Resolve the GRI questions behind every disclosure.

GRI·Pillar guide

Impact materiality and determining material topics

What counts as an impact, how severity and likelihood are judged, where the cut-off sits and which disclosures follow.

17 articles Read the guide →

GRI·Pillar guide

Stakeholder engagement and due diligence

Entities in scope, impacts through business relationships, stakeholder evidence, and why severity leads on human rights.

5 articles Read the guide →

GRI·Pillar guide

Preparing the GRI Content Index

Statement of use, cross-references that hold, omissions at requirement level, notification.

14 articles · 1 note Read the guide →

GRI·Pillar guide

Data, evidence, controls and assurance

The evidence pack, the reporting principles as review tests, board approval, claim review and assurance scope.

14 articles Read the guide →

GRI·Pillar guide

GRI alongside ESRS and IFRS S1/S2

What genuinely transfers between GRI, ESRS and IFRS S1/S2 — and what only looks equivalent.

6 articles Read the guide →

GRI·Pillar guide

The new Climate, Energy and Biodiversity Standards

GRI 101, 102 and 103 — timing, replaced disclosures, new data fields and target boundaries.

9 articles Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Data and evidence

Stakeholder engagement for GRI materiality: methods, evidence and common mistakes

Stakeholder engagement is an evidence input to GRI materiality, not a vote that determines material topics. Existing HR, customer, supplier, community and grievance processes can be reused when they reach the relevant affected stakeholders, are meaningful and safe, generate traceable evidence, and are suitable for the impact being assessed.

Helps you decideWhich stakeholder evidence can be reused, where targeted engagement is necessary, and how the input affects the impact assessment.

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 12 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Materiality and scope

GRI Impact Inventory: How to Build a Complete Long List of Impacts

Build the impact inventory before scoring. Start with the organisation’s activities, products, sites, workers, affected communities and business relationships; harvest evidence from due diligence, incidents, grievances, audits, stakeholder input, Sector Standards and external sources; then write one concrete impact statement per affected object and causal pathway.

Helps you decideGRI Impact Inventory: How to Build a Complete Long List of Impacts

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 27 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Data and evidence

GRI Content Index Review Checklist: 25 Checks before Publication

A final GRI content index review should test more than whether rows and page numbers exist. The reviewer should verify the statement of use, reporting period, GRI 1 edition, applicable Sector Standards, material-topic logic, disclosure and requirement-level completeness, exact locations, reasons for omission, assurance wording, cross-document consistency, accessibility and version control.

Helps you decideGRI Content Index Review Checklist: 25 Checks before Publication

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 22 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Metrics and methodologies

GRI 102 Scope 3 Reporting: Categories, Data Hierarchy and Supplier Estimates

GRI 102: Climate Change 2025 requires gross Scope 3 emissions to be reported by each of the 15 GHG Protocol categories, together with the consolidation approach, methods, assumptions, emission-factor sources and relevant base-year information. A first-year reporter should therefore screen every category, calculate material or high-priority categories with the best available data, use transparent estimates for the rest, and record a time-bound improvement plan.

Helps you decideGRI 102 Scope 3 Reporting: Categories, Data Hierarchy and Supplier Estimates

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 23 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Assurance and controls

How to Prepare a GRI Report for External Assurance

Prepare for external assurance as a controlled reporting project, not as a late review of the finished PDF. First define the subject matter, reporting boundary, criteria, assurance level and exclusions; then procure an independent, competent provider, map every assured disclosure to evidence, test data and narrative controls, run walkthroughs and a dry review, remediate findings, obtain appropriate management representations and align the final publication wording with the practitioner’s report.

Helps you decideHow to Prepare a GRI Report for External Assurance

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 21 min Read the guide →

GRI·Toolkit·Materiality and scope

GRI Materiality, Severity, Human Rights and Reporting Principles Working Toolkit

A package-level toolkit containing GRI_Materiality_Severity_Human_Rights_and_Reporting_Principles_Working_Toolkit.pdf; GRI_Materiality_Severity_Human_Rights_and_Reporting_Principles_Working_Toolkit.docx, with 5 related Knowledge Hub guides.

