Joint research from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) explores the experiences of companies that use the two sets of standards together to fulfil their reporting needs.
A Practical Guide to Sustainability Reporting Using GRI and SASB Standards
is based on extensive interviews with four global companies: UK-based
Diageo, City Developments Limited (CDL) of Singapore, US-headquartered
General Motors (GM), and Canada’s Suncor Energy. All four are long-term
GRI reporters that now also report with SASB. Their insights are
supplemented by survey findings with 132 business representatives around
the word.
The publication overviews the similarities and distinctions between
the standards – covering materiality, the type and scope of disclosures,
audiences and the standard setting process – and indicates how they can
be used together to meet the needs of a broad range of users.
Key themes from the research include:
- Each set of standards complements rather than substitutes the other,
with GRI supporting broad and comprehensive disclosures on
organizational impacts and SASB focusing on a subset of financially
material issues
- Using the GRI and SASB Standards together can offer a holistic
picture of corporate performance, bringing sustainability and financial
information more closely together
- Reporting with GRI and SASB can meet the needs of a broad range of
stakeholders, with expanded disclosure to increase user engagement
- Taken together, GRI and SASB Standards offer a company a practical
approach to reflect on and disclose their material issues and impacts
Eric Hespenheide, GRI Chairman, said:
“GRI is wholly committed to helping the
thousands of organizations around the world that use the GRI Standards
to do so in a way that delivers transparency, helps them progress on
their sustainability journey, and reduces unnecessary reporting burden.
Therefore, I welcome the findings of this research, showing that GRI and
SASB reporting are complementary.
By sharing practical experiences, we are
enabling companies to determine the sustainability reporting path that
is right for them, based on the needs of their stakeholders. I believe
it will improve understanding of the differences between GRI and SASB
Standards and, importantly, ways in which they can be used
concurrently.”
Janine Guillot, CEO of SASB, said:
“This joint research demonstrates how
companies successfully use the GRI and SASB Standards to provide the
depth and breadth of disclosure that their many stakeholders, including
investors, require. The GRI and SASB Standards have unique and
complementary roles within a global and comprehensive corporate
reporting system. Our progress towards this system is abetted by
developing a common language and practical insights, as offered by this
joint paper.”
Insights provided by interviewees from the four companies include:
It's valuable to use both GRI and SASB and it doesn't need to be
difficult… These frameworks are a really good acid test for you as a
business, to make sure that you are tackling issues which you should be
thinking about.”
Harriet Howey, Global Non-Financial Reporting and ESG Lead, Diageo
I look at SASB as if it's a subset of information that's already
within GRI. I also don't buy any company’s argument that it's too
onerous… GRI drives the discussion and the narrative about how a company
is managing the material issues to all stakeholders, where SASB is more
focused purely on financial materiality.”
Sharon Basel, Senior Manager, Sustainability Reporting and ESG Strategy, GM
GRI is larger scope, more global, not as sector specific; and
then with SASB, you're able to dive deeper on sector-specific
information with a financial lens… Each has benefits around helping you
boost sustainability performance and around improving communications.”
Hilary Schumacher, Sustainability Reporting Advisor, Suncor Energy
We created a blended reporting framework that combines GRI, IIRC,
SDG and SASB standards. In an ever-changing business landscape,
companies need to remain limber and anticipate the changing expectations
of their stakeholders.”
Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, CDL
The practical guide was produced with support from the ClimateWorks Foundation, PwC, and the Impact Management Project.
The publication is the result of a joint GRI-SASB project
that was announced in July 2020. The aim is to provide materials to
help companies and the consumers of sustainability data understand the
similarities and differences in the reporting created from the GRI and
SASB Standards.
The source material for this resource is from a combination of
interviews with reporters using both sets of standards; report examples
from interviewed companies’ reports; and the results of a survey of
users of GRI and/or SASB Standards. Of 132 responses, 52 were from those
that use both sets of standards.
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© GRI - Global Reporting Initiative
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