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GRI Guide

A simple guide to understanding GRI sustainability reporting

The Global Reporting Initiative, known as GRI, provides widely used sustainability reporting standards. The GRI Standards help organizations report their impacts on the economy, environment, and people, including impacts on human rights.

This guide is for general information only. It does not provide legal, audit, assurance, certification, or official GRI reporting advice.

What is GRI?

GRI stands for Global Reporting Initiative.

The GRI Standards are sustainability reporting standards that help organizations disclose information about their impacts in a structured and comparable way.

In simple terms, GRI helps a company answer:

  • What impacts do we have?
  • Who is affected by those impacts?
  • Which topics are most important to report?
  • How do we manage these topics?
  • What evidence, data, policies, actions, and results can we show?

GRI is not mainly a scoring system. It is not a certificate. It is a reporting framework that helps organizations be transparent about their sustainability impacts.

Why GRI matters

GRI helps organizations communicate sustainability information clearly to stakeholders such as customers, employees, investors, suppliers, communities, regulators, and civil society.

GRI reporting supports:

  • Transparency — clearer information about the organization’s sustainability impacts.
  • Accountability — better explanation of how impacts are identified, managed, and reviewed.
  • Consistency — a structured way to report sustainability information over time.
  • Comparability — information users can better understand and compare reported sustainability information.
  • Stakeholder trust — organizations can show how they consider affected stakeholders and sustainability issues.
  • Better internal management — the reporting process helps companies understand gaps in data, policies, responsibilities, and impact management.

The GRI Standards structure

The GRI Standards are organized into three main groups:

  1. Universal Standards

    These apply to all organizations using the GRI Standards.

    They include:

    • GRI 1: Foundation 2021 — explains the purpose of the GRI Standards, key concepts, reporting principles, and requirements for reporting in accordance with GRI.
    • GRI 2: General Disclosures 2021 — covers general information about the organization, its reporting practices, activities, workers, governance, strategy, policies, and stakeholder engagement.
    • GRI 3: Material Topics 2021 — explains how organizations determine material topics and report how each material topic is managed.
  2. Sector Standards

    Sector Standards help organizations understand topics that are likely to be material for their sector.

    They are used when a relevant GRI Sector Standard is available and support the organization’s own material topic process.

  3. Topic Standards

    Topic Standards contain detailed disclosures for specific sustainability topics, including economic, environmental, and social topics.

    Organizations use Topic Standards based on the material topics they have identified.

Key idea: GRI is impact-based

GRI focuses on the organization’s impacts on the economy, environment, people, and human rights.

An impact can be:

  • actual or potential
  • negative or positive
  • short-term or long-term
  • intended or unintended
  • reversible or irreversible

A material topic in GRI is a topic that represents the organization’s most significant impacts on the economy, environment, and people, including human rights.

Important GRI concepts

Impact

An impact is the effect an organization has or could have on the economy, environment, or people.

Examples include greenhouse gas emissions, water use, waste generation, worker health and safety, human rights risks in the supply chain, anti-corruption issues, local community effects, customer health and safety, and employment practices.

Material topics

Material topics are the sustainability topics that represent the organization’s most significant impacts.

Examples include climate change, energy use, water and effluents, waste, occupational health and safety, diversity and equal opportunity, anti-corruption, supplier social assessment, human rights, and customer privacy.

Due diligence

Due diligence means identifying, preventing, mitigating, and accounting for how the organization addresses actual and potential negative impacts.

In simple terms: find the risks and impacts, prevent what can be prevented, reduce what cannot be fully prevented, remedy harm where the organization caused or contributed to it, and track what is being done.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are individuals or groups whose interests are affected or could be affected by the organization’s activities.

Examples include employees, workers in the value chain, customers, suppliers, local communities, investors, governments, trade unions, civil society organizations, vulnerable groups, and future generations.

GRI reporting principles

GRI 1 includes eight reporting principles for high-quality sustainability reporting:

  • Accuracy — information should be correct and detailed enough for users to assess the organization’s impacts.
  • Balance — the report should show both positive and negative impacts.
  • Clarity — information should be easy to find, understand, and use.
  • Comparability — information should be reported consistently so users can compare changes over time.
  • Completeness — the organization should provide enough information to understand its impacts during the reporting period.
  • Sustainability context — information should be explained in the wider context of sustainable development.
  • Timeliness — information should be reported regularly and made available in time for users to make decisions.
  • Verifiability — information should be collected, documented, and stored so it can be reviewed or checked.

Reporting in accordance with GRI

To report in accordance with the GRI Standards, an organization must follow the GRI requirements.

The main requirements include:

  • Apply the GRI reporting principles.
  • Report the required disclosures in GRI 2.
  • Determine material topics.
  • Report the required disclosures in GRI 3.
  • Report relevant Topic Standard disclosures for each material topic.
  • Provide permitted reasons for omission where allowed.
  • Publish a GRI content index.
  • Provide a statement of use.
  • Notify GRI.

If an organization does not meet all requirements for reporting in accordance with GRI, it should not claim that it has reported in accordance with the GRI Standards.

Reporting with reference to GRI

An organization can report with reference to the GRI Standards when it uses selected GRI Standards or selected disclosures but does not meet all requirements for reporting in accordance.

In simple terms:

  • “In accordance with GRI” means the organization followed the full GRI requirements.
  • “With reference to GRI” means the organization used selected GRI Standards or disclosures.

