GRI: The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an independent international organisation that provides a widely recognised framework for sustainability reporting. GRI’s mission is to promote transparency, accountability, and sustainability in business practices by encouraging organisations to report their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance in a standardised and consistent manner.
The GRI framework offers guidelines and standards that help organisations measure, report, and communicate their sustainability efforts and impacts. These reports enable stakeholders, including investors, consumers, employees, and the public, to make more informed decisions about the organisations they interact with.
Key features of the GRI framework include:
Reporting Principles: GRI’s reporting framework is built on a set of principles that guide the reporting process. These principles include materiality, stakeholder inclusiveness, sustainability context, and completeness.
Reporting Standards: GRI provides a comprehensive set of sustainability reporting standards that cover various topics, including governance, economic performance, environmental impact, labor practices, human rights, society, and product responsibility.
Materiality: The GRI framework emphasises the importance of identifying and reporting on material ESG issues that are most relevant to an organisation’s business and stakeholders.
Stakeholder Engagement: GRI encourages organisations to engage with their stakeholders to identify ESG issues that matter to them and to incorporate their perspectives into the reporting process.
Global Applicability: The GRI framework is used by organisations of various sizes and industries around the world. It is recognised as a global standard for sustainability reporting.
Continuous Improvement: GRI’s reporting process encourages organisations to set goals, track progress, and continuously improve their sustainability performance over time.
Sustainability reports produced using the GRI framework provide valuable insights into an organisation’s ESG performance, helping stakeholders understand how the organisation is addressing environmental and social challenges, promoting responsible business practices, and contributing to sustainable development.
GRI’s work has contributed significantly to the growth of ESG reporting and transparency in the corporate world. Many organisations voluntarily use the GRI framework to produce annual sustainability reports, and some regulatory bodies also reference GRI guidelines in their reporting requirements.
