series of Standards support the reporting process. The GRI Universal Standards apply to all organizations and cover core sustainability issues related to a company’s impact on the economy, society, and the environment. The GRI Sector Standards apply to specific sectors, particularly those with the highest environmental impact, such as fossil fuels. The GRI Topic Standards list disclosures relevant to a particular topic area.[9][3][4][10] GRI Standards and reporting criteria are reviewed every three years by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), an independent body created by GRI.[3] The most recent of GRI's reporting frameworks are the revised Universal Standards, which were published in October 2021, and came into effect for reporting in January 2023.[9][4]

History

The Global Reporting Initiative was developed in 1997 by the United States-based non-profits Ceres (formerly the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies) and consulting agency Tellus Institute. Global Reporting Initiative. Key individuals were Ceres President Bob Massie and Allen L. White of Tellus. Other influential thinkers who were board members of Ceres included Joan Bavaria of the Social Investment Forum (SIF), Alica Gravitz of Co-op America and Paul Freundlich of the US-based Fair Trade Foundation. The initiative soon gained support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).[11][12][5]

GRI released an "exposure draft" version of the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines in 1999,[13] and the first full version in June 2000. Work immediately began on a second version which was released at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002—where the organization and the guidelines were also referred to in the Plan of Implementation signed by all attending member states.[11]

As early as 2001, GRI expressed its intention to institutionalize the organization with a headquarters in Europe.[5] In April 2002, GRI was inaugurated as an independent organization in a ceremony hosted at the UN headquarters in New York. Its mission was to provide “stewardship of the Guidelines through their continuous enhancement and dissemination (GRI 2000 Guidelines).”[12] Engineering consultancy DHV (now Royal HaskoningDHV) expressed a strong interest in the initiative following the publication of the draft guidelines, translating them into Dutch and holding its first seminar on disclosing and reporting on 7 December 1999. Influential figures in the Dutch adoption of GRI include Nancy Kamp-Roelands, Johan Piet and Piet Sprengers. DHV approached then-CEO Allen White and set up meetings with the Dutch government. By April 2002, GRI had decided to settle in Amsterdam, Netherlands[5] where it subsequently incorporated as a non-profit organization and a Collaborating Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme.[11] Although the GRI is independent, it remains a collaborating center of UNEP and works in cooperation with the United Nations Global Compact.[14]

GRI has managed to mobilize extensive contributions of time, knowledge and funding from a wide variety of individuals and organizations.[11] UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described it as having a "unique contribution to make in fostering transparency and accountability of corporate activities beyond financial matters".[12][15] A key factor in GRI’s success has been its global multi-stakeholder network, which grew from about 200 organizations and individuals in early 2000 to over 2000 members by early 2002. The network provided a platform for analysis and feedback on the Guidelines, enabling diverse stakeholders to actively engage in their creation and evolution.[11] The initial organizational structure of the GRI was highly efficient and communicated mostly electronically. It consisted of a secretariat, a steering committee, and multiple decentralized working groups. Input from the working groups led to the expansion of GRI's scope from environmental reporting to three categories of sustainability indicators: social performance indicators, economic performance indicators and environmental performance and impacts.[11]

The GRI system was created with the goals of standardizing practices for non-financial reporting, and empowering stakeholders at all levels with "access to standardized, comparable, and consistent environmental information akin to corporate financial reporting."[11] The process of aligning and standardizing practices has continued: As of 24 March 2022, GRI and the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS) announced that they would collaborate to align the International Sustainability Standards Board (“ISSB”)'s investor-focused Sustainability Disclosures Standards for the capital markets with the GRI's multi-stakeholder focused sustainability reporting standards.[2] As of 6 June 2023, the ISSB issued its inaugural standards (IFRS S1 and IFRS S2) for sustainability-related disclosures in capital markets.[16]

Governance

The "GRI" refers to the global network of thousands of participants worldwide who create the reporting framework, use it in disclosing their sustainability performance, demand its use by organizations as the basis for information disclosure, or are actively engaged in improving the standard. Examples of good sustainability reporting practices include digitalization of supply-chain management, stakeholder relation mechanisms, and communication strategies that encourage conjoint two-way sense making and sense giving.[17]

The governance structure for the permanent institution was approved on June 21, 2002. The institutional side of the GRI, supporting the network, is made up of the following governance bodies: board of directors, stakeholder council, technical advisory committee, organizational stakeholders, and a secretariat. Diverse geographic and sector constituencies are represented in these governance bodies.[18]

