The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have announced a joint statement confirming a ‘high level of interoperability’ between the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the GRI Standards.
The news means that companies reporting to under ESRS will be considered as reporting with reference to the GRI Standards, and will therefore not have to do double reporting under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Hans Buysse, EFRAG administrative board president, said: “This joint statement concludes several years of diligent work towards a high level of interoperability between the ESRS and GRI standards.
“The efforts made by the GRI and EFRAG sustainability reporting teams will prevent the need for double reporting by companies, resulting in a user-friendly reporting system without undue complexity.”
In keeping with the requirement formulated in the CSRD to adopt a double materiality approach and to take account of existing standards, the ESRS have adopted the same definition for impact materiality as GRI.
The interoperability between the two standards is a major win for businesses, as it will reduce the burden of sustainability reporting and make it easier for companies to comply with the CSRD along with other sustainability standards.
Professor Carol Adams, who chairs the GRI’s standard setting board, said: With this high level of interoperability achieved, we have now turned our attention to developing a detailed mapping of the disclosures from both sets of standards and technical guidance.”
Meanwhile, companies across Europe are now under pressure to implement the new Europe-wide sustainability reporting framework and its double-materiality framework, which is expected to impact a broad range of companies of varying sizes.