What GRI 2 asks companies to report

GRI 2 contains general disclosures about the organization.

The main areas are:

  • Organization and reporting practices — legal name, ownership, headquarters, operations, reporting period, contact point, restatements, external assurance.
  • Activities and workers — sectors, products, markets, supply chain, employees, workers who are not employees.
  • Governance — governance structure, highest governance body, sustainability oversight, policies, conflicts of interest, remuneration.
  • Strategy, policies, and practices — sustainability strategy, commitments, human rights, remediation processes, compliance, membership associations.
  • Stakeholder engagement — approach to engagement, stakeholder groups, purpose of engagement, collective bargaining agreements.

How to determine material topics

GRI 3 explains a four-step process:

  1. Understand the organization’s context — business model, activities, locations, value chain, stakeholders.
  2. Identify actual and potential impacts — across operations and business relationships, including positive and negative impacts.
  3. Assess the significance of impacts — based on scale, scope, irremediable character, likelihood, and severity for human rights.
  4. Prioritize the most significant impacts — group them into topics, document the process, test against sector standards, and review with governance bodies.

Important: negative impacts cannot be cancelled out by positive impacts.

What GRI 3 asks companies to report

GRI 3 includes three main disclosures:

  • Disclosure 3-1: Process to determine material topics — explains how impacts were identified and prioritized.
  • Disclosure 3-2: List of material topics — lists the material topics and explains changes compared with previous reporting periods.
  • Disclosure 3-3: Management of material topics — explains how each material topic is managed, including actions, goals, indicators, and how effectiveness is tracked.

What information companies should collect first

A company preparing for GRI reporting should begin by collecting basic information about the organization, value chain, workforce, governance, policies, stakeholders, and material topics.

  • Company information — name, ownership, headquarters, countries of operation, products, services, business model, sector, reporting period, reporting contact point.
  • Value chain information — suppliers, customers, partners, outsourced activities, and important business relationships.
  • Workforce information — employee numbers, worker types, contractors, interns, volunteers, and regional breakdowns.
  • Governance information — governance structure, sustainability responsibilities, oversight, conflicts of interest, and remuneration links.
  • Policy and practice information — code of conduct, human rights policy, anti-corruption, environmental, health and safety, grievance, whistleblowing, and remediation systems.
  • Stakeholder information — key stakeholders, engagement methods, concerns raised, and how feedback is used.
  • Material topic information — impacts, evidence, significance assessment, material topic list, threshold logic, and management approach.

GRI content index

A GRI content index helps users find reported information. It usually includes the statement of use, GRI 1 used, applicable sector standards, list of material topics, reported disclosures, disclosure titles, location, and reasons for omission if used.

Reasons for omission

Sometimes an organization cannot report a required disclosure or requirement. GRI allows only specific reasons for omission where permitted, including:

  • Not applicable — the disclosure does not apply to the organization.
  • Legal prohibitions — the law prevents the organization from collecting or reporting the information.
  • Confidentiality constraints — the information is confidential and cannot be publicly reported.
  • Information unavailable or incomplete — the information is missing, incomplete, or not yet available.

External assurance

External assurance means an independent assurance provider checks sustainability information or reporting processes.

GRI does not make external assurance a general requirement for reporting in accordance, but it encourages organizations to use assurance to strengthen credibility.

Common preparation challenges

Companies starting with GRI may face challenges such as information being spread across departments, unclear responsibilities, missing or inconsistent data, informal stakeholder engagement, incomplete value chain mapping, weak material topic evidence, overemphasis on positive impacts, underreporting negative impacts, policies without actions, missing targets, incomplete content index, and claiming “in accordance with GRI” too early.

Simple GRI preparation checklist

  • Have we defined the reporting period?
  • Have we identified the entities included in reporting?
  • Have we described our activities and value chain?
  • Have we identified our main stakeholder groups?
  • Have we mapped actual and potential impacts?
  • Have we considered negative and positive impacts?
  • Have we considered human rights impacts?
  • Have we reviewed applicable GRI Sector Standards?
  • Have we prioritized impacts based on significance?
  • Have we created a list of material topics?
  • Have we documented the material topic process?
  • Have we assigned responsibility for each material topic?
  • Have we identified policies, actions, targets, and indicators?
  • Have we prepared evidence and data sources?
  • Have we checked whether we can claim “in accordance” or only “with reference”?
  • Have we prepared a GRI content index?

Important note

This guide is for general educational purposes only.

It does not provide legal, audit, assurance, certification, or official GRI reporting advice. Organizations should confirm reporting requirements, claims, and disclosures with qualified sustainability reporting, legal, accounting, audit, or assurance professionals.

GRI Standards and related guidance may change over time. Organizations should always check the latest official GRI Standards and guidance before preparing formal sustainability disclosures.

References and disclaimer

This guide was prepared using the GRI documents reviewed for EcoGradeX and official GRI source information.

Main references include:

  • GRI 1: Foundation 2021
  • GRI 2: General Disclosures 2021
  • GRI 3: Material Topics 2021
  • A Short Introduction to the GRI Standards
  • GRI Universal Standards 2021 Frequently Asked Questions
  • Official GRI Standards information from Global Reporting Initiative

The supporting documents were used to simplify and structure the guide content for general educational understanding. They should not be treated as legal, audit, assurance, or certification advice.