Management of material topics

Disclosure 3-3 requires an organization to explain how it manages each material topic reported under Disclosure 3-2. The requirements apply separately to every material topic. Where the same policy, process or action applies to several topics, the organization can report the information once and provide clear references identifying all topics covered.

For each material topic, the organization must describe its actual and potential, negative and positive impacts on the economy, environment and people, including impacts on their human rights. A high-level overview is sufficient; an exhaustive list of every impact is not required.

The organization should distinguish actual from potential impacts and negative from positive impacts. It can also describe whether impacts are short- or long-term, whether negative impacts are systemic or incident-specific, and which economic resources, environmental resources, stakeholder categories and geographic locations are affected.

For negative impacts, the organization must report whether it is involved through its activities or as a result of its business relationships and describe those activities or relationships. Where possible, it should distinguish whether it causes or contributes to the impact through its activities or whether the impact is directly linked to its operations, products or services through a business relationship.

Where impacts relate to specific activities, the organization should identify the type and geographic location of those activities. Where they relate to business relationships, it should identify the relationship type, position in the value chain and geographic location.

The organization must describe topic-specific policies and commitments. It can cross-reference policy information already reported under GRI 2-23. Commitments should explain the organization’s intent and stance, whether they are based only on legal compliance or extend beyond compliance, and any relevant authoritative intergovernmental instruments.

The organization must describe actions to prevent or mitigate potential negative impacts, actions to address actual negative impacts — including provision of or cooperation in remediation — and actions to manage actual and potential positive impacts.

The action description should explain how impact findings are integrated into relevant functions and processes, which level and function are responsible, and how decision-making, budget allocation and oversight support the actions. It should also address actual impacts identified in previous reporting periods that continue to be managed.

For potential negative impacts, the organization can describe incident-specific and systemic preventive measures, its application of the precautionary principle, public information, scientific research, collaborative prevention efforts and the use or increase of leverage over business relationships. Where a relationship has been terminated because leverage was insufficient, the organization should explain whether it assessed potential negative impacts resulting from the termination itself.

For actual negative impacts, the organization should provide examples of specific remedies or types of remedy and explain how grievance mechanisms or other remediation processes reported under GRI 2-25 enabled remediation. Corrective action, investigation or disciplinary action should not be presented automatically as remedy unless the harm to affected stakeholders or resources was addressed.

For positive impacts, the organization should identify the beneficial change to the economy, environment or people rather than reporting only programmes, spending or outputs.

The organization must describe how it tracks the effectiveness of actions. Tracking methods can include audits, verification, impact assessments, measurement systems, stakeholder feedback, grievance mechanisms, ratings and benchmarking. The organization should demonstrate a credible link between specific actions and the effective management of impacts.

Goals and targets should explain how they were set, how they reflect sustainability context, whether they are informed by authoritative intergovernmental instruments or scientific consensus, whether they are mandatory or voluntary, which activities or business relationships they cover, the baseline and the timeline.

When reporting progress, the organization should state whether progress is satisfactory. Where a goal or target was not achieved, it should explain why. It should also provide examples of lessons learned and show how these lessons were incorporated into operational policies and procedures.

The organization must describe how stakeholder engagement informed the actions taken and the assessment of effectiveness. This can include affected stakeholders’ participation in determining appropriate remedy and the use of stakeholder feedback to assess whether actions have improved outcomes.

If a policy, action, target, tracking process or stakeholder-engagement process does not exist, the organization should report this fact directly. If the organization does not manage a material topic, it should explain why or describe plans to manage it.

Reasons for omission are permitted for GRI 3-3 where required information cannot be reported. They are not permitted for GRI 3-1 or GRI 3-2. The affected requirement, applicable reason and required explanation must be stated in the GRI content index.

This LRA educational guidance supports disclosure preparation. For the exact requirements, always refer to the official Global Reporting Initiative source.

A quick mental checklist before you prepare this disclosure — tick each as you settle it.

Key information to prepare

Request the disclosure evidence

Translate the disclosure into an internal business question — then adapt it to your organisation's own language.

Use the organisation's own role and document names, but preserve the defined GRI terms and the scope described above.

Notes that turn data into a disclosure

LRA training templates — adapt them to your organisation, and check the official source before sign-off.

For each claim, check the evidence

Relevant GRI requirements and related disclosures

Available framework references and nearby disclosures relevant to preparing this requirement.