Reporting guidelines

Standards for guidelines

The GRI framework aims to enable third parties to assess environmental impact from the activities of the company and its supply chain.[19]

The 3.1 guideline was updated by the materiality-based 4.0 guideline in 2014, resulting in some commentary regarding comparability.[20]

The most recent of GRI's reporting frameworks are the revised Universal Standards, which were published in October 2021, and came into effect for reporting in January 2023.[9][4] The GRI Universal Standards apply to all organizations and cover core sustainability issues related to a company’s impact on the economy, society, and the environment. The GRI Sector Standards apply to specific sectors, particularly those with the highest environmental impact, such as Oil and Gas, Coal, and Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fishing. The GRI Topic Standards list disclosures relevant to a particular topic area. Examples include Waste, Occupational Health and Safety, Biodiversity, Energy, Diversity and Equal Opportunity.[9][3][4]

ESG metrics

Examples of a company's internal and external stakeholders.

Sustainability reporting aims to standardize and quantify the environmental, social and governance costs and benefits derived from the activities of the reporting companies accordingly. Some of the examples of the reporting measures to be used would be the quantified results of the CO2 emissions, working and payment conditions, financial transparency and alike.[21]

For the assessment of the social impact created by the reporting organization, GRI standards were created according to international labor practices and the environmental impact by conducting an independent audit. ISO 14010, ISO 14011, ISO 14012 and ISO 26000 set out a standard for assessing the environmental impact, while OHSAS 18001 lays down a health and safety risk management system. For instance, the ILO's eight core conventions outline specific groups or population that require special attention: women, children, migrant workers and their families, persons belonging to national or ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities, indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities. In order to circumvent "greenwashing" or falsified reporting, the financial institution can conduct an independent audit of the investee or enter into a dialogue with the top management of the company in question.[22]

Data Partners

GRI's Data Partners collect and process information about GRI reporting and sustainability reporting in general. They regularly share data with GRI about reports and reporting organizations, and also serve as on-the-ground hubs, identifying reporting trends in their countries and regions. The report and organization related information provided by Data Partners is added to GRI's Sustainability Disclosure Database.[23]

The GRI data partners' analysis of reports show an increase in GRI reporting worldwide. The official GRI data partner in The United States, The United Kingdom and The Republic of Ireland—The Governance & Accountability Institute,[23]

The reporting standards set by the GRI ESG assessment and reporting were developed based on principles set in OECD guidelines for Multinational corporations and UN Guiding Principles.[24]

European Commission Directive

In December 2014, EC has adopted a new directive obliging large multinational corporations to provide non-financial disclosure to the markets. The law applies to public companies with more than 500 employees.[25] Companies that would provide such a reporting would be required to report on environmental, social and employee-related, human rights, anti-corruption and bribery matters. Additionally, these large corporations would be required to describe their business model, outcomes and risks of the policies on the above topics, and the diversity policy applied for management and supervisory bodies.[26] The reporting techniques are encouraged to rely on recognized frameworks such as GRI's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, OECD Guidelines, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 26000 and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Tripartite Declarations.[27]

Registry

In 2020 GRI decided to discontinue its publicly accessible sustainability disclosure database as of April 2021, due to the overhead of maintaining the collection. The publicly available database had over 63,000 reports spanning nearly 20 years from hundreds of companies.[28]

It is still possible to to register GRI Standards-based reports and other published materials through the GRI Standards Report Registration System. Under Requirement 9 of GRI 1: Foundation 2021, notifying GRI of the use of the GRI standards is a mandatory step in reporting for associated organizations. Responsibility for the quality and verification of such reports is the responsibility of the reporting organization and its stakeholders. While GRI no longer provides examples of reports, the reports of many organizations are available from company websites.[29]

