GRI 416: Customer Health and Safety 2016 contains disclosures for organizations to report information about their impacts related to customer health and safety, and how they manage these impacts.
The Standard is structured as follows:
The rest of the Introduction section provides a background on the topic, an overview of the system of GRI Standards and further information on using this Standard.
Background on the topic
This Standard addresses the topic of customer health and safety, including an organization’s systematic efforts to address health and safety across the life cycle of a product or service, and its adherence to customer health and safety regulations and voluntary codes.
These concepts are covered in key instruments of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: see the Bibliography.
System of GRI Standards
This Standard is part of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards (GRI Standards). The GRI Standards enable an organization to report information about its most significant impacts on the economy, environment, and people, including impacts on their human rights, and how it manages these impacts.
The GRI Standards are structured as a system of interrelated standards that are organized into three series: GRI Universal Standards, GRI Sector Standards, and GRI Topic Standards (see Figure 1 in this Standard).
Universal Standards: GRI 1, GRI 2 and GRI 3
GRI 1: Foundation 2021 specifies the requirements that the organization must comply with to report in accordance with the GRI Standards. The organization begins using the GRI Standards by consulting GRI 1.
GRI 2: General Disclosures 2021 contains disclosures that the organization uses to provide information about its reporting practices and other organizational details, such as its activities, governance, and policies.
GRI 3: Material Topics 2021 provides guidance on how to determine material topics. It also contains disclosures that the organization uses to report information about its process of determining material topics, its list of material topics, and how it manages each topic.
Sector Standards
The Sector Standards provide information for organizations about their likely material topics. The organization uses the Sector Standards that apply to its sectors when determining its material topics and when determining what to report for each material topic.
Topic Standards
The Topic Standards contain disclosures that the organization uses to report information about its impacts in relation to particular topics. The organization uses the Topic Standards according to the list of material topics it has determined using GRI 3.
Using this Standard
This Standard can be used by any organization – regardless of size, type, sector, geographic location, or reporting experience – to report information about its impacts related to customer health and safety. In addition to this Standard, disclosures that relate to this topic can be found in GRI 417: Marketing and Labeling 2016.
An organization reporting in accordance with the GRI Standards is required to report the following disclosures if it has determined customer health and safety to be a material topic:
See Requirements 4 and 5 in GRI 1: Foundation 2021.
Reasons for omission are permitted for these disclosures.
If the organization cannot comply with a disclosure or with a requirement in a disclosure (e.g., because the required information is confidential or subject to legal prohibitions), the organization is required to specify the disclosure or the requirement it cannot comply with, and provide a reason for omission together with an explanation in the GRI content index. See Requirement 6 in GRI 1: Foundation 2021 for more information on reasons for omission.
If the organization cannot report the required information about an item specified in a disclosure because the item (e.g., committee, policy, practice, process) does not exist, it can comply with the requirement by reporting this to be the case. The organization can explain the reasons for not having this item, or describe any plans to develop it. The disclosure does not require the organization to implement the item (e.g., developing a policy), but to report that the item does not exist.
If the organization intends to publish a standalone sustainability report, it does not need to repeat information that it has already reported publicly elsewhere, such as on web pages or in its annual report. In such a case, the organization can report a required disclosure by providing a reference in the GRI content index as to where this information can be found (e.g., by providing a link to the web page or citing the page in the annual report where the information has been published).
Requirements, guidance and defined terms
The following apply throughout this Standard:
Requirements are presented in bold font and indicated by the word 'shall'. An organization must comply with requirements to report in accordance with the GRI Standards.
Requirements may be accompanied by guidance.
Guidance includes background information, explanations, and examples to help the organization better understand the requirements. The organization is not required to comply with guidance.
The Standards may also include recommendations. These are cases where a particular course of action is encouraged but not required.
The word ‘should’ indicates a recommendation, and the word ‘can’ indicates a possibility or option.
Defined terms are underlined in the text of the GRI Standards and linked to their definitions in the Glossary. The organization is required to apply the definitions in the Glossary.
An organization reporting in accordance with the GRI Standards is required to report how it manages each of its material topics.
An organization that has determined customer health and safety to be a material topic is required to report how it manages the topic using Disclosure 3-3 in GRI 3: Material Topics 2021 (see clause 1.1 in this section).
This section is therefore designed to supplement – and not replace – Disclosure 3-3 in GRI 3.
1.1 The reporting organization shall report how it manages customer health and safety using Disclosure 3-3 in GRI 3: Material Topics 2021.
The reporting organization can also disclose whether the health and safety impacts of products and services are assessed for improvement in each of the following life cycle stages:
The reporting organization shall report the following information:
Guidance for Disclosure 416-1
This measure helps to identify the existence and range of systematic efforts to address health and safety across the life cycle of a product or service. In reporting the information in Disclosure 416-1, the reporting organization can also describe the criteria used for the assessment.
The reporting organization shall report the following information:
Compilation requirements
2.1 When compiling the information specified in Disclosure 416-2, the reporting organization shall:
2.1.1 exclude incidents of non-compliance in which the organization was determined not to be at fault;
2.1.2 exclude incidents of non-compliance related to Incidents related to labeling are reported in Disclosure 417-2 of GRI 417: Marketing and Labelling 2016;
2.1.3 if applicable, identify any incidents of non-compliance that relate to events in periods prior to the reporting period.
Guidance for Disclosure 416-2
The incidents of non-compliance that occur within the reporting period can relate to incidents formally resolved during the reporting period, whether they occurred in periods prior to the reporting period or not.
Background
Protection of health and safety is a recognized goal of many national and international regulations. Customers expect products and services to perform their intended functions satisfactorily, and not pose a risk to health and safety. Customers have a right to non-hazardous products. Where their health and safety is affected, customers also have the right to seek redress.
This disclosure addresses the life cycle of the product or service once it is available for use, and therefore subject to regulations and voluntary codes concerning the health and safety of products and services.
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This glossary provides definitions for terms used in this Standard. The organization is required to apply these definitions when using the GRI Standards.
The definitions included in this glossary may contain terms that are further defined in the complete GRI Standards Glossary. All defined terms are underlined. If a term is not defined in this glossary or in the complete GRI Standards Glossary, definitions that are commonly used and understood apply.
rights inherent to all human beings, which include, at a minimum, the rights set out in the United Nations (UN) International Bill of Human Rights and the principles concerning fundamental rights set out in the International Labour Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work