GRI has introduced its Sustainability Taxonomy — a machine-readable format of the GRI Standards designed to accelerate data collection and enhance the comparability of sustainability disclosures using XBRL, the global standard for business reporting.
The new GRI Sustainability Taxonomy helps organizations share their data in a structured digital format, based on XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) and will strengthen interoperability with other standards, further enabling the use of GRI as the base for sustainability reporting. Covering all GRI Standards – Universal, Sector, and Topic – it provides the means for digital reports to be submitted (‘filed’) to GRI, either directly or through an online form, giving flexibility to reporters regardless of their size or technical capacity.
The Sustainability Taxonomy has been designed to ensure a high level of alignment with the XBRL-based versions of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Standards, and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The development also means GRI reporting will be more compatible across different regions and countries, with machine-readable reporting that meets a wide range of regulatory requirements.
“GRI’s Sustainability Taxonomy is a significant step forward in making sustainability information faster to retrieve and analyze, for both reporting organizations and data users. It closes the gap between reported impacts and the people who need to interpret and act on them – making it easier to assess the completeness and alignment of disclosed information. It is a practical, inclusive tool that helps ensure the GRI Standards remain world-leading and fit for purpose in an ever-evolving digital reporting world. Looking forward, the approach to create the Sustainability Taxonomy is shaping how we develop our Standards, bringing greater clarity and precision.” Cristina Gil White, GRI Chief Engagement Officer
“We welcome GRI’s new Sustainability Taxonomy, which marks an important advancement for digital sustainability reporting. By applying our XBRL language, GRI reporting can be structured in a fully digital way that ensures data can be effectively presented, analyzed, shared and compared. This Taxonomy increases the trustworthiness and accessibility of information disclosed using the GRI Standards and is a milestone we are proud to support.” John Turner, CEO of XBRL International
These materials will provide practical support for digital reporting and help build a more transparent, data-informed sustainability landscape. Through the GRI Academy, the organization is developing training to support reporting organizations to report digitally.
GRI’s filing tools, to be released later in 2025, will allow reporters to verify the consistency of their filed reports with the reporting requirements of the GRI Standards. This will support information disclosure that is more reliable and easier to access – by companies, regulators and investors, as well as other stakeholders who rely on or use sustainability data.
For third party service providers, GRI will be providing a set of tools to improve the ease with which the GRI Sustainability Taxonomy can be integrated alongside existing reporting products.
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