Barbara Strozzilaan 336
1083 HN Amsterdam
The Netherlands
gssbsecretariat@globalreporting.org

Item 03 – Draft summary of the GSSB
meeting held on 21 January 2021
For GSSB approval
Date

11 February 2021

Meeting

25 February 2021

Description

This document presents the summary of the GSSB virtual meeting held on 21
January 2021.

This document has been prepared by the GRI Standards Division and is made available to observers
at meetings of the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB). It does not represent an official
position of the GSSB. Board positions are set out in the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards. TheGSSB is the independent standard setting body of GRI. For more information visit
www.globalreporting.org.

© GRI 2021

1

Contents
Participants ....................................................................................................................................... 3
List of abbreviations........................................................................................................................... 3
Decisions and action items ................................................................................................................ 4
Session 1: Welcome .......................................................................................................................... 4
Session 2: Work Program priorities for 2021 ...................................................................................... 4
Session 3: GRI Universal Standards project update - Topic Boundary................................................ 5
Session 4: Any other business and close of public meeting ................................................................ 6
Session 5: Private session ................................................................................................................. 6

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2Participants

3Present:

456

Name

Constituency

Judy Kuszewski
Robyn LeesonPeter Colley
Giulia Genuardi
Evan Harvey
Joseph Martin
Corli le Roux
Kim Schumacher
Gustavo Sinner
Kenton Swift
Michel Washer

Chair
Vice-Chair
Labor
Business enterprise
Investment institution
Business enterpriseMediating institution
Civil society organization
Mediating institution
Civil society organization
Business enterprise

Apologies:
Name

Constituency

Loredana CartaLabor

Vincent Kong

Business enterpriseRama Krishnan Venkateswaran

Investment institution

Jennifer Princing

Business enterprise

In attendance from GRI:NamePosition

Bastian Buck

Chief of Standards

Laura Espinach

Head of Technical Development

List of abbreviations
GSSBSDRFO

Global Sustainability Standards Board
Standards Division
Reason for omission

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7Decisions and action items

8Action items
Standards Division
Session 3•

SD to implement the proposed recommendations
regarding Topic Boundary.

•SD to consider the use of a visual to aid to help
understand the concept of materiality and make aproposal to the GSSB along with the discussion ofGRI 103 at its meeting on 25 February.

9Session 1: Welcome

10GSSB Chair Judy Kuszewski (henceforth the Chair) welcomed the GSSB and presented an overview

11of the meeting agenda.

12

It was decided to defer approval of Item 01 – Draft summary of GSSB meeting held on 3 December

132020 and Item 02 – Draft Summary of GSSB Meeting held on 10 December 2020 until the next

14

meeting when a quorum would be present to approve them.

15

The Chair introduced and welcomed two new members to the GSSB, Giulia Genuardi and Kim

16

Schumacher, and welcomed existing member Vincent Kong, who has been reappointed for a second

17term.

18

Session 2: Work Program priorities

19for 2021

20

The Standards Division (SD) presented its priorities for 2021 according to the expectations set out in

21

Item – 03 GSSB Work Program 2020-2022. The priorities include completing the Universal Standards

22

Project and Sector Standards Project for Oil and Gas in Q3, and continuing work on the Sector

23Standards Project for Coal and the Sector Standards Project for Agriculture & Fishing through Q4 of

24

2021.

25

The SD presented additional projects from the work program that they anticipate proposing to the26

GSSB in 2021, contingent on SD resource availability. These include the review of GRI 304:

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Biodiversity 2016, Phase 2 of the project to review GRI’s human rights-related Standards, the Sector

28Standards Project for Mining, and the review of GRI’s climate change-related Standards.

29

Session 3: GRI Universal Standards

30

Project update – topic Boundary

31

The SD presented an update to the GSSB on proposed changes to the concept of topic Boundary

32

and the SD’s recommendations:33

Recommendation 1: Expanding the requirements under Disclosure MT-2 to report whether a material

34

topic is a group-wide or a more focused issue.

35

Recommendation 2: Clarifying the reporting expectation in each Topic Standard (whether reporting36

needs to be complete or whether it can be limited to the relevant entities, areas or sites); adding

37

guidance to the reasons for omission (RFOs) in GRI 101 for organizations to specify the entities,

38

areas or sites for which information has been omitted; and adding a reference to the RFOs under the39Completeness principle.

40

No objections were raised to these recommendations.

41

A GSSB member highlighted that changes to the topic Boundary would have an impact on customer

42

and supplier aspects of an organization and requested clarification about Standards which specifically43

require information about suppliers and customers. The SD confirmed that there are supply chain and44

customer-related Standards.

45

A GSSB member requested clarification about whether the change to Disclosure MT-2 would be a46

requirement or a recommendation. The SD explained that the change will make an existing47

requirement more specific and will support it with additional guidance.

48

A GSSB member questioned whether there were plans to develop and include a visual aid to help

49

reporters interpret and evaluate materiality in an organizational context. The SD indicated that there50

had been mixed feedback on the materiality matrix in the public comment period. The SD will share

51

this feedback with the GSSB and make a proposal for how to address this feedback along with the52

discussion of GRI 103 at the next meeting.

53

A GSSB member also questioned whether there would be global amendments to the Topic Standards

54

to include these updated topic Boundary amendments and how these would be managed. The SD

55

indicated that the proposed changes would be made as the Topic Standards are revised or newly

56

created, but not as global amendments to the Topic Standards in time for the launch of the revised

57

Universal Standards, as such changes require the engagement of expert groups on the various

58

topics.

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Actions:60•SD to implement the proposed recommendations regarding Topic Boundary.

61•SD to consider the use of a visual to aid to help understand the concept of materiality and62

make a proposal to the GSSB along with the discussion of GRI 103 at its meeting on 2563

February.

64

Session 4: Any other business and65

close of public meeting66

No other business was raised and the Chair closed the public sessions of the meeting at 13.36 CET

67(Central European Time).

68

Session 5: Private session

69

This was a private session.

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