Helps you decideWhich package files and related guides belong to this toolkit?

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 3 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Omissions and claims

GRI Content Index: reporting routes, disclosure locations, material topics, Sector Standards, permitted omissions and a free template

A GRI content index is required for both reporting in accordance with and reporting with reference to the GRI Standards. It identifies the reporting route, the GRI Standards and disclosures used, and the exact locations of reported information.

Helps you decideWhat must appear in the index, how each row should point to evidence, and how omissions should be recorded.

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 9 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Assurance and controls

Internal Controls for GRI Reporting: Data Owners, Reviewers and Approval Workflow

GRI does not prescribe one internal-control framework, but its reporting principles require information to be accurate, complete, comparable, timely and verifiable. Assign an owner, preparer, independent reviewer and accountable approver to each disclosure; retain source evidence, calculation logic, estimates, judgements and change records; and reconcile the report, Content Index and supporting pack.

Helps you decideInternal Controls for GRI Reporting: Data Owners, Reviewers and Approval Workflow

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 10 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Omissions and claims

Do You Need to Disclose Every Indicator in a GRI Topic Standard?

No. GRI does not require every disclosure in a Topic Standard or a minimum number of Topic Standard disclosures. For each material topic, report only the disclosures relevant to the organisation’s impacts and always report GRI 3-3.

Helps you decideDo You Need to Disclose Every Indicator in a GRI Topic Standard?

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 12 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Materiality and scope

GRI Impact Materiality Methodology: How to Score and Prioritise Significant Impacts

GRI requires an organisation to identify actual and potential, negative and positive impacts and prioritise them according to significance. It does not prescribe a universal 1–5 scale, weighting formula or materiality matrix.

Helps you decideGRI Impact Materiality Methodology: How to Score and Prioritise Significant Impacts

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 13 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Materiality and scope

GRI 3-3 Explained: How to Report the Management of Each Material Topic

For each material topic, GRI 3-3 requires a topic-specific explanation of the organisation’s impacts, its involvement in negative impacts, policies or commitments, actions, how effectiveness is tracked, results and lessons, and how stakeholder engagement informed the response. Generic ESG policy language is not enough.

Helps you decideGRI 3-3 Explained: How to Report the Management of Each Material Topic

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 12 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Materiality and scope

GRI 3: Material Topics 2021 — How Disclosures 3-1, 3-2 and 3-3 Work Together

Disclosures 3-1, 3-2 and 3-3 are not three independent narratives. Disclosure 3-1 explains how impacts were identified and prioritised; Disclosure 3-2 reports the resulting material-topic list and changes from the prior period; Disclosure 3-3 explains, for every listed topic, the impacts and how they are managed.

Helps you decideGRI 3: Material Topics 2021 — How Disclosures 3-1, 3-2 and 3-3 Work Together

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 9 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Omissions and claims

GRI 2: General Disclosures 2021 — Complete Guide and Common Reporting Errors

To report in accordance with the GRI Standards, an organisation reports all 30 disclosures in GRI 2. Reasons for omission are not permitted for Disclosures 2-1 to 2-5; they may be used for later disclosures only when the GRI 1 conditions are met and the exact missing disclosure or requirement is identified in the Content Index.

Helps you decideGRI 2: General Disclosures 2021 — Complete Guide and Common Reporting Errors

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 12 min Read the guide →

GRI·Comparison·Materiality and scope

Impact Materiality vs Double Materiality

Impact materiality asks whether an organisation has significant actual or potential impacts on people or the environment. Double materiality adds a separate financial lens: a sustainability matter is material under ESRS when it is material from the impact perspective, the financial perspective, or both.

Helps you decideImpact Materiality vs Double Materiality

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 8 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Data and evidence

How to Prepare a GRI Report

To prepare a GRI report, define the reporting objective and governance, understand the organisation’s context, identify and assess impacts, determine material topics, apply relevant Sector and Topic Standards, collect controlled evidence, draft management approach and topic disclosures, complete the GRI content index, resolve omissions, perform technical QA, obtain approval, publish and notify GRI. The materiality process must drive disclosure selection; the content index should be built throughout the project, not at the end.

