The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and IFRS Foundation will be working together to optimize how GRI and International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) standards can be used together.
The two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2022 to provide a seamless, global and comprehensive sustainability reporting system for companies looking to meet the information needs of both investors and a broader range of stakeholders.
The recent collaboration builds up on the MoU and is aimed to optimise how GRI and ISSB Standards can be used together to facilitate reporting on an organisation’s impacts, risks and opportunities.
“In March 2022, the IFRS Foundation Trustees signed a Memorandum of Understanding with GRI in recognition of the importance of ensuring compatibility and interconnectedness between our respective standards to benefit report preparers and users around the world. The IFRS Foundation Trustees believe today’s agreement solidifies and advances that MoU so that together we can reduce duplication, fragmentation and complexity in the sustainability disclosure landscape,” said Erkki Liikanen, Chair of the IFRS Foundation Trustees.
The ISSB and the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) have committed to jointly identify and align common disclosures that address information needs under the distinct scopes and purposes of their respective standards, for both thematic and sector-based standard-setting.
An initial outcome of the collaboration will involve a methodology pilot building on the recently published GRI 101 Biodiversity Standard and the ISSB’s upcoming project on Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services.
The ISSB and the GSSB will continue to make decisions separately in accordance with their established standard-setting due processes, including public consultation in respect of any proposed amendments to their respective standards regarding the alignment of common disclosures.
