Global Reporting Initiative
Information presented in this profile is for reference only. The Initiative, its Supporting Institutions and the Secretariat do not endorse the activities, tools or reports included in this profile.
Last update: September 2021
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an independent international organisation founded in 1997 that provides comprehensive standards for sustainability reporting and promotes their use around the world. Use of the GRI Standards contributes to increased transparency from organisations on their impacts on material topics (economic, environmental or social), including climate change, human rights, governance, and social well-being.
More than 10,000 organisations report using the GRI standards, in over 100 countries, allowing businesses, investors, policymakers, civil society, labour organisations, to use reported information to make decisions that support sustainable development and engage in dialogue.
The GRI Standards continue to be updated and added to, including new Topic Standards on Tax (2019) and Waste (2020).
Why it matters
GRI standards are widely used and provide a common framework resulting in a comparable and consistent dataset for benchmarking and analysis of impacts by organisations, as well as impacts on organisations.
Reporting along the GRI standards helps ensure disclosures meet the needs of a broad range of key stakeholders and support increased stakeholder engagement. It provides support for materiality assessment under user-friendly frameworks that have either broad coverage or sector-specific coverage.
GRI builds the capacity of financial institutions operating in developing countries and emerging markets
GRI also run a range of programs in developing countries and emerging markets funded by their strategic partners to build reporting capacity, empower SMEs, and create more transparent global value chains.
Main areas of work related to climate mainstreaming:
The GRI Standards include a chapter on risks and opportunities linked to climate change and on reporting requirements on GHG emissions.
The GRI also supports the work done by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and for instance developed a linkage document between GRI Standards and CDP.