Helps you decideHow to Prepare a GRI Report

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 9 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Omissions and claims

What Are the GRI Standards?

The GRI Standards are a modular system for reporting an organisation’s impacts on the economy, environment and people, including human rights. Every organisation starts with the Universal Standards, uses any applicable Sector Standard to understand likely significant impacts, and selects relevant Topic Standard disclosures for its material topics.

Helps you decideWhat Are the GRI Standards?

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 8 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Materiality and scope

GRI Materiality Assessment

A GRI materiality assessment identifies an organisation’s actual and potential, positive and negative impacts on the economy, environment and people, assesses the significance of those impacts and prioritises the most significant impacts for reporting. The output is a defensible list of material topics — not a list of issues that stakeholders simply voted as important and not a financial-risk matrix.

Helps you decideGRI Materiality Assessment

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 9 min Read the guide →

GRI·Comparison·Framework interoperability

GRI vs ESRS vs IFRS S1 and S2

GRI, ESRS and IFRS S1/S2 are not interchangeable. GRI starts with an organisation’s most significant impacts on the economy, environment and people.

Helps you decideGRI vs ESRS vs IFRS S1 and S2

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 9 min Read the guide →

GRI·Comparison·Framework interoperability

GRI In Accordance vs With Reference: requirements, content indexes, statements of use, permitted omissions, GRI notification and reporting claims

“In accordance” is the comprehensive GRI reporting route and requires compliance with all nine requirements in GRI 1. “With reference” is a selective route for reporting specific GRI information and requires a content index, the prescribed with-reference statement and notification to GRI.

Helps you decideWhich reporting route supports the intended claim and what minimum process is required.

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 8 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Omissions and claims

Can You Say 'GRI Compliant' or 'Aligned with GRI'? Claims to Use and Avoid

For a report, the safest and most accurate wording is the reporting status defined by GRI 1: either the organisation has reported in accordance with the GRI Standards, or it has reported selected information with reference to the GRI Standards. 'GRI compliant' is not the prescribed reporting status and can imply a broader conclusion than the evidence supports.

Helps you decideWhat exactly is being claimed: a reporting status, a limited method alignment, a service completion or an authorised partner/certification status?

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 10 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Omissions and claims

GRI Statement of Use Correct Wording Placement and Approval

The GRI statement of use must match the reporting option the organisation has actually earned, identify the reporting organisation, include the start and end dates of the reporting period, and appear in the GRI content index. For reporting in accordance, the statement is available only after all nine GRI 1 requirements have passed.

Helps you decideWhich reporting option is supportable, what organisation and period the statement covers, and whether the exact claim is publication-ready.

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 12 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Omissions and claims

GRI 1 Foundation 2021 Complete Requirements Checklist for Reporting in Accordance

An organisation can state that it has reported in accordance with the GRI Standards only when all nine requirements in GRI 1 have been satisfied. The checklist is cumulative: applying the reporting principles, reporting GRI 2, determining material topics, reporting GRI 3, reporting relevant Topic Standard disclosures, using only permitted reasons for omission, publishing a complete GRI content index, inserting the prescribed statement of use and notifying GRI.

Helps you decideWhether every requirement has passed and the in-accordance statement can be released.

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 12 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Materiality and scope

What to Do When No GRI Topic Standard Covers a Material Topic

For an in-accordance report, the organisation must still report Disclosure 3-3 for every material topic, even where no GRI Topic Standard covers that topic. GRI 1 then recommends reporting additional information drawn from relevant Sector Standard recommendations, recognised external sources or disclosures developed by the organisation.

Helps you decideWhat to Do When No GRI Topic Standard Covers a Material Topic

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 12 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Materiality and scope

How to Select GRI Topic Standards and Relevant Disclosures

Select GRI Topic Standards by starting with the organisation's actual or potential impacts, not with a checklist of standard titles. For each material topic, identify one or more Topic Standards that contain disclosures capable of explaining those impacts, then test every candidate disclosure for relevance.

