With comprehensive disclosure requirements now applying to tens of thousands of companies under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), what does it mean for the many organizations that already report their impacts using the GRI Standards? As an in-depth new publication from GRI explores, a high degree of interoperability has been achieved between the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the widely used GRI Standards. The GRI and Sustainability Reporting in the EU Q&A sets out:

• GRI collaboration with EFRAG will lead to 42,500 companies publishing impact reporting through the ESRS that is aligned with the GRI Standards.
• Multiple resources – including an interoperability index and full mapping table, training courses and report services – have been provided to help GRI reporters meet CSRD rules.
• A renewed GRI-EFRAG MoU is delivering a next phase of deeper cooperation on standard setting, plus a commitment to further capacity building.
• GRI’s global relevance is enhanced by joint-working with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), to complement jurisdictional reporting requirements.
• How the GRI Standards, ESRS and IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards fit together, including the different approaches to materiality.

Peter Paul van de Wijs, GRI Chief Policy Officer, said: “The sustainability reporting landscape is fast evolving, and understandably there are questions from reporters and other stakeholders about GRI’s central role. As this publication underlines, four years of cooperation with EFRAG to co-construct the ESRS has meant that our standards are complementary and very closely aligned for impact reporting, including on definitions, metrics and disclosures. Most large companies, in the EU and elsewhere, already report with GRI. It is hugely reassuring that they can apply their existing disclosure practices to meet ESRS requirements. Our ongoing collaboration with EFRAG future proofs the relevance of the GRI Standards in the EU, while our broader engagements with the IFRS Foundation and other jurisdictions is reinforcing on a global scale the many benefits of impact reporting with GRI.”

Launched this month is a new GRI-ESRS Linkage Service that offers feedback to reporting organizations on how to align a GRI sustainability report with the ESRS. A new series of GRI Academy training courses specifically focused on the ESRS will become available this year. A Top 10 summary version of the GRI-ESRS Q&A is also available.