Global Reporting Initiative revamps biodiversity reporting standard

In an effort to enhance corporate reporting and improve investor decision-making, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) issued beefed up standards for reporting the impacts of corporate activity on biodiversity.

The standards setting organization published a major update to its recommendations, which aim to facilitate companies reporting on the material impacts on biodiversity throughout their own operations and their supply chains.

The GRI said the revised standard is designed to help companies meet a growing demand from investors, customers, policymakers and others for comprehensive reporting on these impacts.

Among other things, the new standard includes location-specific reporting, requirements for reporting impacts on society (such as Indigenous communities) and new disclosures on the causes of biodiversity loss (such as climate change, land use, pollution and resource depletion).

The revised standard also seeks transparency throughout supply chains, which the GRI said is “often where the most significant impacts on biodiversity can go under reported.”

“The impacts of biodiversity loss stem well beyond the natural environment, undermining progress of the [sustainable development goals] and having devastating consequences for people, while it is also a multiplying factor in the climate crisis,” said Carol Adams, chair of the GRI Global Sustainability Standards Board, in a release.

“Understanding the impacts that organizations have is therefore a crucial aspect of implementing global solutions to halt and even reverse the damage and address existential threats,” she said.

The updated standard is intended to take effect Jan. 1, 2026. In the meantime, the GRI said it will pilot its use with early adopters.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.