Starting point: Need for international sustainability standards to measure performance

Organizing strategy: Gather representatives of all economic and social sectors to hammer out report content, format and evaluation, working groups, technical committee

Tools: Technical Advisory Group to make recommendations; Stakeholder Council to keep process honest, G1-4 guidelines for reporting, specific industry report guidgelines

Outcomes: Gold standard for sustainability reporting and ongoing ability to modify process and product

Primary Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Reporting_Initiative https://www.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx

Sustainability reporting has moved from a practice undertaken only by pioneers to become standard practice for thousands of the world’s largest companies, the majority of which are using the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Guidelines as a basis for their sustainability reports.

While GRI has long been accepted as ‘de facto standard setter’ in providing sustainability reporting guidance, formal recognition of its pre-eminence in this field has yet to be acknowledged. GRI intends to strengthen the independence of the governance of GRI’s standard and equip the organization to be recognized as fit for public reference as a standard setter and to meet the particular requirements that regulators tend to have of officially referenced standard setters, while maintaining the core multi-stakeholder approach that is key to the legitimacy of GRI.

GRI submitted the intended changes to its governance for public feedback to receive commentary on whether these changes will strengthen the independence of the governance of the GRI standard and equip the organization to meet the requirements that policy makers and regulators tend to have of officially and publicly referenced standard setters.

The Public Comment Process was divided into two parallel consultation streams:

1. Specific reporting organizations, government representatives and regulators were invited for targeted interviews.
2. In parallel, all draft constitutional documents were made publicly available and the general public was invited to provide specific feedback and commentary on the organizational changes of the organization; and whether those changes would fulfill the objective for GRI to be fit for official and public reference as a standard setter.

About GRI

GRI is an international independent organization that helps businesses, governments and other organizations understand and communicate the impact of business on critical sustainability issues such as climate change, human rights, corruption and many others.

Pioneer of sustainability reporting

We have pioneered sustainability reporting since the late 1990s, transforming it from a niche practice to one now adopted by a growing majority of organizations.

GRI’s Sustainability Reporting Standards are foundational to this success. With thousands of reporters in over 90 countries, GRI provides the world’s most widely used standards on sustainability reporting and disclosure, enabling businesses, governments, civil society and citizens to make better decisions based on information that matters. In fact, 93% of the world’s largest 250 corporations report on their sustainability performance.

Vision, Mission and Beliefs

​Our vision is to create a future where sustainability is integral to every organization’s decision making process.

Our mission is to empower decision makers everywhere, through our sustainability standards and multi-stakeholder network, to take action towards a more sustainable economy and world.

We believe:

• In the power of a multi-stakeholder process and inclusive network
• Transparency is a catalyst for change
• Our standards empower informed decision making
• A global perspective is needed to change the world
• Public interest should drive every decision an organization makes

Learn about our strategic priorities which will help us catalyze the next era of sustainability reporting

GRI’s Brand

​As part of our new strategy, we’ve developed the GRI brand to capture our vision, mission, and beliefs.

The connected dots of the GRI logo, which form the shape of the world, symbolize the important elements of our organization – connectivity and collaboration. We believe that we need a global perspective to change the world, and in the power of a multi-stakeholder process and inclusive network. Our new logo is an amalgamation of all those beliefs and values.