Our position in the reporting landscape

With changes underway and a myriad of guidelines and frameworks, the sustainability reporting landscape can appear complex. Yet the simple reality is that only GRI provides comprehensive sustainability reporting standards for addressing impacts on the economy, environment and people, which meet the needs of multiple stakeholders. 

We firmly believe that, for reporting on sustainability issues to be effective, it has to be built on a two-pillar corporate reporting structure, with financial and sustainability disclosures on an equal footing. We are working with a variety of international and intergovernmental organizations to achieve this, including the IFRS Foundation and the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). The aim of our collaboration is to achieve greater alignment and harmonization of the sustainability reporting landscape for the benefit of companies, investors, and society at large.  

At GRI, we advocate for a comprehensive reporting system, which combines financial and impact materiality for sustainability reporting. This is the only way to achieve the comparable and effective reporting needed to drive corporate accountability. We are confident that, with goodwill and cooperation, we can deliver improved reporting that fulfils both applications of materiality and meets the transparency needs of multiple stakeholders.”

Eelco van der Enden, CEO of GRI

GRI and the IFRS Foundation

In March 2022, GRI and the IFRS Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to coordinate their work programs and standard-setting activities as well as join each other’s consultative bodies related to sustainability reporting. By working together, the IFRS Foundation and GRI provide two pillars of international sustainability reporting – a first pillar representing investor-focused capital market standards of IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards developed by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), and a second pillar of GRI sustainability reporting requirements set by the Global Standards Setting Board (GSSB), compatible with the first and designed to meet multi-stakeholder needs.  

In 2021, GRI responded on the updated strategic direction of the IFRS Foundation and the establishment of a working group. In November 2021, GRI welcomed the announcement of the launch of the ISSB, which included the consolidation of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) and the Value Reporting Foundation (which includes the IIRC and SASB) into the ISSB. GRI has previously had long-running collaborations with both the IIRC and SASB, including a 2021 joint report on how to use GRI and SASB standards together.

GRI and EFRAG

Since July 2021, GRI and the European Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) have been working together to co-construct the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which will set mandatory disclosure requirements under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) for some 50,000 companies. Under the EFRAG-GRI cooperation agreement, the two organizations agreed to join each other’s technical expert groups and align standard-setting activities and timelines as much as possible.

Key developments include:

 

The GRI Perspective

You can learn more about GRI’s stance on a variety of topics on the sustainability reporting landscape in The GRI Perspective.

A regular series of briefings, launched in 2022, The GRI Perspective dives under the surface of topical themes in the world of sustainability reporting including the reporting landscape, materiality, tax, ESG standards and frameworks, and the role of a stakeholder-centric model in corporate transparency.  

Carrots & Sticks

Carrots & Sticks (C&S) is the flagship publication and online resource that since 2006 has covered non-financial or sustainability reporting provisions, policy, regulation, guidance, frameworks and standards.

The fifth edition of C&S, launched in July 2020, covers 614 reporting instruments across over 80 countries. C&S 2020 has the addition of in-depth interviews with policy and other decision-makers, including regulators, national governments and stock exchanges.

C&S is delivered as a partnership between GRI and the University of Stellenbosch Business School, with contribution provided by the UN Environment Programme. You can download C&S 2020 - in Spanish as well as English from the Resource Center.