GRI Sets Sights on Streamlined Reporting

Incoming CEO stresses importance of collaboration, outlines plans to leverage technology to address global sustainability challenges.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) will embark on a new strategy in 2025 to streamline sustainability reporting and help maximise the value of disclosures using its standards driven by stakeholder demand.

The strategy will be led by Robin Hodess, who joins as CEO next month from The B Team, an organisation that supports business leaders on sustainability integration, where she was Chief of Strategy and Impact.

The GRI, an independent standard setter that develops sustainability reporting standards for multiple stakeholders, said one of its reasons for appointing Hodess was her “deep experience” in galvanising collaborative action to address global challenges.

The GRI’s plan to streaming reporting will include collaborating with partners, such as other standard setters and frameworks, to create what the GRI called as a “clear path to credible, meaningful reporting”. Stakeholders have previously urged the GRI to standardise reporting.

The organisation announced several collaborations last year, reflecting the need for standards bodies to ensure clear guidance at a time when both voluntary and mandatory sustainability reporting is increasing.

These include environmental disclosure platform CDP, with whom the GRI signed a memorandum of understanding at Azerbaijan’s COP29 in November, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures.

“We’re out of the ‘beginner’ phase of sustainability reporting,” Hodess told ESG Investor. “We now need to simplify how we work together and make sure that reporters have a coherent way forward. There are a lot of partners and players in the sustainability space, so it’s important that we coordinate and collaborate now. There’s no question that the way forward is together.”

The streamlining effort will see a particular focus on digital technology, with Hodess saying the GRI wants to maximise the potential impacts of emerging tools and technology.

This is part of a renewed GRI focus on unlocking the value of reporting, both for those who report using the initiative’s standards and consumers of reports, including through public policy and incentives that drive practice forward.

“The key is adding value and making sure that what GRI is working on with reporters really helps them unlock the value of reporting and simplify reporting,” said Hodess. “Through partnerships, interoperability and going digital, we must ensure we’re being as smart as possible with the new tools needed to write this next chapter.”

The strategy is set to be translated to a formal action plan this year under the leadership of Hodess once she takes the position next month. In June 2024, previous CEO Eelco van der Enden announced he would step down at the end of the year.

Growing global importance

The GRI’s 2024 ‘Carrots & Sticks’ report found continued growth in ESG and disclosure policies which totalled 2,677 across all jurisdictions, a 9% increase from 2023. It also found that the GRI is referenced in 18% of ESG regulations globally.

GRI standards are used in more than 100 countries, and Hodess underlined the increasing “globality” of sustainability. She noted that investors are keen to ensure sustainable practices are being adopted and followed in emerging markets and developing economies.

“Sustainability is a global issue, and we need to think globally when we look at GRI, maintaining a global perspective on company actions,” said Hodess. She added that a key facet of her role would be to “connect the dots” between demands being made by investors and civil society of companies on sustainability issues, and the requirements being placed on them by government policies.

“Governments have made huge commitments to a sustainable future through the sustainable development goals, and it’s vital they are setting the right rules to make sure that we can all achieve that sustainable economy that we need,” said Hodess. “It’s about that interplay, that connectivity.”

More than 14,000 organisations use the GRI standards. This includes three-quarters of the world’s top 250 companies, according to research from KPMG released in November.

In 2023, the GRI and EFRAG released a joint statement highlighting a “high level of interoperability” between the European Sustainability Reporting Standards – developed by EFRAG – and the GRI Standards. The ESRSs underpin the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which aims to enhance the transparency of corporate sustainability practices.

The GRI is due to launch its Climate and Just Transition and Energy standards in Q2 2025, as well as hold multi-stakeholder consultations for its upcoming labour, textiles and financial services standards. It published a Biodiversity Standard last January.

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