The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and CDP announced today a new cooperation agreement which will see the organizations more closely collaborate and align their reporting standards and platform, to help ease sustainability reporting for companies and improve access to data on corporate environmental impacts.

GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards are one of the most commonly accepted global standards for sustainability reporting by companies, developed to enable consistent reporting across companies and industries, providing clearer communication regarding sustainability matters to a broad range of stakeholders, including investors. The GRI published a major update of the standards in 2021, and recently published a new biodiversity reporting standard, aimed at enabling companies to publicly disclose on their most significant biodiversity impacts, and how they are managed. The GRI’s standards are developed by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), and are used by more than 14,000 organizations.

CDP runs a global environmental disclosure system, enabling investors and other stakeholders to measure and track organization’s performance in key environmental sustainability areas including climate change, deforestation, water security, and plastic-related impact. In 2023, a record of more than 23,000 companies disclosed through CDP, up 24% over the prior year, and representing companies worth $67 trillion, or more than 66% of global market capitalization.

The new agreement, announced by the organizations at the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan, will see the GRI and CDP work together to build capacity and streamline disclosure for companies, and enable the reporting of GRI-aligned data through the CDP questionnaire. The collaboration will include a joint mapping exercise to enhance operability, and more closely align the CDP questionnaire with the GRI’s upcoming climate and energy standards, and its biodiversity and water standards.

Cristina Gil White, Interim CEO of GRI, said:

“As nations are gathered in Baku for crucial talks on how to quicken progress to achieve the Paris Agreement, I am delighted to sign this significant MoU with CDP. I believe the formal collaboration will lead to clarity for businesses and other stakeholders on the alignment between the GRI Standards and CDP’s questionnaire, increasing the ease of reporting in ways that deliver relevant and actionable data.”

The agreement marks the latest in a series of actions by both organizations to strengthen the alignment of their reporting frameworks with other sustainability disclosure standards and systems, including an announcement by CDP and earlier this week of the achievement of interoperability with the EFRAG’s European Sustainability Reporting Standards, and its recent alignment with the IFRS’ climate disclosure standard, as well as the GRI’s own collaborations with the IFRS and EFRAG to improve interoperability.

Sherry Madera, CEO of CDP, said:

“CDP is proud to strengthen our collaboration with GRI. This agreement will enhance the efficiency of environmental reporting, enabling companies to provide more comparable and actionable data. By disclosing through CDP, companies can disclose GRI-aligned data directly to stakeholders and the wider global market. This is a crucial step in accelerating global climate action and ensuring businesses can meet the highest standards of transparency and accountability.”