The GRI Standards
A GUIDE FOR
POLICY MAKERS

With support from:

2

Table of contents
1

The importance of transparency andaccountability

2

The global sustainability reporting
landscape3

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

4

The GRI Standards

5

The reliability of sustainability reports

6

Public sector reporting andaccountability

7

Promoting transparency throughpublic policy

8

How does GRI support policy
makers?

3

1 The importance oftransparency
and accountability

GOAL

12.6
SDGs

Companies are
increasingly being
called on to showthat they operate andmake decisions in a
responsible way.

Transparency on the sustainability
impacts of a business is essential forcontinuous improvement as well as
for stakeholder relationships. Withouttransparency, there is no trust – andwithout trust it is very complex to dobusiness, markets do not function
efficiently, and institutions lose theirlegitimacy.
Corporate accountability is suchan important factor in the efforts toachieve the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) that it has been
included as one of the 169 goals.
Goal 12.6 states that the United
Nations member states should“encourage businesses, especiallylarge corporations, to adopt
sustainable practices and integratesustainability information into theirreporting cycle.” This target aims
for the private sector’s contribution
to sustainable development tobe accounted for with the same
frequency, thoroughness, andimportance as an organization’s
financial performance.

Sustainability reporting began in
the 1990s and is relatively recent
compared to the mandatory
financial reporting that has been inplace since the Great Depression.
However, reporting on sustainability
information is increasingly becoming
a legal requirement and less of avoluntary practice. Governments,
stock exchanges, market regulators,
investors, civil society and otherstakeholders are demanding
more and better information onorganizations’ sustainability impacts.
In a rapidly changing environment,
corporate accountability becomes
imperative. That is why it is importantthat measuring and reporting aredone according to internationallyrecognized standards such as the GRI
Sustainability Reporting Standards(GRI Standards). This ensuresdata quality and comparability, andcontributes to better decision making
by allowing access to information that
promotes better decisions.

4

2 The global sustainability

reporting landscapeIn sustainability reporting there aredifferent types of actors and initiatives
that guide organizations. Each one
has a different nature and a specificrole in the corporate sustainability
landscape.
Organizations can use the GRI
Standards in combination with otherreporting frameworks, including theInternational Integrated Reporting
Framework, the CDP climate change
and water questionnaires, and the
SASB industry standards.
GRI continually works together withother reporting frameworks to avoid
duplication of disclosure effort.
Sustainability information is defined,
standardized, reported, issued, andused through different links:

1

2

3

4

5

REPORT
ISSUERS

STANDARDSAND
FRAMEWORKSDATA
AGGREGATORSANALYSTSAND
RATINGSDATACONSUMERS5CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY
INSTRUMENTSManagement
principles

Practices for a more
responsible andsustainable operation

Su
st

Sus
ta

g
tin

ility Mana
ab
g
in

ent
em

Management
standards
Specific, measurable andverifiable requirements forelements of an organization’ssustainability management.

Management
acknowledgements
Certifications, awards anddistinctions that recognize anorganization's implementationof good management
practices.

bility Reponarai

A set of guidelines,
directives, or rules
governing themanagement of anorganization. They refer
to what is expected
in terms of sustainable
management.

Measurement and information
disclosure practices forsustainable management

Reporting guide
Guidelines, directives orgood practices to define
how an organization
prepares a sustainability
report.

Reporting framework
Principles or standards for
preparing the report, to ensure
the information disclosed andpresented is high quality,
reliable and balanced.

Reporting standard
These determine the data
to report and are composed of aset of specific and detailed
requirements about the type of
information to be disclosed,
ensuring it is comparable, accurate
and verifiable.

6

3 The Global Reporting

Initiative (GRI)
GRI is the independent, internationalorganization that helps businesses andother organizations take responsibility
for their impacts, by providing themwith the global common language
to communicate those impacts. It
provides the world’s most widelyused standards for sustainability
reporting – the GRI Standards, which
are available as a free public good.
Since 1997, the GRI Standards havebeen continuously developed torepresent the world’s best practice forreporting on economic, environmental,
and social impacts. In addition todeveloping the GRI Standards,
GRI also supports their use andimplementation among different typesof business actors, civil society, andpolicy makers.

GRI is a non-profit
organization, backed
by a wide range ofpartners who support
the organization’s workaround the world toadvance sustainable
development throughgreater transparency
and accountability.

