GRI issues Biodiversity Standard update and consultation

December 9th, 2022

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has published its latest Biodiversity Standard, targeting companies to disclose their most pressing biodiversity impacts to boost the clarity of data.

The GRI has launched a consultation on the “major update” to the standard to coincide with the UN Convention on Biodiversity (COP15), in Montreal.

New proposals include measures to reflect reporting throughout the supply chain, given many biodiversity impacts are found beyond the scope of a company’s operations.

New support will be provided to organisations to prioritise attention on their most significant impacts, recognising the challenge of scale in addressing biodiversity impacts, while new areas of disclosure are set to be introduced to better understand the drivers of biodiversity loss, including climate change, pollution, and overexploitation of resources.

Requirements for biodiversity-related human rights impacts are also set to be established, while location-specific data is set to be amplified by the GRI to ensure businesses are transparent about the sites where their biodiversity impacts take place.

Judy Kuszewski, chair of the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), the organisation responsible for setting the GRI Standards, said: “It is abundantly clear that biodiversity is under siege, with human activity the leading cause. The effects of biodiversity loss are directly undermining the sustainable development agenda and, if it continues unabated, will have disastrous consequences – on the environment, the economy and people.

“The revision process has seen an unprecedented level of collaboration with leading experts, so that the final Standard can provide the internationally accepted best practice for transparency on biodiversity impacts,” she added.

The drafting and revision process involved engagement with other biodiversity frameworks and initiatives, to align the GRI Standard with new developments in the field.

IPBES, CDP, the Align project, Partnership for Biodiversity Accounting Financials, and the Accountability Framework were all represented on the technical committee that led the review, while the draft was shaped by input from the Science Based Target Network (SBTN), Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), and WBA Nature Benchmark.

The exposure draft is open for public comment until 28 February 2023.