Global Reporting Initiative

What

Global Reporting Initiative

The Global Reporting Initiative has developed and delivered the global best practice for how organizations communicate and demonstrate accountability for their impacts on the environment, economy and people over the last 25 years. The GRI provides the world's most widely used sustainability reporting standards, which cover topics that range from biodiversity to tax, waste to emissions, diversity and equality to health and safety. GRI reporting is the enabler for transparency and dialogue between companies and their stakeholders (GRI.org). 

GRI Standards

Three series of Standards support the reporting process: the GRI Topic Standards, each dedicated to a particular topic and listing disclosures relevant to that topic; the GRI Sector Standards, applicable to specific sectors; and the GRI Universal Standards, which apply to all organizations. Using these Standards to determine what topics are material (relevant) to report on helps organizations indicate their contributions – positive or negative – towards sustainable development. Who uses the GRI Standards, and who uses the reported information? Any organization, large or small, public or private, from any sector or location, can use the GRI Standards. Reporters, stakeholders, and other information users draw on the Standards. Reporters within an organization use the Standards to report on the organization’s impacts in a credible way that is comparable over time and in relation to other organizations. The Standards also help stakeholders and other information users understand what is expected from an organization to report on and use the information published by organizations in various ways. The organization can use the disclosed information to assess its policies and strategies or to guide decisionmaking, such as setting goals and targets. Stakeholders can also use this information. For example, investors can use the reported information to assess how an organization integrates sustainable development into its strategy to identify financial risks and evaluate its long-term success. The information provided can also help other information users, such as analysts and policymakers in benchmarking and forming policy, and academics in their research (GRI Standards: A Short Introduction to the GRI Standards).

Occupational Safety and Health

Occupational safey and health are important factors that determine sustainability, and they are part of the targets set under the Sustainable Development Goals of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The International Labor Organization estimates that roughly 2 million people die every year due to work-related accidents or diseases and that there are more than 300 milion accidents every year (see "Can New Metrics Stop Safe-Wash?" Global Reporting Initiative on Medium.comm 2019).