GRI is a non-profit organization,backed by a wide range of partners
who support the organization’s
work around the world to advancesustainable development throughgreater transparency andaccountability.
GRI has a global presence throughRegional Hubs in Johannesburg(Africa), Singapore (ASEAN), SãoPaulo (Brazil), Hong Kong (Greater
China Region), Bogota (Hispanic
America), New York (North America),
and New Delhi (South Asia). Allother regions (including Europe)
are supported from GRI’s global
Secretariat in Amsterdam (TheNetherlands).

For more information
on GRI, visit the website
globalreporting.org

7

4 The GRI Standards
By better understanding, managing and disclosing theirimpacts, companies can enhance strategic decision-making,reduce risks, identify business opportunities and strengthen
stakeholder relationships.
The GRI Standards help organizations
increase their transparency andcommunicate both their positive andnegative impacts on sustainable
development. The GRI Standards
enable consistent and high quality
sustainability reporting, which helps
organizations meet the needs of theirstakeholders for comparable andreliable data. They are the most widelyused standards in the world and are
explicitly referenced in 168 reporting
requirements in 67 countries.1
The GRI Standards are a free public
good. Any organization, large or small,private or public, regardless of sector,
location, and reporting experience,
can use the GRI Standards to reporton its impacts in a standardized andcomparable way.

73% of the world’s
250 largest
companies prepare
their sustainability
reports using the GRI
Standards** Source: The KPMG Survey of
Sustainability Reporting 2020
1 Carrots & Sticks Report (2020)

Each organization reports on topics
that reflect the organization’s significant
economic, environmental, and social
impacts and that are important to its
stakeholders. With the GRI Standards,
these are the “material topics” thatthe organization reports on. An
organization’s material topics are
determined based on the organization’s
activities and business relationships.
Data privacy, for instance, might bematerial for a telecommunications
company to report on, while childlabor might be material for a garment
company with extensive supply chains.
The GRI Standards define a set ofprinciples for organizations to define thecontent of their reports.

Download the GRI
Standards on GRI’s
website globalreporting.
org/standards/downloadthe-standards/

8
The GRI Standards
development process
The GRI Standards are issued by the
Global Sustainability Standards Board(GSSB), an independent operating
entity of GRI. They are developed
according to a formally defined due
process overseen by the Due Process
Oversight Committee (DPOC).
Experts from different stakeholder
groups across the world are
involved in developing the GRI
Standards using a consensusseeking approach that builds on theirdiverse backgrounds and expertise.
The GSSB also routinely conducts
public comment periods to gather
stakeholder feedback on draft
Standards.
Transparency lies at the heart of the
GSSB’s work. All meetings of the
GSSB and the documents discussed
at these meetings, including drafts ofStandards, are publicly accessible via
the GRI website.

For more informationon the GSF:
globalreporting.org/
about-gri/how-weare-funded/globalstandards-fund/All SDG tools areavailable on the GRI
website: globalreporting.
org/public-policypartnerships/sustainabledevelopment/
integrating-sdgs-intosustainability-reporting/

The GSSB receives independent
funding from GRI, sourced from
grants, corporate programs, andrevenues from GRI’s support
services. Additionally, launched in
2020, the Global Standards Fund(GSF) provides for the independent,
multi-stakeholder development of
the GRI Standards as a free public
good available to all organizations
and is an opportunity for foundations,
governments, private sector
organizations and individuals
to participate in a coalition of
likeminded funders who want to see
companies integrate transparency
and sustainability at the core of theiroperations.
All of this helps ensure that the
GRI Standards serve the public
interest and can be applied by anyorganization worldwide.

Alignment of the
GRI Standards withintergovernmental
instruments
The GRI Standards are alignedwith widely recognized international
instruments for responsible businessbehavior. These include instruments
such as the UN Guiding Principles
on Business and Human Rights,
the ILO conventions, and theOECD Guidelines for Multinational
Enterprises. Using the GRI Standards,
organizations can be transparent about
how they apply these instruments.
Organizations can also use theStandards to report on their impacts
and progress on the SDGs. Since
the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, GRI has
developed guidance for companies tointegrate these Goals into reporting
practice, with the GRI Standards at thecore.
1. Analysis of the goals and targets– a handbook of indicators andbusiness actions to make reportingon the SDGs straightforward andsimple to execute.
2. Integrating the SDGs in
corporate reporting: A practicalguide – a three-step guide toembed the SDGs in existing
business and reporting processes.
3. Mapping the SDGs against
the GRI Standards – a linkage
document to show which GRI
Standards can be used to report on
specific SDGs.

