GRI (Global Reporting Initiative)
Definition
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an independent international organisation that provides the world's most widely used standards for sustainability reporting. GRI Standards help organisations report on their economic, environmental, and social impacts in a structured, comparable way. The framework emphasises stakeholder inclusiveness and materiality.
Why It Matters
GRI is the dominant sustainability reporting framework globally, used by over 10,000 organisations. Its standards are frequently referenced by regulators and form the basis for many mandatory disclosure requirements.
Related Terms
SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board)
SASB provides industry-specific sustainability disclosure standards designed to help companies communicate financially material sustainability information to investors. Now part of the IFRS Foundation, SASB standards cover 77 industries across five dimensions: environment, social capital, human capital, business model, and leadership. They focus on the subset of ESG issues most likely to affect financial performance.
CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is EU legislation that significantly expands mandatory sustainability reporting requirements for companies operating in Europe. It introduces the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and requires double materiality assessments, third-party assurance, and digital tagging of reports. The CSRD applies to approximately 50,000 companies, including non-EU companies with significant EU operations.
Materiality Assessment
A materiality assessment is a structured process for identifying and prioritising the ESG topics that are most significant to an organisation and its stakeholders. It typically involves stakeholder engagement, peer benchmarking, and analysis of business impact to determine which issues warrant strategic focus and disclosure. The output is usually a materiality matrix ranking topics by importance.
Double Materiality
Double materiality is the principle that companies should report on sustainability matters from two perspectives: how ESG issues affect the company's financial performance (financial materiality) and how the company's activities impact people and the environment (impact materiality). This concept is central to the EU's CSRD and European Sustainability Reporting Standards. It represents a broader view than the single financial materiality approach used by ISSB.