Companies may use the GRI standards to prepare a sustainability report, or they may use selected standards to report specific information. There are two options for providing a sustainability report under the standards: core and comprehensive.
Core — Contains the minimum information necessary to understand the organisation, its material impacts and how they are managed
Comprehensive — Requires additional disclosures on strategy, ethics and integrity, and governance, along with more extensive reporting on impacts
Section 3 of GRI 101 outlines the requirements for making claims related to using the GRI standards and requirements related to reasons for the omission of any disclosures. Section 3 also specifies that reporting organisations notify GRI of the use of their standards and the claims made concerning that use.
GRI 101 also includes 10 Reporting Principles for defining an organisation’s reporting content and quality. Principles 1 to 4 relate to content, and principles 6 to 10 focus on quality. These principles help an organisation understand what to include in a report and realise the expectations of its stakeholders.
Stakeholder inclusiveness 1.1. Stakeholders are identified and reporting responds to their expectations and interests.
Sustainability context 1.2. Performance is reported in the wider context of sustainability.
Materiality 1.3. Reporting covers an organisation’s significant economic, environmental, and social impacts.
Completeness 1.4. Reporting includes material topics to enable stakeholders to assess performance.
Accuracy 1.5. Accurate and detailed information enables stakeholders to assess performance.
Balance 1.6. Reporting reflects positive and negative aspects of performance.
Clarity 1.7. Reporting is understandable and accessible to stakeholders.
Comparability 1.8. Consistent reporting over time
Reliability 1.9. Reporting includes the processes used in the preparation so it can be subject to examination.
Timeliness 1.10. Regular, scheduled reporting2