The importance of this Standard

These sectors have been prioritized based on their widely documented impacts across economic, environmental, and social dimensions, including impacts on climate change and biodiversity, food security, farming and fishing practices, and community engagement.

Agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing industries share common impacts associated with the production of food and non-food products and are fundamental to supporting food systems and producing materials like fibers and fuels. Transparency around these impacts enables sustainable development by contributing to preserving biodiversity and natural resources, mitigating climate change, and adapting farming and fishing practices to minimize impacts.

This project aims to help agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing organizations identify likely material topics, improving the way they disclose and manage their impacts. 

Record of exposure draft public comments is now available

Our public comment period is an opportunity to provide feedback on a proposed standard’s contents including its clarity, feasibility, completeness.  It is an integral part of our standards development process which follows the GSSB's Due Process Protocol. During the recent public comment period (19 May - 30 July 2021), we received input from stakeholders from around the world helping to ensure the Standards continue to reflect the global best practice for sustainability reporting in these sectors.

All public comments received will be considered by the Working Group and the Global Sustainability Standards Board, to further inform the development of the standard.

About this project

In 2019, the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), GRI's independent standard setting body, initiated a project under the Sector Program to develop a Standard for Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fishing. 

The aim of this project is to identify and describe the most significant impacts and stakeholder concerns for the agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing sectors from a sustainable development perspective, which will serve as a foundation for increased transparency and more consistent reporting for organizations in the sectors.​

An expert and multi-stakeholder project working group, appointed by the GSSB to lead on the development of the Sector Standard, developed the exposure draft with the help of international instruments and sources. 

The project will follow the GSSB's Due Process Protocol, the implementation of which will be overseen by the Due Process Oversight Committee.

Learn more about the GRI Sector Program here.