9
The GRI Standards provide
a flexible framework forreporting
The GRI Standards offer
disclosures on a wide range ofsustainability topics. From anticorruption to water, biodiversity
to occupational health and safety,
the Standards cover relevant
topics across the economic,
environmental and social
dimensions. Organizations selectfrom among these to report on
their significant impacts.
The GRI Standards are frequently
revised to update existing topics
as they evolve and to include new
topics.
The GRI Standards are
structured as a set of interrelated
standards. There are three
universal Standards that apply
to every organization preparing
a sustainability report. An
organization then selects from theset of topic-specific GRI Standards
for reporting on its material topics.
The topic-specific GRI Standards
are organized into three series:
200 (Economic topics), 300(Environmental topics), and 400(Social topics).

100 series
Universal Standards

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

200 series

Economic
In the context of the GRI Standards,
the economic dimension ofsustainability concerns anorganization’s impacts on theeconomic conditions of its
stakeholders, and on economic
systems at local, national, and global
levels. It does not focus on thefinancial condition of an organization.

300 series
Environmental
In the context of the GRI
Standards, the environmental
dimension of sustainability
concerns an organization’s
impacts on living and non-living
natural systems, including land,
air, water and ecosystems.
400 series
SocialIn the context of the GRI
Standards, the social dimensionof sustainability concerns anorganization’s impacts on thesocial systems within which it
operates.

Sector Standards
A comprehensive Sector Programis being implemented to complete
the set of GRI Standards. The
purpose of the GRI Sector
Program is to develop Sector
Standards that will provide
authoritative information on the
topics that constitute a sector’s
most significant impacts froma sustainable development
perspective, reflecting stakeholder
expectations for a sector’ssustainability reporting andfocusing reporting on the impacts
that matter most.
Used in conjunction with theexisting suite of GRI Standards,
Sector Standards aim to enhancetransparency and accountability,
as well as support organizationaland stakeholder decision-making,by helping organizations prepare
and report information on theirmaterial topics and increase
consistency of reporting within asector.
Priority Group 1
Basic materials and needs
Priority Group 2
Industrial
Priority Group 3
Transport, infrastructure andtourism
Priority Group 4
Other services and lightmanufacturing

10
Structure and content
of the Standards

Foundation

GRI

101
UNIVERSAL
STANDARDS

GeneralDisclosures

Management
Approach

GRI

GRI

102

103

Economic

GRI

200

Environmental

TOPIC-SPECIFIC
STANDARDS

GRI

300

Social

GRI

400

Priority Group 1

Priority Group 2

Basic materials
and needs

Industrial

Priority Group 3

Priority Group 4

Transport, insfrastructure
and tourism

Other services andlight manufacturing

SECTOR
STANDARDS

11

Materials

Economic
PerformanceMarketPresence

Supplier
Environmental
Assessment

Tax

EnergyEnvironmental
Compliance

Anti-corruption
Indirect
Economic
Impacts

Anti-competitive
Behavior

Waste

Water &
Effluents

Emissions
Biodiversity

Procurement
Practices

GRI

GRI

200

300

Economic

Environmental
TOPICS

GRI

400

SocialEmployment

Labor/Management
Relations

Freedom of Association& Collective
Bargaining

Occupational
Health & Safety

Child Labor

Human Rights
Assessment

Forced or Compulsory
Labor

Local Communities

Marketing &Labeling

Training &Education

Security Practices

Supplier Social
Assessment

Customer Privacy

Diversity & Equal
Opportunity

Rights of Indigenous
PeoplesPublic Policy, Customer
Health & Safety

Socioeconomic
ComplianceNon-discrimination

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5 The reliability ofsustainability reports
Organizations report on theirsustainability impacts in response to
stakeholder information requirements.
The use of the GRI Standards isself-declarative, meaning that eachorganization must indicate whether
the report has been prepared inaccordance with the GRI Standards
following the criteria stipulated in GRI
101: Foundation.

To maintain its neutrality andimpartiality as a standard setter, GRI
does not verify or certify the content ofa report. However, it does offer services
to review a report’s alignment with the
GRI Standards and with frameworks
such as the SDGs.

