GRI Standards
The GRI Standards are the world's most widely used voluntary sustainability reporting framework. Used by more than three-quarters of the world's largest companies, they remain the de facto baseline for stakeholder-oriented disclosure.
Who runs it
The Global Reporting Initiative is an independent international standards body, founded in 1997 and headquartered in Amsterdam. It develops and maintains the GRI Standards through an independent Global Sustainability Standards Board.
Structure of the standards
- Universal Standards: GRI 1 (foundation), GRI 2 (general disclosures), GRI 3 (material topics).
- Sector Standards: industry-specific (e.g. GRI 11 oil and gas, GRI 12 coal, GRI 13 agriculture).
- Topic Standards: specific issues — GRI 305 (emissions), GRI 401 (employment), GRI 403 (occupational health and safety), GRI 405 (diversity), GRI 415 (political contributions), and many more.
Materiality approach
GRI uses an 'impact materiality' lens: report on the topics where the organisation has the most significant impact on the economy, environment and people — including human rights. This is one half of CSRD's 'double materiality'.
GRI vs CSRD/ESRS
GRI is voluntary and stakeholder-oriented; CSRD is mandatory for in-scope companies. They are highly interoperable — GRI and EFRAG (the body behind ESRS) jointly mapped the two so a GRI report can largely satisfy ESRS impact-materiality disclosures.
Why companies still publish GRI
Investors and rating agencies (MSCI, Sustainalytics, ISS) read GRI reports. Customers outside the EU often expect GRI alignment. Publishing both GRI and ESRS is common during the CSRD transition.
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