Helps you decideWhich Topic Standard disclosures are relevant to the organisation's impacts for each material topic.

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 10 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Materiality and scope

How to Exclude a Likely Material Topic from a GRI Sector Standard

A likely material topic in a GRI Sector Standard is not automatically a material topic for every organisation. The organisation must review every topic in each applicable Sector Standard and apply its own impact assessment.

Helps you decideHow to Exclude a Likely Material Topic from a GRI Sector Standard

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 10 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Materiality and scope

GRI Sector Standards for Diversified Groups: When More Than One Standard Applies

A diversified group should not select one GRI Sector Standard solely because it matches the parent company’s headline industry, largest revenue stream or stock-exchange classification. GRI requires an organisation reporting in accordance to use the Sector Standards applicable to its sectors, and official GRI guidance confirms that all applicable Sector Standards should be used where the organisation has substantial activities in more than one covered sector.

Helps you decideGRI Sector Standards for Diversified Groups: When More Than One Standard Applies

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 11 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Materiality and scope

GRI Sector Standards: Applicability, Requirements and Common Mistakes

A GRI Sector Standard applies when the organisation's reporting boundary includes activities within that standard's defined sector scope. If an applicable Sector Standard is available, the organisation must use it when determining material topics and what to report for each material topic.

Helps you decideWhich Sector Standard or Standards apply and how their topic and disclosure lists affect the materiality process and Content Index.

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 11 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Materiality and scope

GRI Materiality Assessment without Reliable Data: Expert Judgement, Assumptions and Uncertainty

A GRI materiality assessment does not have to stop because quantitative data are incomplete. GRI 3 allows significance to be assessed through quantitative and qualitative analysis and recognises that subjective judgement may be necessary.

Helps you decideGRI Materiality Assessment without Reliable Data: Expert Judgement, Assumptions and Uncertainty

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 18 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Materiality and scope

How Often Should a GRI Materiality Assessment Be Updated?

GRI does not prescribe a fixed rule that every organisation must repeat a full materiality assessment every year or every three years. It expects the organisation to identify and assess impacts on an ongoing basis and, in each reporting period, review the material topics from the previous period to account for changes in impacts and context.

Helps you decideHow Often Should a GRI Materiality Assessment Be Updated?

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 17 min Read the guide →

GRI·Comparison·Materiality and scope

Actual vs Potential Impacts under GRI: Definitions, Examples and Assessment Logic

An actual impact is an effect that the organisation has already had on the economy, environment or people, including human rights. A potential impact is an effect that could occur but has not yet occurred.

Helps you decideWhether harm has already occurred or could occur, and how incidents, near misses, controls and exposure evidence affect the assessment.

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 11 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Materiality and scope

Scale, Scope and Irremediable Character: How to Assess Severity under GRI

Under GRI, the severity of an actual or potential negative impact is determined by three characteristics: scale, scope and irremediable character. Scale asks how grave the harm is; scope asks how widespread it is; irremediable character asks how difficult it is to counteract or make good the harm.

Helps you decideHow to distinguish scale, scope and irremediable character, avoid double counting and compare unlike impacts without false precision.

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 11 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Materiality and scope

GRI Materiality Thresholds: How to Set, Approve and Defend the Cut-Off

A defensible GRI materiality threshold is a documented decision rule applied after impacts have been assessed and ranked by significance. GRI leaves the cut-off point to the organisation.

Helps you decideHow to set, challenge, approve and document the threshold without turning professional judgement into an arbitrary score.

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 13 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·New standards and transition

Is GRI Reporting Mandatory? Requirements by Country and Company Type

GRI reporting is not universally mandatory, but it can become mandatory when a law, stock-exchange rule or regulator directly adopts the GRI Standards. Taiwan’s TWSE rules are a clear example for listed companies.

Helps you decideWhether the obligation is a direct GRI mandate, a different mandatory reporting regime, a contractual requirement or a voluntary public claim.