Reporting organizations are required tocomply with the Reporting Principles fordefining report quality contained in GRI
101: Foundation on reporting reliableand quality information.
They can use a variety of approaches
to enhance the credibility of the report.
The use of external assurance forsustainability reports is advised inaddition to any internal resources, but
it is not required in order to make aclaim that a report has been preparedin accordance with the GRI Standards.
Many organizations engage in thisprocess to make their report morelegitimate and credible, or to respondto a specific requirement by theirstakeholders in this regard. If thereport has been externally assured,
the assurance report must be included,
stating the information that has beenassured, as stipulated in GRI 102-56.

For more information
on GRI’s services:globalreporting.org/
reporting-support/
services/13

6 Public sector reporting andaccountability
Leading by example
The GRI Standards can be used byany type of organization to publicly
report on its sustainability impacts.
This also includes organizations
from the public sector as they, due tothe nature of their function, must betransparent, must maintain constantand open communication and can beheld accountable.
Public entities can use one of
two approaches to report on theirsustainability impacts:
1. From the mission perspective:
How have the sustainable
development objectives assigned
to the entity been fulfilled?
2. From the organizational
perspective: Are its operations
carried out in a way that considers
its impact on sustainable
development, and how?

14
2

CHANGES IN
THE SOCIALLANDSCAPE

1

ROLE OFPUBLICENTITIES

4LEADING BY
EXAMPLE

NEED FORALIGNMENT

3

6

VALUE OFINTEGRATEDTHINKING

REDUCING THE
COMPLEXITY OF
ACCOUNTABILITY

5

Public entities complete
sustainability reports forseveral reasons:

Examples of public entities
that have produced GRI
sustainability reports:

1. Public entities are facing
increasingly informed
stakeholders, with more
immediate access to information
and with increasingly greater
expectations and requirements.

h Gobierno de la Provincia deCórdoba, Argentina

2. The responsibility to manage
public goods and resources
results in an obligation of
accountability and transparent
management.

h Autoridad Nacional de Licencias
Ambientales, Colombia

3. Promoting sustainable
development by providing an
example of a sustainable andresponsible reporting process.

h Maritime And Port Authority Of
Singapore, Singapore

4. Measuring and reporting on the
management of organizations
based on international standards
helps stay aligned with thenational agenda and allows
to compare how each entity is
working to reach the objectives
set.
5. Measuring and reporting onsustainability performanceallows access to information,
creating a more complete andcomprehensive image of anentity’s sustainability impacts.
6. The purpose is not to make thelist of information the entity must
report longer, but rather to makemore holistic connections on what
the entity should report on and towhom.

h DevelopmentWA, Australiah Canada Post, Canada

h Bremenports GmbH & Co. KG,
Germanyh Auditor General of South Africa,
South Africa
h European Union Intellectual
Property Office (EUIPO), Spainh State-owned companies, Sweden
h Bureau Of Labor Funds, Ministry
Of Labor, Taiwan
h Dubai Customs, United ArabEmiratesh CalSTRS, United States ofAmerica*Note: These are some examples of public entities
that perform sustainability reporting using the
GRI Standards in an illustrative manner. It does
not in any way constitute an exhaustive list or
an acknowledgement or validation of the reports
produced by these organizations.

15

7 Promoting transparency

through public policy
In the last decade, regulations andpolicies on corporate reporting andaccountability have evolved very
rapidly, recognizing the central
role of transparency in advancing
the adoption of more responsible
business conduct, improving
competitiveness and building greater
market trust.

The field of sustainability reporting
has expanded not only in quantity
but also in the type of information
required. According to the 2020
edition of the Carrots & Sticks
report, by 2020 there were over 600
sustainability reporting instruments in
87 countries worldwide.

Number of global sustainability reporting instruments (cumulative)2
700
600

536
390

400

325

300
200

0

608

474

500

100

577

26

34

40 51

62

69

Before 2000
2000

2001

2002

2004

2005

25

2 Carrots & Sticks Report (2020)2003

86 101

2006

2007

119 132

2008

2009

163

2010

190

2011

237

269

2012 2013 2014 20152016

2017 2018

2019

16

Voluntary vs mandatory instruments by region (2020)3300

Mandatory
Voluntary
250

200

141
150

99
100

50

0

40

104

37

75

31

33
Africa andMiddle East

3 Carrots & Sticks Report (2020)

16
Asia Pacific

EuropeNorth America

35
South America

GRI strongly supports mandatory
disclosure requirements for reporting
information on material topics. In
many countries, early voluntary
efforts by companies to report on
their sustainability impacts havebeen followed by the introduction of
mandated disclosure requirements.

