Stakeholder Engagement and Materiality Disclosure Review Service

What is the Disclosure Review Service?

GRI’s Disclosure Review Service is designed to help organizations improve the content of their report by reviewing specific disclosures and determine whether the organization has responded to the information requests from the requirements outlined in the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards (GRI Standards).

The Disclosure Review Service is offered in different modules.

The module Stakeholder Engagement and Materiality covers a selection of 10 disclosures, strategically selected to address an organization’s approach towards stakeholder engagement and materiality assessment, thus aiming to improve the overall quality of the report. As the content relevant to stakeholder engagement and materiality assessment is reviewed, this service also provides feedback on the organizations’ application of the Stakeholder Inclusiveness and Materiality principles.

GRI has piloted this service with selected organizations. Hear what they have to say about the service below!

“The earlier the new service is used to generate the reports, the greater the benefit. Because the review team plays the role of the stakeholders, the dialogue improves the quality, the foundation, the transparency and the comparability of different reports.”
Moritz Vögeli– Lecturer, Institut für Umwelt und Natürliche Ressourcen

“At LandCorp we are committed to improving our sustainability reporting. The GRI Disclosure Review Service looked at 10 key disclosures and provided more information on the Materiality and Stakeholder Inclusiveness principles. The clear feedback on the disclosures ensured we addressed every information request as set out by the requirements in the GRI Standards. It also highlighted areas, particularly on the principles, that we could clarify and improve in our next reporting cycle." Nivia Giuffre – Sustainability Strategy Coordinator, LandCorp

“I believe the service can help organizations further improve their efforts to be more transparent, and to notice the issues that they must work on in order to become more sustainable." Florencia Renda- Sustainability Analyst, Santander Río

“This was our first-time reporting using the GRI Standards and this service was invaluable. The feedback was helpful and communication between myself and the team was timely and supportive. The Disclosure Review Service has helped increase our confidence in the transparency and effectiveness of our first report using the GRI Standards“, Claire Brightley, Lead Adviser for Carbon Management, Yorkshire Water

What do we review?

Who is this service for?

This service is suitable for any organization, large or small, in any industry and region who want to receive feedback from a stakeholder’s perspective on their report and are committed to improving their sustainability reporting efforts.

If you have used GRI Services before, you will benefit from a deeper review of your report with this service, focusing on the content disclosed in your report. If you are new to GRI's services, the Disclosure Review Service is the ideal place to start, offering a great combination of content review and strategic choice of disclosures.

The Disclosure Review Service can be performed on draft or published reports. For services performed on published reports, the feedback is provided with the aim to be incorporated in the next report(s).

A combo option is also available for those who want to expand their learning experience in this service. In this option we start working on an organization’s published report and continue the assessment for this service on the organization’s next draft report. More information is provided in the Methodology document for this service.

What are the timelines and fees for the service?

The timelines for the GRI Disclosure Review Service on draft, published reports or combo option are as follows:

• First Feedback:

GRI will provide the first feedback on the 10 disclosures and related principles i.e. Materiality and Stakeholder Inclusiveness within 14 working days of confirming the service upon the receipt of all of the required documents for this service.

• Subsequent Feedback(s)- for services provided on draft reports:

After addressing the action points raised in the first feedback, the Reporting Organization or applicable third party is requested to send the revised draft report for GRI’s review. In exceptional cases, the Reporting Organization or applicable third party can provide GRI with comment as to why they cannot implement a certain action point in their report for the current reporting period. GRI will revert with any feedback on the second round within 7 working days from receiving it.

The fees for the GRI Disclosure Review Service on draft, published reports or combo option are as follows:

Service	Timeline	Not-for-profit/SME	Corporate
Disclosure Review Service
Draft Report with disclosures from GRI 102: General Disclosures 2016 or Published Report with disclosures from GRI 102: General Disclosures 2016	Standard Timeline	Introductory price (First year price: valid until 15 January 2019)
		€ 4000, -	€ 5000, -
		Regular price
		€ 5500, -	€ 6500, -
		A 1-hour phone call can be added for the service on Draft reports at an additional fee of € 250, - The call is included in the fee for the service on a Published report.
GRI Disclosure Review Service: Combo option	Standard Timeline	Introductory price (First year price: valid until 15 January 2019)
		€7000, -	€8800, -
		Regular price
		€8500, -	€10300, -
		A 1-hour phone call can be added for the service on Draft reports at an additional fee of € 250, - The call is included in the fee for the service on a Published report

*The Introductory price is valid for the first year (until 15 January 2019). These prices do not include a phone call with GRI to go over the feedback.
A 1 hour phone call can be added on at an additional fee. For more details, please see the Pricing Policy.

GRI GOLD Community members can receive a discount on this service. More details are provided in the Pricing Policy.

Organizational mark or statement for your report!

Service performed on a draft report

The reporting organization will receive an organizational mark and a sentence provided by GRI that explains the scope of the review that would need to be included in the report.

Sample sentence:

“For the Disclosure Review Service, GRI reviewed the following 10 disclosures from GRI 102: General Disclosures 2016 (102-15, 102-40, 102-41, 102-42, 102-43, 102-44, 102-46, 102-47, 102-54, 102-55). The service was performed on the [language] version of the report.”

To complete the service on the draft report, reporting organizations need to address a minimum of 50% of the feedback. Please review the Terms and Conditions for this service.

Service performed on a published report
The reporting organization will receive a statement from GRI specifying the scope of the review that the organization can include in their communication related to sustainability reporting for the next year.

Report Language

The Service can be performed in any language but as this Service requires diving into the content of sustainability reports, GRI Services team would accept reports in the languages that the team speaks and for any other language, an English translation of the relevant content to be reviewed needs to be provided.

As of Ocrober 2018, these languages spoken in the team are: English, Dutch, Greek, German, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Turkish. For Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese, please expect that the timelines for this service might be longer. Contact GRI’s Services Team for more information.

How can I apply for the service?

Please send the following documents to GRI’s Services Team:

• Completed Sign-up form including all the exact page and location references for the relevant disclosures and agreement with the terms and conditions
• The draft or published report

• Any additional documents the party making the payment (Reporting Organization or applicable third party) would require GRI’s finance department to fill out or send in order to facilitate the payment of the Service (i.e. supplier registration forms, PO-numbers, agreements…etc.)

For any questions on the service, please contact GRI’s Services Team.

What documents do I need to consult?

Sign-up form

Terms & Conditions

Methodology

Disclaimer: GRI services do not verify, check or pass judgment on the quality of the disclosures within a report nor the process of preparing the disclosures. That responsibility remains with the reporting organization and its stakeholders. GRI’s services are not an external assurance engagement, although are complementary. This service indicates whether or not the organization has addressed the information requests in the GRI Standards that are specified as being within the scope of this service. GRI does not carry any legal responsibility for the implementation of the feedback by the organization. The GSSB is an independent operating entity under the auspices of GRI and has sole responsibility for setting globally accepted standards for sustainability reporting and as such has no involvement with the delivery of GRI Services.