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 9 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Framework interoperability

Using GRI Data for EcoVadis, S&P CSA, CDP and Customer Questionnaires

GRI data can provide a strong foundation for EcoVadis, S&P Global CSA, CDP and customer questionnaires, but a GRI report is not a universal answer bank. The destinations use different assessed entities, periods, boundaries, definitions, evidence rules, materiality lenses, formats and scoring logic.

Helps you decideUsing GRI Data for EcoVadis, S&P CSA, CDP and Customer Questionnaires

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 16 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Framework interoperability

GRI and TNFD: How Impact Reporting Connects with Nature-Related Risk Disclosure

GRI and TNFD can be supported by a substantially shared nature evidence base, especially for activities, value-chain exposure, locations, direct drivers of biodiversity loss, ecosystem condition, ecosystem services, policies, actions and targets. They do not, however, answer the same reporting question.

Helps you decideGRI and TNFD: How Impact Reporting Connects with Nature-Related Risk Disclosure

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 16 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Framework interoperability

One GHG Inventory for GRI 102, ESRS E1 and IFRS S2: Boundaries, Metrics and Remaining Gaps

Build one controlled GHG data core with three output adapters. Centralise entity master data, activity data, factors, calculations, controls and evidence.

Helps you decidewhich GHG figures can be published unchanged across GRI 102, ESRS E1 and IFRS S2, and where a separate boundary or Scope 2 view is unavoidable

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 29 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Materiality and scope

GRI and ESRS Materiality Mapping Process Reuse and Gaps

A well-designed GRI impact assessment can provide a strong foundation for the ESRS impact-materiality dimension: the activity and value-chain map, impact inventory, actual-versus-potential classification, severity analysis, likelihood for potential impacts, affected-stakeholder evidence, expert input and decision trail can often be reused. The GRI conclusions themselves do not automatically transfer.

Helps you decideGRI and ESRS Materiality Mapping Process Reuse and Gaps

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 19 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Framework interoperability

GRI and ESRS Interoperability: Can One Dataset Support Both Reports?

Yes. A well-governed sustainability data foundation can support both GRI and ESRS reporting, especially where the same operational facts, calculations and evidence are relevant to impact reporting. But one undifferentiated dataset does not by itself satisfy both frameworks.

Helps you decideWhich data and evidence can be reused directly, which need transformation, and which remain framework-specific.

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 11 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Data and evidence

How to Prepare a GRI Report without a Dedicated ESG Team

An organisation does not need a dedicated ESG department to prepare a credible GRI report. It does need clear accountability, cross-functional data ownership, access to technical judgement, independent review and governance approval.

Helps you decideHow to Prepare a GRI Report without a Dedicated ESG Team

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 17 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Data and evidence

First GRI Report in 90 Days: What Is Realistic and What Must Wait

A credible first GRI output can be prepared in 90 days when scope is stable, source evidence is accessible, data owners respond and governance decisions are scheduled. The project can establish an impact inventory, approve material topics, prepare disclosures and a Content Index, and document gaps.

Helps you decideFirst GRI Report in 90 Days: What Is Realistic and What Must Wait

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 13 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Data and evidence

Using AI for GRI Reporting: What Can Be Automated and What Requires Human Judgement

AI can accelerate repeatable and reviewable tasks in GRI reporting: extracting candidate requirements from an approved source pack, proposing mappings, drafting data requests, comparing periods, checking consistency and assembling a first-pass Content Index. It should not make final decisions on impact identification, significance, material topics, stakeholder interpretation, reporting boundaries, legal prohibitions, confidentiality, evidence validity, assurance conclusions or the organisation's statement of use.

Helps you decidewhich GRI reporting tasks AI may draft or check, which stay with a named human, and what audit trail an AI-assisted step has to leave

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 10 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Omissions and claims

GRI Confidentiality Constraints and Legal Prohibitions: When an Omission Is Defensible

A legal-prohibition or confidentiality omission is defensible only when it applies to a specific GRI disclosure or requirement, the restriction is described specifically, and the organisation has tested whether the requirement can still be met through aggregation, anonymisation, ranges, time lag or a narrower non-identifying explanation. Under GRI 1, “legal prohibitions” applies when law forbids collecting the information or reporting it publicly.

