GRI and the ISSB: using both

How do GRI and the ISSB differ?

GRI asks what the company does to the world: its actual and potential impacts, positive and negative, on the economy, the environment and people, including human rights. The ISSB asks what the world could do to the company: the sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could affect its prospects. GRI is organised by topic, with universal, sector and topic standards; the ISSB is organised around governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets, with industry metrics from the SASB Standards. ISSB disclosures form part of a company's general purpose financial reports and are increasingly required by law; GRI reports are mostly voluntary, though many regulators and exchanges refer to them. See the GRI Standards explained and IFRS S1.

What did the 2025 emissions equivalence change?

On 26 June 2025, the Global Sustainability Standards Board granted equivalence to IFRS S2 for greenhouse gas emissions under GRI 102 Climate Change. A company reporting under both can use its IFRS S2 scope 1, 2 and 3 disclosures to meet the corresponding GRI 102 requirements, provided it measures its emissions using the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and references where the information is in its GRI content index. The ISSB described the result as allowing companies to prepare just one set of emissions disclosures. See IFRS S2.

What did GRI and the IFRS Foundation agree in 2026?

Their joint statement of 26 May 2026, building on a 2022 memorandum of understanding and a 2024 statement on interoperability, says the two sets of standards serve different purposes but overlap where the same information matters to both. It commits the boards to identify common disclosures and align them where possible, for example the climate-related impacts of transition plans and adaptation under GRI 102, which complement IFRS S2's risk and opportunity disclosures. Work in progress includes nature, GRI's sector standards and labour revisions, the ISSB's enhancements to the SASB Standards and its research on human capital. The statement also notes that the ISSB requires information on risks and opportunities even when they do not arise from the company's impacts, so a GRI report alone does not meet the ISSB standards.

GRI and the ISSB in practice: one company, two lenses

A beverage company assesses five items under both standards.

Emissions are reported once and used for both. The transition plan appears under both, with GRI focusing on its effects on workers and communities and IFRS S2 on its financial implications. Water in a stressed basin is both an impact on local users and a supply risk. Community grievances near one plant are a significant impact but not material to investors, so they appear only in the GRI report. Exposure to a carbon price on profits is a financial risk with no separate impact, so it appears only in the IFRS S2 disclosures. See double materiality explained.

How can a company report under both GRI and the ISSB?

• Run one assessment that identifies impacts and then asks which of them, and which other matters, create risks or opportunities for the company. See impact materiality and financial materiality.
• Build one data set, with GHG Protocol emissions and consistent definitions, used in both reports.
• Publish the IFRS S1 and S2 disclosures with the financial statements, and the GRI report alongside, cross-referring through the GRI content index rather than repeating.
• Explain why some topics appear in one report and not the other, so readers do not read an omission as an inconsistency.

Where do the ESRS fit?

The ESRS combine both lenses through double materiality, so EU companies reporting under them cover much of what GRI and the ISSB ask for in one statement. The ISSB, the European Commission and EFRAG published interoperability guidance in May 2024, and GRI and EFRAG an interoperability index, showing where one set of disclosures satisfies another. See the ISSB standards and ESRS compared and the GRI universal standards.

This guide is general information. It is not tax or legal advice for your situation.