Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

The Global Reporting Initiative is a non-profit foundation and pursues a multi-stakeholder approach in its work. It was founded in 1997 by CERES (Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in the USA. In 2002, the GRI relocated its headquarters to Amsterdam and now operates regional offices in Africa, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Latin America, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the USA/Canada. The GRI is also active in its global network of 30,000 people.

The goal of the GRI is to support sustainability reporting by all organizations. To this end, the GRI has developed the GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, which have established themselves internationally as valuable guidance for sustainability reporting. They provide reporting principles, standard disclosures, and implementation guidance for preparing sustainability reports for all organizations, regardless of size, industry, or location. The current GRI Standards (Global Reporting Initiative) are a modular, flexible, and user-friendly system.

Application of GRI Standards also recommended by Austrian legislation

At the European level, the Directive on the "Disclosure of Non-Financial and Diversity Information by Certain Large Undertakings and Groups" (EU Directive 2014/95/EU, or NFI Directive for short) has required more than 6,000 European and approximately 120 Austrian companies to report on their sustainability performance since 2017. In the explanatory notes to the Sustainability and Diversity Improvement Act (NaDiVeG) – the national implementation of the NFI Directive – the Austrian legislator stated that the new statutory disclosure requirements are adequately addressed when applying the comprehensive GRI Standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (in accordance with the materiality assessment contained therein).

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Sustainability and Diversity Improvement Act (RIS) (in German only)