Helps you decidewhether a confidentiality or legal-prohibition omission holds at requirement level, or whether aggregation, ranges or a time lag lets you report after all

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 9 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Omissions and claims

GRI Content Index Cross-References: How Precise Must Page and Web Links Be?

The GRI content index should take the reader to the reported information, not merely to the document that might contain it. GRI 1 requires specific page numbers or links for each reported disclosure, and all page numbers or links when the information is spread across several locations.

Helps you decideCan a reasonable reader reach every part of the reported disclosure directly and without guessing?

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 8 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Omissions and claims

GRI reasons for omission: not applicable, unavailable and confidential

GRI permits only four reasons for omission: not applicable, legal prohibitions, confidentiality constraints, and information unavailable or incomplete. The Content Index must identify the exact disclosure or requirement that cannot be met, select one permitted reason and give the explanation prescribed for it.

Helps you decideWhich of the four permitted reasons for omission applies, and what has to be published with it

Reviewed 31 Jul 2026 10 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Data and evidence

Board Responsibilities for GRI Reporting: Material Topics, Oversight and Final Approval

Under GRI 2, the organisation reports the highest governance body's role in overseeing the management of impacts, how responsibilities are delegated and whether that body reviews and approves the reported information, including material topics. GRI 3 guidance says the highest governance body should review and approve the list of material topics; where no such body exists, senior executives should do so.

Helps you decidewhat the highest governance body has to approve itself, what it can delegate, and what evidences the release decision afterwards

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 8 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Reporting boundaries

GRI Reporting for Groups

A parent company can publish one consolidated GRI report, but it must make the reporting boundary and consolidation method visible. GRI 2-2 requires the organisation to list the entities included, explain differences from financial reporting and describe how information is consolidated, including minority interests, mergers, acquisitions, disposals and differences across disclosures or material topics.

Helps you decideWhich entities and impacts are included, how each disclosure is consolidated, and when group narrative must be supplemented by entity or site detail.

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 19 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Reporting boundaries

GRI Reporting Boundary Explained: Subsidiaries, Joint Ventures and Value-Chain Impacts

GRI reporting involves two related but different scope decisions. First, the organisation identifies the entities whose sustainability information is consolidated and disclosed under GRI 2-2.

Helps you decideWhich entities supply consolidated sustainability information, and which activities or relationships must be assessed for impacts.

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 12 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Data and evidence

GRI Evidence Pack: source documents, calculations, methodologies, data-owner confirmations, review controls, approvals, access and retention

A GRI evidence pack should allow an informed reviewer to trace every material public claim from the published wording or metric back to its original source, methodology, calculation, data-owner confirmation, review control and approval. GRI does not prescribe one software platform, folder structure or universal retention period.

Helps you decideWhat evidence must be retained, how it is classified and linked, who reviews it, and when it can be deleted or archived.

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 14 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Data and evidence

GRI Source Register and Data Request

A practical GRI source register is a controlled row-level link between a disclosure requirement and the evidence used to report it. Each row should identify the exact requirement, owner, reporting boundary, source system, period, unit, methodology, evidence, reviewer, issue status and final publication location.

Helps you decideHow to structure one register that supports data collection, drafting, review, Content Index assembly, assurance and repeat reporting.

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 17 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Data and evidence

Estimates in GRI Reporting

Estimates are acceptable in GRI reporting when they are the best usable information available, are sufficiently accurate for the disclosure's purpose, and do not create false precision or conceal a material gap. The organisation should identify estimated data, explain the method, assumptions and limitations, retain evidence and review controls, and restate comparatives where a changed method materially affects previously reported information.

Helps you decideWhether to use a defensible estimate, improve the method before publication, or apply an allowed reason for omission.

