From GRI G4 to the GRI Standards

The fact that companies are attempting to meet the demands for greater responsibility is also shown by the increasing number of published sustainability reports. While this number was still only a few hundred reports in 2000, it had risen to over 5,000 by 2015, as shown impressively in Figure 1.

In Switzerland, 142 companies reported on their sustainability performance in 2015 (BSD 2016). In German-speaking countries, 68 % of the companies follow the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), seven percent adhere partially to GRI and only 25 % of the reports have no GRI reference. Conclusion: The majority of reporting companies use GRI.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
The Global Reporting Initiative has shaped sustainability reporting more than any other organization in the world. Since 1997, it has been developing the most widely used international framework for sustainability reporting in a global multi-stakeholder dialogue. With G4, the fourth generation of its reporting guidelines, it presented the most up-to-date version of its guidelines to date in May 2013. At that time, the focus was on the requirement that companies provide information on those topics where they have the greatest social, environmental and economic impact and where there are high stakeholder expectations. With this so-called materiality analysis, which should form the basis of every report, the strategic importance of the reporting process was strengthened at the time. Now, in October 2016, GRI has published the latest development of the guidelines. The GRI G4 Reporting Guidelines have become the GRI Standards.

The new standard for sustainability reporting
The name alone expresses that, in addition to the call for comparability and a general strengthening of the quality of sustainability reporting, the aim is also to meet the call for standardisation. The development of the new standards was led by the newly founded, independent Global Sustainability Standards Board. The aim was to create a flexible and future-proof structure. Instead of the previous two documents, the GRI Standards consist of a large number of individual, interlinked standards, which make it possible to update and expand requirements individually in the future.

The concepts, principles and most of the information have not changed. The content, however, has been rearranged in a modular structure: Three universal standards contain the disclosure requirements for all companies reporting according to GRI. A total of 33 topic-specific standards provide the specific information with which the company can measure and report its sustainability performance.

What does this mean for reporting companies?
Companies that report according to GRI cannot avoid dealing with the new standards. Even if much remains the same and the new format brings other advantages in addition to greater flexibility, it is the details (see box) that require attention during the transition. For companies that already report in accordance with GRI, it is advisable to carry out a gap analysis to check the extent to which the information already reported needs to be adjusted or expanded. The gap analysis enables an informed decision to be made as to whether and when the transition to the new GRI standards should take place and what resources this will require. The deadline for the transition from G4 to the new standards is 1 July 2018.

The field of sustainability reporting remains in flux
The standardization of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines is taking place in a very dynamic environment. Increasingly, new regulations are obliging companies to report on their non-financial performance indicators. This carries the risk that sustainability reporting could degenerate into a compliance exercise. At the same time, however, calls for improved reporting quality and greater strategic relevance of sustainability reports are growing louder. Numerous other initiatives support these trends, such as the IIRC's Integrated Reporting Framework, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals Framework or the methods for science-based targets (WRI/WWF, UNGC, CDP), with which companies can derive their climate targets from the global climate targets on a science-based basis. In this context, GRI is an important element that allows reporting to be built up systematically and at the same time is compatible with the other initiatives.

GRI is gaining further relevance through standardization. The standard of sustainability reporting is thus becoming the standard. For those who are preparing their first sustainability report, it is advisable to start reporting directly in accordance with the new GRI standards. On the other hand, those who already have a sustainability report in accordance with GRI would do well to carefully examine, within the framework of a gap analysis, what the changeover means for the company.
...is the same.