Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
What is the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)?
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an international organisation that sets global standards to help organisations assess and report their sustainability practices, focusing on transparency in their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. As a voluntary framework, GRI is widely used to promote transparency, comparability, and accountability, enabling organisations to communicate their impact on key global challenges such as climate change, human rights, labour practices, and biodiversity loss.
GRI standards, particularly those focused on biodiversity, guide organisations in assessing and disclosing their environmental impacts on ecosystems and species, aligning reporting with international conservation goals such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement, and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
GRI Standards Structure and Upcoming Updates
The GRI standards are structured into three different modules:
- Universal standards, which apply to all organisations.
- Sector standards, enabling more consistent reporting on key impacts for particular sectors.
- Topic standards, which cover a variety of ESG topics, including standards for the topic of Biodiversity (GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016).
By adopting GRI Standards, organisations can consistently enhance transparency and establish sector benchmarking enabling them to highlight industry-specific risks and opportunities. This helps organisations identify and address their most material sustainability issues, such as assessing biodiversity risks and impacts across their value chain. Additionally, adopting GRI Standards supports alignment with international standards and builds capacity for mandatory reporting frameworks, such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Understand where you are and your next step for GRI Reporting
Our consultants work with both site-based and corporate organisations to identify the frameworks that best suit their sustainability and disclosure goals. We provide strategic guidance to ensure alignment with your chosen approach, helping you manage your organisation’s key impacts through effective policies, actions, and targets while facilitating alignment with GRI standards and other global frameworks such as TNFD, CSRD, and SBTN.
Our services include, but are not limited to:
- Gap analysis and assessment of data readiness
- Footprinting services to identify and assess biodiversity impacts
- Identification of priority sites based on GRI prioritisation criteria
- Development of GRI-aligned nature strategies and stakeholder engagement plans
- Preparation of reports for internal disclosure or public disclosure, along with roadmaps for ongoing reporting
Our team is also available to support clients wishing to report against GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016 while the standards remain in force.
Get in touch with our team to understand how we can help your organisation enhance the transparency of your ESG performance.