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 18 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Omissions and claims

Greenwashing Risks in GRI Reports: Claims, Omissions and Evidence Gaps

A GRI report can be technically structured yet still create greenwashing risk if its overall presentation is selective, unsupported or inconsistent. The main controls come from GRI's reporting principles: accuracy, balance, clarity, comparability, completeness and verifiability.

Helps you decidewhich claims in a draft report carry greenwashing risk, and which of them to drop, evidence or reword before publication

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 8 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Data and evidence

GRI Reporting Principles Explained: Accuracy, Balance, Completeness and Verifiability

GRI requires organisations reporting in accordance with the Standards to apply eight reporting principles: Accuracy, Balance, Clarity, Comparability, Completeness, Sustainability context, Timeliness and Verifiability. The principles should operate as a control framework across data collection, drafting, review and approval.

Helps you decideHow to turn the eight GRI reporting principles into drafting rules, evidence expectations and review controls.

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 13 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Omissions and claims

GRI 103 Renewable Energy Claims

GRI 103 requires organisations to distinguish renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and to explain whether contractual instruments are used for purchased electricity, heating, cooling or steam. A certificate, PPA or supplier product can support a renewable-attribute claim only when the quantity, ownership, retirement or cancellation, period and market are evidenced and the instrument meets the applicable quality criteria.

Helps you decideWhich renewable-energy claim is supported by the evidence, how to account for contractual instruments and what residual information must remain visible.

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 18 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Data and evidence

GRI 103 Energy Consumption and Reporting Boundaries: A Practical Data Guide

Build GRI 103 reporting from a controlled energy ledger, not an emissions spreadsheet. Record fuel, purchased energy, self-generation, energy sold and significant value-chain energy by site, source, activity, period and unit.

Helps you decideGRI 103 Energy Consumption and Reporting Boundaries: A Practical Data Guide

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 14 min Read the guide →

GRI·Comparison·New standards and transition

GRI 103: Energy 2025 — what changes from GRI 302

GRI 103: Energy 2025 replaces GRI 302: Energy 2016 for energy reporting published on or after 1 January 2027, and early adoption is encouraged. The change is substantive rather than a renumbering.

Helps you decideWhen to transition, and what to change in the current energy data model

Reviewed 31 Jul 2026 9 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·Materiality and scope

Human Rights Impacts under GRI: Why Severity Can Override Likelihood

GRI states that, for potential negative human-rights impacts, severity takes precedence over likelihood. This protects impacts such as loss of life, forced labour, severe discrimination, violence or irreversible loss of land from being pushed below a materiality cut-off simply because they appear infrequent.

Helps you decideHow to prevent a severe low-probability human-rights impact from disappearing inside an ordinary likelihood-weighted scoring model.

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 12 min Read the guide →

GRI·Comparison·Reporting boundaries

GRI Due Diligence and Business Relationships: Cause, Contribute and Directly Linked

The three concepts describe how an organisation is involved with a negative impact, not how close the business relationship is. It causes an impact when its own activities alone result in the harm.

Helps you decideWhat did the organisation itself do or fail to do, how did that affect the other entity's conduct, and what relationship connects the impact to the organisation?

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 10 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·New standards and transition

GRI 102 Transition Plans and Just Transition: What Companies Need to Disclose

A GRI 102 transition-plan disclosure connects climate impacts with policies, actions, scientific alignment, targets, expenditure, governance, strategy and progress. It also addresses consequences for workers, non-employee workers, communities, Indigenous Peoples and biodiversity.

Helps you decideGRI 102 Transition Plans and Just Transition: What Companies Need to Disclose

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 13 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Data and evidence

GRI 102: Climate Change 2025 - What Changes and How to Prepare for 2027

GRI 102: Climate Change 2025 is effective for reports or other materials published on or after 1 January 2027, with earlier adoption encouraged. It withdraws GRI 201-2 and GRI 305-1 to 305-5 for climate reporting and introduces ten disclosures covering mitigation and adaptation plans, just transition, targets and progress, gross Scope 1-3 emissions, intensity, removals and carbon credits.

