The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), founded in 1997, is a global, independent organization (headquartered in Amsterdam with regional officers around the world) is focused on helping institutions take responsibility for their impacts.  The GRI Standards (which GRI states are the most widely used sustainability reporting standards in the world) are meant to enable organizations to report their impacts on the economy, environment, and people.

The GRI standards are divided into three categories:  (1) Universal Standards, which emphasize the requirements of the GRI and how to disclose general information about the organization and material; (2) Sector Standards, which seek to improve reporting by organizations in a specific sector such as oil, electronics, or agriculture and (3) Topic Standards, which dictate how to disclose on specific topics such as tax or waste.

There are three types of Universal Standards:  (1) Foundational, which are the basic requirements for utilizing the GRI standards, (2) General Disclosures, which contain the general disclosures about the company and its practices or policies, and (3) Material Topics, which represent an organization’s greatest impact on the economy, environment, and people.  The Foundational standards (GRI 1) can be thought of as the instructions for GRI reporting.  General Disclosures (GRI 2) focus on reporting about activities and workers; governance; strategies, policies, and practices; and stakeholder engagement.  And, Material Topics (GRI 3) govern the process by which companies determine and disclose those topics that are most important to the organization – which generally will draw from the relevant Sector Standards.

Expanding upon the Universal Standards, GRI has set forth 40 Sector Standards – which will apply to different sectors of the economy. Each sector standard goes over the overall sector’s characteristics, lists topics that are likely to be material for organizations in the sector, and allows for additional disclosures that are not a Topic Standard. So, an organization in the Oil and Gas sector will report on one set of issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and water emissions, while a company in the Retail Sector might report on a different set of topics.  Notably, these sector standards are a work in progress.  As of April 2022, GRI has published two sector standards:  one for oil and gas and a second standard for coal. A third sector standard, for agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing, is now open for public comment.  A list of the 40 different prospective GRI sectors can be found here.

The GRI’s Topic Standards allow organizations to report about their impact in relation to specific topics (as guided by the specific Sector Standards).  Each topical standard gives an overview of the topic and its specific disclosures.  GRI’s topics are broken down into the 200, 300, and 400 series:

• The 200 series focuses on economic issues, such as economic performance (201), procurement practices (204), anti-corruption (205), and tax (207);

• The 300 series address environmental issues, such as energy (302), emissions (305), and waste (306); and

• The 400 series focuses on people issues, including employment (401), diversity and opportunity (405), customer health and safety (416), and customer privacy (418).