Referencing the GRI Standards within
reporting instruments allows for the
standardization of the information thatcompanies report, aligning it with bestreporting practice. It also reduces
any reporting burden by aligning thedifferent information requirements tostakeholder needs.

Mandating specific reporting
requirements helps address theconcerns from companies on
confusion about what to report andreporting burden. Mandates help
standardize and professionalize nonfinancial reporting thus improving
access and comparability of theunderlying data. Despite thesebenefits, there is still no consensus onwhether these instruments should bebinding, and the regulatory landscapereflects a combination of bothmandatory and voluntary instruments.

There are different ways to reference
the GRI Standards in public policy:

A. Request accountability
from State-owned companies
The State as a shareholder of Stateowned companies (or companies
with State participation) may ask
those companies to report on theirsustainability impacts using the GRI
Standards. The State has the ability todirectly influence a more sustainable
and transparent management ofthese companies and make thema reference for other companies toadopt more sustainable practices andmore accountability.

17

B. Request full sustainability
reporting
Many policy instruments seek togenerate a culture of reporting andaccountability where organizations aretransparent about their sustainability
impacts. In these cases, regulation
may require organizations to use
the GRI Standards for sustainability
reporting.

C. Request reporting on
specific topics
For some public entities, it isimportant to request information on
specific topics, depending on theeconomic sector and the priority of the
topics. In these cases, policy makers
have two options:
1) Require organizations to use
the GRI Standards by selecting
disclosures that allow them tomeasure and report on their impacts
on a particular topic.
2) Require organizations to use
specific GRI Standards, indicating
the disclosures that the organization
should use to report on its impacts on
a particular topic.

Sometimes organization are required
to report specific information, and
the GRI Standards are used as areference for designing the questions
and indicators that they must disclose.
In this case, the GRI Standards
can be referenced in policy, rules,
and regulations to build instruments
tailored to informational needs. This
ensures that a company provides
an accurate report of the required
information, framed in the language
and logic of business measurement
and reporting.
For example, in Colombia, thenational government (National
Planning Department) in collaboration
with GRI and the UNDP created the
SDG Corporate Tracker initiative
to measure the business sector’s
contribution to the SDGs. The GRI
Standards were used as a reference
for developing a questionnaire
for companies based on national
indicators and measurements of theSDGs.

For more informationon the global regulatory
landscape, see theCarrots & Sticks 2020
report:carrotsandsticks.net

18

8 How does GRI support

policy makers?

GRI supports policy makers intheir work to promote trust andtransparency through corporate
accountability, which allows formore informed policy decisions.
To this end, GRI works to:h Raise awareness among
policy makers about thevalue of transparency andaccountability;
h Build capacity on reporting
and accountability so thatpublic entities can prepare
their own report or develop
regulations and reporting
requirements for otherorganizations;h Advise on the use andreferencing of the GRI
Standards;
h Support, strengthen,and comment on thedevelopment of global
policies and regulations
regarding transparency andsustainability reporting.
GRI has a global policy team aswell as local teams in the regionsthat work to support policy
makers to enable smart policy.

In addition, in 2008, GRI
established a Governmental
Advisory Group which provides
high-level advice and feedback
to GRI’s Board and Executive
Management, as well as a directsource for strategic governmental
relationship building. It allows
members to stay up to date on
the latest developments aroundsustainability reporting, to provide
insights to the development of
GRI’s activities and Standards,
and to engage with other policy
makers to further drive theiragenda on responsible businessconduct in a collaborative
manner. For more than 10 years,
this group has championed therole of governments in advancing
transparency. It is instrumental
to GRI’s leadership and strategic
direction on policy and regulation
on sustainability reporting,the development of the GRI
Standards, and thematic work
such as the SDGs.

Disclaimer: This material has been fundedby the Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency (Sida) within theframework of GRI’s work with policy makers.
Sida does not necessarily share the views
and interpretations expressed in thisdocument.
Acknowledgment: GRI greatly appreciates
the support received from the Governmentof Sweden.

For more information:
info@globalreporting.org
Barbara Strozzilaan 336
1083 HN Amsterdam
The Netherlands
www.globalreporting.org