Funding the Transition to a Sustainable Future

A global fundraising initiative has been launched to safeguard and increase GRI’s ability to deliver the leading sustainability standards that encourage organizations to embrace responsible business practices.

The Global Standards Fund will bring together an international coalition of like-minded foundations, governments, private sector organizations and individuals who all want to see companies integrate transparency at the core of their operations.

The Fund, which has an ambition to grow to an annual value of €8 million by 2022, will ensure:

• The continuous review and updating of the GRI Standards, the world’s most widely used for sustainability reporting, so they stay aligned with international norms and leading practice.
• Maintaining the GRI Standards as a free public good, while safeguarding their independent, multi-stakeholder development.
• The further development of Sector Standards – GRI’s new program to improve reporting across 40 high-impact sectors.  
• Global advocacy that drives adoption of the Standards and furthers GRI’s work with all stakeholders to increase decision making based on understanding impacts.

Marco van der Ree, GRI Chief Development Officer, said:

“The GRI Standards help thousands of organizations around the world to communicate their impacts and, in doing so, stimulate accountable business practices. We need to ensure we have the resources to match our ambition to further expand this work, which is why we have launched the Global Standards Fund.

We are seeking a diverse range of partners to be a part of the Global Standards Fund, who are ready to commit to GRI’s mission and believe in the power of transparency as the enabler of a sustainable future. This is even more important as organizations around world look to sustainable solutions to overcome the COVID-19 crisis.”

Paul Tang MEP, a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, said:

“To achieve the transition to a sustainable economy we need future proofed, objective and regularly updated standards for measuring progress. The GRI Standards cover a wide range of topics – such as biodiversity, human rights, climate change, tax – that stimulate companies to improve, and help governments and civil society bring corporate behavior in line with a just and green economy. That is why I fully support the work of GRI.”

GRI’s work is partly funded by several government agencies and foundations, with the intention that the Global Standards Fund will bring together a larger group of partners. One of the long-term funders of GRI is the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

Anders Gerdin, Programme Manager at Sida, said:

“Sida is convinced that sustainability reporting can form a solid base for real change. Reporting is not an end in itself – but a force of transformation. GRI is uniquely positioned, through its large global network and convening power, to play a strong normative role towards business and stakeholders.”

Further information is available on the options for supporting the Global Standards Fund.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the independent international organization that helps businesses, governments and other organizations understand and communicate their impacts.