About
The GRI Standards were developed in collaboration with the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (an American NGO) and the United Nations Environmental Programme.
The GRI Standards comprise three sets of standards with different functions:
- The GRI Universal Standards, which apply to all organisations reporting under the GRI Standards and set out requirements and principles for the application of the GRI Standards, as well as mandatory disclosures about the reporting organisation;
- The GRI Sector Standards, which provide sector-specific guidance on identifying and reporting on the most material sustainability issues for companies operating in specific industries; and
- The GRI Topic Standards, which provide more detailed guidance on specific topics, such as greenhouse gas emissions, anti-corruption and gender equality.
The reporting process consists of three steps:
- identifying and assessing the company's external economic, environmental and human impacts;
- determining which topics are material to the company based on its most significant impacts; and
- preparing a report containing the mandatory disclosures and specific information on the topics that the company has determined to be material.
Once the report is published, it must be registered with the GRI and will then be verified.
Companies may choose whether to report in full accordance with the GRI Standards, or with reference to the GRI Standards. Reporting in full accordance with the standards entails stricter and more comprehensive reporting requirements (as set out in the GRI Universal Standards), while reporting with reference to the standards allows companies to have a more selective approach to the reporting.
Who does it impact?
Any company that intends to prepare a sustainability report can benefit from using the GRI Standards.
Investors, reporters, analysts and other stakeholders may also rely on the GRI Standards.
Status: Launched
The first set of the GRI standards was launched in 2000 and has been updated several times. The latest set of the Universal Standards was launched in 2021 and came into force on 1 January 2023.
Relation to other initiatives and regulations
Although use of the GRI Standards is voluntary for companies, GRI has worked with various international organisations and regulatory bodies to ensure that the GRI Standards may work together with other standards and regulations. For example, the GRI contributed to the development of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards ('ESRS'), the new mandatory EU standards for use by all companies subject to the CSRD, and the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group ('EFRAG') and GRI announced in September 2023 that they have achieved a "high level of interoperability" between the ESRS and the GRI Standards, preventing the need for double reporting. GRI and EFRAG have jointly published a GRI-ESRS Interoperability Index, a mapping tool that helps entities understand the commonalities between GRI and ESRS.
Participants
There is no overview of all companies and organisations that use the GRI Standards. A list over the GRI Community Members can be found here.
Thommessen's comments
The GRI Standards are currently the most commonly used standards for sustainability reporting in the world and provide a comprehensive framework that can be tailored to the specific needs of individual businesses.
Large companies should note that compliance with the GRI Standards alone is not necessarily sufficient to comply with the reporting requirements under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive ('CSRD'), which entered into force in Norway 1 November 2024. Although the ESG reporting requirements under the CSRD/ESRS to some extent are compatible with the GRI Standards, there are some differences between them. Companies using the GRI Standards should therefore ensure that they also comply with the legal requirements. Companies reporting in accordance with the GRI Standards may benefit from using the GRI-ESRS Linkage Service or the GRI-ESRS Interoperability Index.
We further note that the GRI Standards are a recognised and flexible option for sustainability reporting for companies that are not subject to regulations such as the NAA and the CSRD.