The Global Reporting Initiative, known as GRI in short, is an international, independent reporting initiative that aims to measure the status of many institutions such as companies, governments, international organizations, and NGOs in areas such as human rights, their impact on the environment and society, and to help make sense of the impact of these institutions on the world. It can be said that the main benefit of the Global Reporting Initiative is that it enables companies to measure their values and to see and improve their risks against other companies. In other words, reporting allows companies to share their sustainability assessments with others by keeping their sensitive information to themselves.
The Global Reporting Initiative was established in 1997 in partnership with UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme). Although GRI is an independent organization, it continues cooperating with UNEP. Another essential structure with which it cooperates in the United Nations Global Compact.
Of course, the existence of GRI is highly related to the concept of sustainability. The ever-increasing expectation of sustainable environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) in society leads many companies to identify their positions and be transparent. The collection, identification, and reporting of organizations' data on topics such as sustainability and ESG make significant contributions to sustainable development and transparency. At this point, it is possible to see the contribution of GRI to the subject. By developing Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, which are widely used around the world, they have enabled the creation of a universal sustainability reporting framework and standardized the evaluation process.
Another crucial practice they have done in this regard is developing a set of principles and standards for sustainability reporting and creating more than 200 guidelines. The primary purpose here is to provide tools to assist with reporting and practical guidance to assist with reporting. The primary function of the standards is to make their environmental, institutional, social and economic impacts comparable and to universalize the reporting processes for a firm or organization. Large or small organizations, public or private, from any sector can reach and use the GRI Standards. In general terms, GRI gathers the standards used for the reporting process under three main headings. These; are universal standards, new industry standards, and subject standards.
Universal standards apply to all organizations. Clarifies the critical concepts of GRI standards and how to use the standards. Concepts such as verifiability, stability, and good quality, essential for reporting, are also clarified within universal standards. On the other hand, the new industry standards focus more on industry-specific effects. There are criteria for 40 sectors, including high-impact sectors such as oil, gas, agriculture, and fisheries. Finally, the use of subject standards is to provide a subject-specific listing. It contains explanations about the subjects, so each organization can choose the related topic and use the necessary information for reporting.
As a result, GRI is an important institution that measures the sustainability performance of organizations. GRI standards, which are preferred by many actors such as leading companies in the sector, government regulators, or development institutions, have accomplished an important task such as universalizing sustainability reporting today.
Author:
Irem Derya
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