Helps you decideWhich legacy climate disclosures change, what data and governance are newly needed, and how to prepare the 2026-2027 transition.

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 9 min Read the guide →

GRI·Decision guide·New standards and transition

GRI 101 Mitigation Hierarchy

GRI 101 expects organisations to apply the biodiversity mitigation hierarchy in sequence: first avoid negative impacts, then minimise impacts that cannot be avoided, then restore or rehabilitate affected ecosystems, and only after those steps consider offsets for residual negative impacts. Restoration and rehabilitation occur in the area affected by the organisation’s activities; offsets are interventions in areas not affected by those activities.

Helps you decideWhich action belongs to which stage of the hierarchy, what residual impact remains and what evidence supports any restoration or offset claim.

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 17 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Data and evidence

GRI 101 Biodiversity Site and Supply-Chain Data: How to Prepare Location-Specific Evidence

Build a complete inventory of sites, material products and sourcing relationships, then identify the locations linked to the most significant biodiversity impacts. Use site-level data for own operations and the best available geographic precision for the supply chain.

Helps you decideGRI 101 Biodiversity Site and Supply-Chain Data: How to Prepare Location-Specific Evidence

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 16 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·New standards and transition

GRI 101: Biodiversity 2024 - Complete Guide for 2026 Reporting

GRI 101: Biodiversity 2024 is effective for reports or other materials published on or after 1 January 2026 and replaces GRI 304. Its eight disclosures form a connected system: policies, impact management and access-and-benefit-sharing are linked to the method for selecting priority sites and supply-chain products or services, location data, direct drivers, changes in ecosystem condition and affected ecosystem services and beneficiaries.

Helps you decideHow to replace the old site-list approach with a location-specific, value-chain and evidence-led reporting system.

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 10 min Read the guide →

GRI·Comparison·Data and evidence

Positive vs Negative Impacts in GRI Reporting: What Counts and How to Evidence It

Under GRI, an impact is an effect the organisation has or could have on the economy, environment or people through its activities or business relationships. A genuine positive impact therefore requires evidence of a beneficial effect or credible contribution to sustainable development - not merely expenditure, participation, a policy, a product launch or an output count.

Helps you decideIs the statement about an activity, output, outcome or effect on the economy, environment or people?

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 10 min Read the guide →

GRI·Explainer·Assurance and controls

GRI 2-5 External Assurance Explained: assurance policy, scope, level, provider independence, limitations and disclosure checklist

GRI 2-5 does not require an organisation to obtain external assurance. It requires the organisation to describe its policy and practice for seeking assurance, including whether and how the highest governance body and senior executives are involved.

Helps you decideGRI 2-5 External Assurance Explained: assurance policy, scope, level, provider independence, limitations and disclosure checklist

Reviewed 11 Aug 2026 11 min Read the guide →

GRI·Comparison·Assurance and controls

Limited Assurance on Selected GRI Indicators vs Assurance of the Whole Report

Limited assurance on selected GRI indicators is assurance only on the information expressly identified in the practitioner's report. It does not become assurance of the whole GRI report, the materiality process, the Content Index or the organisation's in-accordance claim unless those items are explicitly within scope and covered by the signed conclusion.

Helps you decidewhat an assurance engagement covers and how to word the publication sentence, so a conclusion on selected indicators is never read as assurance of the whole report

Reviewed 10 Aug 2026 10 min Read the guide →

GRI·Expert note·Omissions and claims

Partial GRI disclosures: reporting missing requirements without misleading readers

Report the information that is available, but do not present a disclosure as complete when a required item or required scope is missing. For reporting in accordance, identify the exact disclosure requirement that cannot be met, confirm that a reason for omission is permitted, and record the permitted reason and the required explanation in the Content Index. Additional voluntary information, an alternative KPI or a reference to a Topic Standard does not cure a missing requirement. If the missing item is one for which omissions are not permitted, an omission cannot support an in-accordance claim — the disclosure has to be corrected, or the reporting status reconsidered.

Reviewed 1 Aug 2026 Read the guide →