The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is an independent private body that operates under the surveillance of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation. It is involved in developing and approving the IFRS sustainability disclosure standards. The board will be made up of three members from the Asia-Oceania region, three members from Europe, three members from the Americas, one from Africa, and four members appointed from any area making a total of fourteen members.
The ISSB is responsible for all sustainability-related technical matters of the IFRS foundation which include preparing and issuing sustainability disclosure standards and exposure drafts following the due process described in the constitution and full control in developing and pursuing its technical agenda, subject to certain consultation requirements with the Trustees and the public.
The Global Reporting Initiative is an international independent standards organization that helps businesses, governments, and other organizations communicate their impacts on issues such as climate change, human rights, and corruption. It aims to enable third parties to assess the environmental impact of the activities of the company and its supply chain.
The GRI Standards are a modular system comprising three series of Standards:
The GRI Universal Standards, the GRI Sector Standards, and the GRI Topic Standards.
Each Standard begins with a detailed explanation of how to use it.
The Standards contain disclosures, which provide organized means for organizations to report information about themselves and their impacts.
The disclosures can have requirements and can also include recommendations. Requirements list the information an organization must report or instructions it must comply with and report by the GRI Standards. Recommendations indicate that certain information, or a specific course of action, is encouraged but is not mandatory.
GRI Universal Standards
The GRI Universal Standards apply to all organizations, and consist of the following:
• GRI 1: delineates the objectives of the GRI Standards, clarifies critical concepts, and explains how to use the Standards. It lists the requirements that an organization must comply with to report by the GRI Standards.
• GRI 2: contains disclosures relating to details about an organization’s structure and reporting practices; activities and workers; governance; strategy; policies; practices; and stakeholder engagement. These give insight into the organization’s profile and scale and help in providing a context for understanding an organization’s impacts.
• GRI 3: clarifies the steps by which an organization can specify the topics most related to its impacts, its material topics, and interprets how the Sector Standards are used in this process.
GRI Sector Standards
The GRI Sector Standards intend to boost the quality, integrity, and consistency of reporting by organizations. The Standards list issues that are likely to be essential for most organizations in a given sector and suggest related disclosures to report on these topics.
GRI Topic Standards
The GRI Topic Standards contain disclosures for providing information on topics. Examples include Standards on waste, occupational health and safety, and tax. Each Standard incorporates an overview of the topic and disclosures specific to the topic and how an organization manages its associated impacts.
