The position of the GRI Biodiversity Standard in the disclosure landscape

The alarming decline in biodiversity in the last decades threatens to bring disastrous consequences to the environment and people, including triggering knock-on effects on climate change.
The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will adopt the 'post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework' in 2022, which will define collective commitments to reverse the loss of biodiversity for all relevant stakeholders, including government, companies, civil society, and investment institutions.
Both governments and companies are being called upon to demonstrate accountability in responding to the biodiversity crisis by conserving and sustainably using biodiversity. The revision of GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016 aims to reflect global best practice on biodiversity management to support companies in addressing their impacts.
The review of GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016 is a priority project for the GSSB. Since the GRI disclosures on biodiversity were last revised in 2006, the issue of biodiversity has received significant attention in the global sustainable development agenda.
This project aims to review GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016 to represent internationally agreed best practices and align with recent developments as well as relevant authoritative intergovernmental instruments in biodiversity.
The Standard will enable an organization to publicly disclose its most significant impacts on biodiversity and how it manages them. This disclosure enhances transparency on the organization's impacts and increases organizational accountability.
The GSSB appointed a multi-stakeholder Technical Committee in November 2021 to lead the revision of GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016. The project will follow the GSSB's Due Process Protocol, the implementation of which will be overseen by the Due Process Oversight Committee. Read the Project Proposal and the Terms of Reference for more information.
The Biodiversity Standard exposure draft was made available for public comment between 5 December 2022 and 28 February 2023.
You can access 122 submissions from organizations and individuals here.
The GSSB is now reviewing comments as per the GSSB Due Process Protocol. An updated timeline of the project will be published in the coming months.
GRI Topic Standard Project for Biodiversity–Exposure draft | file | 02 Dec 2022 | English | 1.1 MB | |
GRI Topic Standard: Biodiversity Exposure draft public comment questionnaire | file | 02 Dec 2022 | English | 181 KB | |
Biodiversity Technical Committee member biographies | file | 15 Nov 2021 | English | 522 KB | |
Biodiversity Technical Committee - terms of reference | file | 15 Nov 2021 | English | 337 KB | |
Topic Standard Project for Biodiversity - final project proposal | file | 01 Dec 2021 | English | 137 KB | |
Biodiversity Topic Standard Public Comment FAQs | file | 26 Jan 2023 | English | 237 KB | |
GRI Topic Standards project for Biodiversity Public comment feedback | file | 26 Apr 2023 | English | 183 KB |
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