Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

What is it?

The GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) is an independent, international organization that helps businesses and other organizations take responsibility for their impacts, by providing them with a global common language to communicate those impacts. 

The GRI work with businesses, investors, policymakers, civil society, labor organizations, and other experts to develop the GRI Standards – which are used by more than 10,000 organizations in over 100 countries- and promote their use by organizations around the world. 

The GRI Standards help organizations understand their impacts on the economy, environment, and society – including those on human rights. This increases accountability and enhances transparency on their contribution to sustainable development.​​

Organizations can use the GRI Standards to prepare a sustainability report following the Standards or use selected Standards (or parts of their content) to disclose information for specific users or purposes, for example, climate change impacts for investors and consumers. ​​

Sector Standard GRI 13: Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fishing apply to any organizations undertaking the following:

• Crop production
• Animal production
• Aquaculture
• Fishing

This Standard can be used by any organization in the agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing sectors, regardless of size, type, geographic location, or reporting experience.

The process

The Standards are modular and comprise three Standards that should be used together: 1) Universal Standards, 2) Sector Standards, and 3) Topic Standards.

For example, an agriculture,  aquaculture, or fishing organization (including those providing feed ingredients) reporting per the GRI Standards will use the following three series in their reporting.

1. The Universal Standards 2021 apply to all organizations and comprise three Standards: GRI 1: Foundation 2021, GRI 2: General Disclosures 2021, and GRI 3: Material Topics 2021. The Universal  Standards guide reporters on how to report with the GRI Standards and contain disclosure requirements and reporting principles that all organizations must comply with to report under the GRI Standards. 
2. GRI 13: Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fishing Sectors 2022 outlines the topics likely to be material for organizations in these sectors and lists disclosures to report. The disclosures come from the GRI Topic Standards and may be supplemented with sector reporting from other sources.
3. When a disclosure from a Topic Standard is listed, the organization needs to consult the relevant  Topic Standard for the content of the disclosure, including requirements, recommendations, and guidance. 

If the organization does not report listed disclosures from Topic Standards, it is required to explain why the disclosures are not relevant to its impacts concerning the material topic.

The GRI also provides advice and support with reporting including how the GRI standard criteria link with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).