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

Item 01 – Draft summary of the GSSB
meeting held on 17 March 2022
For GSSB approval
Date

17 March 2022

Meeting28 April 2022

Description

This document presents the summary of the GSSB virtual meeting held on 17
March 2022.

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 2022

1Contents2Participants.............................................................................................................................................. 3
List of abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ 3
Decisions and action items ..................................................................................................................... 4
Session 1: Welcome ............................................................................................................................... 4
Session 2: Standards Division update .................................................................................................... 4
Session 3: Transparency International ................................................................................................... 4
Session 4: Introductory presentation of the Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fishing Sector Standard ..... 5
Session 5: Any other business and close of the meeting ....................................................................... 7

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3Participants

4Present:

567

Name

Constituency

Judy Kuszewski

Chair

Robyn Leeson

Vice-Chair

Loredana CartaLaborPeter Colley

Labor

Giulia Genuardi

Business enterprise

Evan Harvey

Investment institution

Joseph Martin

Business enterprise

Anna Nefedova

Mediating institution

Jennifer Princing

Business enterprise

Kim Schumacher

Civil society organization

Gangaa Charan SharmaBusiness enterprise

Kenton Swift

Civil society organization

Michel Washer

Business enterprise

Apologies:
NameConstituency

Vincent Kong

Business enterprise

Corli le RouxMediating institution

In attendance from GRI:
NamePosition

Bastian Buck

Chief of Standards

Harold Pauwels

Director Standards

Mia d’Adhemar

Head of Standards, Sector Program

Margarita Lysenkova

Manager Sector Program

Miguel Ludena

Research Lead Sector Program

Gillian Balaban

Sr. Coordinator Governance Relations

List of abbreviations
GRI
GSSB
SD
WG
PCP

Global Reporting Initiative
Global Sustainability Standards Board
Standards Division
Working group
Public comment period

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8Decisions and action items

9Decisions

10The GSSB resolved to approve the following:

11GSSB Decision 2022.08 Item 02 – Summary of electronic votes for Item 01 - Draft summary of12

GSSB meeting held on 10 February 2022

13Session 1: Welcome

14

The Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) Chair Judy Kuszewski (henceforth the Chair)

15

welcomed the GSSB. The Chair presented an overview of the meeting agenda. The GSSB was

16

presented with the following item for approval:

17

Item 02 – Summary of electronic votes for Item 01 - Draft summary of GSSB meeting held on 1018February 2022

19

Session 2: Standards Division update

20

The Chief of Standards, Bastian Buck, presented the SD update as follows:

21•GRI 12: Coal Sector 2022, the second Standard from one of our Sector pilot projects, launched.

22•The Chief of Standards recognizes the work carried out by the GSSB and the SD that contributed

23
24

to the successful launch of GRI 12.
•25
26

Session 4 will provide further detail on the progress of this project.
•27
28
29

The Sector Standard to follow, agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing, is entering the final stages.

The work on the mining Sector Standard has commenced. The first meeting with experts focusedon introductions and the development process of the Standard.

•Biodiversity related work continues with discussions between experts and SD members in thevarious subgroups. An update on the progress will be presented in the upcoming GSSB meeting.

30

Session 3: Transparency

31International

32

The GSSB receives input from stakeholders recommending future efforts in the standard setting area,

33

particularly for the GSSB work program 2023-2025. As such, the Chair welcomed Rocio Paniagua,

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34

Head of Business Integrity, and Tilly Prior, Programme Officer at Transparency International UK. The35following points were presented to the GSSB:

36

•

37

Transparency International UK shares the vision of a world in which government, business, andcivil society are free from corruption.

38•

The organization helps multinational enterprises prevent corruption and operate with integrity.

39•Transparency International UK invites GSSB and GRI to review the anti-corruption standards in40
41

light of corporate transparency, research, and guidance.
•Transparency International UK has found that while transparency is becoming a norm in the42

corporate world, meaningful disclosures remain limited, particularly in governance and anti-43corruption.

44

•45
46

In a gap analysis conducted between open business principles and GRI principles, findings
suggest that GRI is strong on tax disclosures, including country by country reporting.

•However, the following areas require improvement: organizational structure transparency and47

beneficial ownership transparency. There is also room for improvement in corporate political48

engagement transparency (GRI 415) and anti-corruption program transparency (GRI 205).

49

The Chair thanked Transparency International UK for their input, which is of considerable interest to50

the GSSB, and looks forward to engaging in future projects.

51

Session 4: Introductory presentation

52of the Agriculture, Aquaculture, and53

Fishing (AAF) Sector Standard

54

Sector Program Manager Margarita Lysenkova presented key conclusions from the public exposure

55of the revised draft of the Sector Standard, which generated 53 submissions from all constituencies.

56

The public comment period (PCP) validated the Sector scope and the 26 likely material topics of the57

Standard. PCP feedback and suggestions were as follows:

58•One general comment suggested approaching the fishing sector in a different way since it is59

water-based. There was also a request for greater emphasis on sustainable best practices in GRI

60

13 rather than focusing solely on the sector impacts.

61•There was feedback to include additional disclosures for topic 13.3 Biodiversity on the impacts of62sourcing and animal feed use and the impacts of using juvenile fish stocks in aquaculture

63

production. Disclosing approaches to preventing and managing escapes in aquaculture were also

64suggested.

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65

•66
67

In topic 13.5 Soil health, it was suggested to include soil management practices and disclosuresabout the use of crop inputs in the sectors.

•In topic 13.6 Pesticides use, feedback asked for reporting to address the impacts of chemical

68

pesticides and disclose initiatives to reduce the use of highly hazardous pesticides while switching69

to sustainable solutions. This is a contentious topic as crop inputs are linked to increased

70

agricultural productivity, an aspect of food security.

71•For topic 13.9 Food security, the materiality of food security, and the lack of quantitative72

disclosures were of particular interest. Feedback suggested adding the positive impacts of73

regenerative practices. Note that aspects of food loss go beyond waste impacts. The proposed

74

changes include moving the reporting on the total weight of food loss and the food loss

75

percentage to 13.9 Food security from 13.8 Waste: topic name 13.8 Waste and food loss

76

subsequently updated to 13.8 Waste

77•

In topic 13.11 Animal health and welfare, feedback suggested including additional content and78

disclosures on animal health and welfare in aquaculture. Organizations should report the survival

79

percentage of farmed aquatic animals and the main causes of mortality.

80•

In topic 13.15 Non-discrimination and equal opportunity, feedback included the need for additional

81

disclosures about employment terms, pay discrimination based on nationality, and migrant status.

82

Note that addressing discrimination against women requires indicators to be separated by gender83

in more topics.

84•

In topic 13.19 Occupational health and safety, feedback called for additional fishing-specific85

recommendations to address risks to workers aboard fishing vessels, such as working hours and86

access to occupational health and safety services.

87•In topic 13.20 Employment practices, reporting on workers' recruitment was expanded to cover88

more aspects of ethical recruitment based on ILO-IOM instruments. The topic of worker

89

compensation was removed from 13.21 Living wage and living income and moved to 13.20

90

Employment practices, because aspects of fair compensation go beyond living wage91

considerations.

92
93•The name of topic 13.21 Living income and living wage, was updated to elevate the distinction
between living wages and living income.

94

The next steps towards the approval of the Standard include the reviews by the Standards Editorial

95

and Publishing team and proofreading by the WG.

96Page 6 of 7

97

Session 5: Any other business and98

close of the meeting99

No other business was raised, and the Chair closed the public meeting at 13.14 Central European

100

Time (CET).

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