Under the 2021 guidelines, which are required for reporting as of January 2023, organizations may report either "in accordance" with GRI (more stringent) or "in reference" to GRI. Both options involve notification.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Five global organisations, whose frameworks, standards and platforms guide the majority of sustainability and integrated reporting, announce a shared vision of what is needed for progress towards comprehensive corporate reporting – and the intent to work together to achieve it. - CDP". www.cdp.net. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  2. ^ a b Whitaker, James; Uhrynuk, Mark; Lee, Joey C. Y.; Williams, Oliver (28 March 2022). "International Sustainability Standards Board and Global Sustainability Standards Board to align their sustainability disclosure standards". Eye on ESG.
  3. ^ a b c d e "What is the GRI reporting framework? | Sustain.Life". www.sustain.life. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "GRI Standards". Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d van der Molen, Folkert (September 3, 2015). "Behind the first 15 years of GRI sustainability reporting | GreenBiz". GreenBiz.
  6. ^ Pedersen, Esben R.G. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility. London: SAGE Publishing. p. 107. ISBN 9780857022448.
  7. ^ "Big shifts, small steps - KPMG Global". KPMG. 15 June 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  8. ^ "GRI - Four-in-five largest global companies report with GRI". www.globalreporting.org. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  9. ^ a b c d e Quelier, Amaury (17 November 2022). "A Guide To The GRI Reporting Standards". blog.nexioprojects.com. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
  10. ^ "A Short Introduction to the GRI Standards" (PDF). www.globalreporting.org. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Brown, Halina Szejnwald; de Jong, Martin; Lessidrenska, Teodorina (2007). "The Rise of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as a Case of Institutional Entrepreneurship. Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative, Working Paper No. 36" (PDF). John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA.
  12. ^ a b c Brown, Halina Szejnwald; de Jong, Martin; Lessidrenska, Teodorina (March 2009). "The rise of the Global Reporting Initiative: a case of institutional entrepreneurship". Environmental Politics. 18 (2): 182–200. doi:10.1080/09644010802682551. ISSN 0964-4016.
  13. ^ "Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) presents Exposure Draft of the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines | Sustainability-Reports.Com". www.Sustainability-Reports.Com. 10 March 1999.
  14. ^ "About GRI Certified Training". ICSP. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  15. ^ Massie, Robert Kinloch (27 August 2003). "The irresistible rise of sustainable governance -". Global Agenda. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  16. ^ IFRS (26 June 2023). "ISSB issues inaugural global sustainability disclosure standards – Sustainability-Reports.com". Sustainability Reports. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  17. ^ Safari, Maryam; Areeb, Amreen (2020-03-15). "A qualitative analysis of GRI principles for defining sustainability report quality: an Australian case from the preparers' perspective". Accounting Forum. 44 (4): 344–375. doi:10.1080/01559982.2020.1736759. ISSN 0155-9982. S2CID 216275669.
  18. ^ Woods, Maef (June 2003). "The Global Reporting Initiative". The CPA Journal. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
  19. ^ Willis, Alan (2003). "The Role of the Global Reporting Initiative's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines in the Social Screening of Investments". Journal of Business Ethics. 43 (3): 233–237. doi:10.1023/A:1022958618391. S2CID 151067260.
  20. ^ Sebastian Knebel; Peter Seele (2015-04-01). "Quo vadis GRI? A (critical) assessment of GRI 3.1 A+ non-financial reports and implications for credibility and standardization". Corporate Communications. 20 (2): 196–212. doi:10.1108/CCIJ-11-2013-0101. ISSN 1356-3289.
  21. ^ Brown, Halina Szejnwald, Martin De Jong, and Teodorina Lessidrenska. "The rise of the Global Reporting Initiative: a case of institutional entrepreneurship."Environmental Politics 18.2 (2009): 182-200.
  22. ^ Global Reporting Initiative. "Sustainability reporting guidelines: Exposure draft for public comment and pilot-testing." Sustainable Measures: Evaluation and Reporting of Environmental and Social Performance. Vol. 440. No. 474. Greenleaf Publishing in association with GSE Research, 1999. 440-474.
  23. ^ a b "Who Are GRI's Data Partners". The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 7 June 2014.
  24. ^ Solsbach, Andreas, et al. "Inter-organizational Sustainability Reporting–A harmonized XRBL approach based on GRI G4 XBRL and further Guidelines." (2014)
  25. ^ www.sebastianjt.com, Sebastian. "EU Directive - Europe's largest companies will have to be more transparent about how they operate | News | BSD Consulting". www.bsdconsulting.com. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  26. ^ Howitt, Richard (2014-04-16). "The EU law on non-financial reporting - how we got there". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  27. ^ "It's the law: Big EU companies must report on sustainability". 2014-04-17. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  28. ^ Schwery, Rolf. "GRI Database – a valuable tool soon to disappear". SchweryCade}. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  29. ^ "GRI Standards Report Registration System Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)" (PDF). GRI Standards. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
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