The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)’s Sustainability Reporting Standards provide a voluntary framework for organisations producing annual sustainability reports. Within the framework sit 3 categories of standards:
- Universal Standards which apply to all organisations and include general disclosures about the organisation to give context to the report.
- Sector Standards which are currently in development (4 have been published so far) and provide further specific guidance for sectors which are most impactful on the environment.
- Topic Standards which relate to specific material* topics.
*Material topics are issues which present the most significant impacts to the environment, society and the economy.
The Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) are striving to continuously improve and update the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, and as part of the improvement programme, several new topic standards are being implemented over the next few years:
- GRI 101: Biodiversity 2024 (supersedes GRI 304: Biodiversity, from 1st January 2026).
- GRI 102: Climate Change 2025 (supersedes GRI 305: Emissions, from 1st January 2027).
- GRI 103: Energy 2025 (supersedes GRI 302: Energy, from 1st January 2027).
In early 2024, the new Biodiversity topic standard was published, and will be effective for reports published after 1st January 2026. This means that if biodiversity was found to be a material topic by your organisation, you will need to ensure GRI 101 is being used from that date instead of GRI 304. GRI 101 aligns more closely with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework*, guiding organisations to identify the decisions and business activities which contribute to biodiversity loss, and providing insights on how to manage their impacts.
*The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted in 2022 and consists of 23 targets to be met by 2030 with the aim of stopping, and reversing, biodiversity loss.
GRI 102 and GRI 103 relating to climate change and energy are arguably the most important topic standards, as they apply to almost all organisations, so were identified as a priority to update. GRI 102 has a much broader scope than its predecessor, including disclosure requirements around achieving a just transition and carbon credits / removals. GRI 103 extends the focus of reporting energy consumption across the entire value chain, as opposed to only the organisation. It also requires separation of reporting of renewable and non-renewable energy sources.
The new standards take into account the latest best practice information and international agreements, and are available to download from the GRI website.
