Annual Report of the Due Process
Oversight Committee
2017© GRI 2018

Contents
I. Membership 2017.............................................................................................................................................3
II. DPOC activities ...............................................................................................................................................3
Due Process Protocol Adherence Assessment .......................................................................................3
DPP Adherence – Process review ..............................................................................................................4
III. Recommendations on overall adherence of the GSSB to the application of Due Process in thePublic Interest .......................................................................................................................................................4
General comments .........................................................................................................................................5
Improve accessibility to documentation on website ..........................................................................5
Inclusiveness .....................................................................................................................................................5
Representativeness .........................................................................................................................................5
Other matters of due process .....................................................................................................................6

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I. Membership 2017

Following a public open call for nominations and selection process carried by GRI’s Independent
Appointments Committee (IAC), the following person was appointed to the DPOC in 2017:•Volker Höntsch, Group Supply Chain and Sustainability Manager, UBM EMEA

He joined other standing members of the Due Process Oversight Committee which is now in its
full complement of 5 members.
••••

Ms. Riva Krut, Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer Praxair, Inc., Appointed
Chair of the DPOC in June 2016 by the IAC.
Mr. Sanjib K. Bezbaroa, Executive Vice President Corporate Environment, Health &Safety, ITC Ltd
Prof. Godwell Nhamo, Chief Researcher and Chair, Exxaro Chair in Business andClimate Change in the Institute for Corporate Citizenship, University of South Africa(Unisa)
Mr. Stan Rodgers, Principal Consultant, AVTEQ Consulting Services

II. DPOC activities
Due Process Protocol Adherence Assessment
The following priority work areas, included in the GSSB Work Program 2016-2019, require DPOCassessment :Priority work areas requiring DPOC assessment:••••

Review GRI Standards on a regular basis
Develop additional topic-specific Standards on a regular basis
Develop sector-specific contentIssue authoritative interpretations

In 2017, the DPOC assessed GSSB DPP on the following GSSB projects, falling under the work
areas of “Review GRI Standards on a regular basis” and “Develop additional topic-specific Standards
on a regular basis”:••••

Review of GRI 303: Water
Review of GRI 403: Occupational Health and Safety
Review of GRI 201: Economic Performance, including ‘tax’ and ‘payment togovernments’
Review of Human Rights-related Standards

No release of a final Standard occurred 2017 and therefore no conclusion of the DPOC as towhether due process has been followed was issued by the DPOC.
On the basis of a document developed by GRI’s Secretariat and provided supporting evidence, theDPOC however assessed adherence to GSSB DPP on the GSSB projects mentioned above, whichwere presented at varying degrees of completeness. The DPOC gathered on the following dates
to carry their tasks:

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Dates of DPOC meetings:
1. 22-23 March: DPOC in-person meeting
2. 8 May: DPOC Virtual meeting
3. 12 June: call between the DPOC Chair and the Chair of the GSSB and GRI’s Standards
Division Director
4. 24 July: DPOC Virtual meeting
5. 10 October: DPOC Virtual meeting
6. 16 October: DPOC Virtual meeting
7. 23 November: DPOC Virtual meeting

DPP Adherence – Process review

In the Annual Report of the Due Process Oversight Committee - 2016, the DPOC
recommended that the GSSB “provide a process map/flowchart of the total document development
process and the point(s) where the DPOC is involved (this would be helpful as a public document and for
DPOC planning).”
In this light, the DPOC initiated a review of the process for assessing adherence to Due Process
Protocol and requested that the GRI Standards Division:• Proposes an improved and streamlined process for assessing GSSB DPP by taking arisk management approach, for example.
• Provides an overview of all the GSSB work streams which involve the DPOC thus
including the development and review of the current Standards (4-6 each year) andAuthoritative interpretations• That this overview includes the basis for decision to create/review the standards (DPP4-5)• That this overview includes a list of relevant stakeholders addressing the national,
international developments implications that should be considered for a given aStandard.
The process review was carried on to 2018. In the interim, the DPOC continued using the initialprocess for checking GSSB DPP.

III. Recommendations on overall
adherence of the GSSB to theapplication of Due Process in the Public
Interest
In addition to the DPOC’s view on GSSB’s development of GRI Standards previously
communicated during the assessment of the Transition to Standards project, the DPOC would
like to offer the following recommendations to the GSSB in relation to the Public Interest as
defined in the GSSB Due Process Protocol:“In general, as:• those overarching interests of humanity, held in common, that include but exceed the partial
interests of individuals or groups.
In the context of sustainability reporting, as:Page 4 of 6••••

making well informed decisions – and therefore in having easy and timely access to relevant andreliable information on which such decisions might be based,promoting positive (and discouraging negative) impacts on social, ecological, environmental andeconomic systems,
promoting transparency, fairness and integrity of processes that affect the public domain, andensuring that no person or community is either overlooked or marginalized – especially if
relatively weak in comparison to others.

In forming a view about specific GSSB authoritative pronouncements, the GSSB and DPOC shall haveregard to:a) authoritative intergovernmental instruments and their authoritative interpretations, and/orb) documented, widely held expectations of behavior relating to social, ecological, environmental
and economic responsibilities.”

General comments
Improve accessibility to documentation on website

The DPOC advises to improve accessibility to documentation on Standards development on theGSSB website and the (updates of) the GSSB Work Program, for transparency reasons. For
instance, finding information relating to “Project Commencement” and “Approval of a Standard
and Consideration of the Need for Re-Exposure”, steps of the development process for GRI
Standards, presented challenges for the assessment process.

Inclusiveness“ensuring that no person or community is either overlooked or marginalized – especially if relatively
weak in comparison to others.”
In the DPOC Annual Report 2016, the DPOC recommended that the “GSSB further considers
how to better integrate this principle of inclusiveness into its process of decision-making in relation to thescope and content of GRI Standards.”.
The Project Working Group (PWG) formed for the Review of GRI 303: Water was balanced interms of constituency and gender. The DPOC would however encourage the GSSB to strive forbetter regional balance of the members for future PWGs. It seems that especially for this topic
that there would have been rather many stakeholders and interest groups in regions such as Asia
and Africa to include, which were underrepresented in the view of the DPOC.
The DPOC therefore reiterates its recommendation to address this limitation going forward.
The DPOC is further generally satisfied that this principle was applied throughout the activitiesof the GSSB.

Representativeness“In forming a view about specific GSSB authoritative pronouncements, the GSSB and DPOC shall haveregard to:a) authoritative intergovernmental instruments and their authoritative interpretations, and/orb) documented, widely held expectations of behavior relating to social, ecological, environmental
and economic responsibilities.
Considering the process review for assessing the GSSB DPP mentioned in this document, theDPOC discussed how it could effectively determine whether the GSSB took other reporting
tools into consideration in their projects, for harmonization and for representativeness matters.

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It advised the GSSB to provide a list of relevant stakeholders selected to develop each newStandard, so the DPOC (and the public) can better assess whether national and international
developments and stakeholders have been systematically considered.

Other matters of due process

The DPOC is further satisfied with the application of the GSSB Due Process Protocol regarding
paragraphs 1-3 and no concerns over adherence to due process were received in 2017 as
described in paragraphs 34-35.

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