Week 3 · Preparing sustainability reporting using GRI

Where GRI sits in the global landscape, materiality that survives review, the general disclosures reporters get wrong, omissions, and the content index.

Two live sessions of three hours, Thursday and Sunday, plus a take-home between them. The Sunday closes with a timed manual exercise — your benchmark for next week.

Thu · Day 5 · Foundation · Aayush Anand

GRI I — Architecture, Materiality and the Universal Standards

By the end of this session you can

Place GRI within the global reporting landscape — the ISSB baseline, national regimes, and voluntary use where nothing is mandatory
Distinguish reporting "in accordance with" from "with reference to" and choose correctly
Run the GRI 3 material topic determination process and document it defensibly
Complete the GRI 2 general disclosures, including the ones reporters routinely get wrong

Three-hour agenda

00:00–00:25	Where GRI sits globally	Three layers, not a competition: GRI for impact, ISSB as the investor baseline, national regimes (BRSR, AASB S1/S2, SSBJ, UK SRS, CVM, ESRS, Asian listing rules) on top. Where they interoperate, where they conflict, how to write once and serve several.
00:25–00:50	GRI 1 Foundation	The reporting principles; the nine requirements for "in accordance"; the lighter "with reference" route and when it is the honest choice — especially for mid-size suppliers with five customers asking. EcoVadis now credits "with reference" reporting at 75.
00:50–01:25	GRI 3 Material Topics	The four-step process. Impact vs financial materiality and how double materiality relates. Stakeholder engagement as evidence, not decoration. Live materiality workshop on Meridian.
01:25–01:35	Break
01:35–02:25	GRI 2 General Disclosures	All 30, dwelling on the ones that generate audit findings: 2-6, 2-7 and 2-8, 2-9 to 2-21 governance and remuneration, 2-22, 2-27, 2-29.
02:25–03:00	Topic and sector standards	The topic library and sector standards. The new generation: GRI 101 Biodiversity (effective 2026), GRI 102 Climate Change and GRI 103 Energy (effective 2027). What GRI 102 changes relative to 305 and 201.

Exercise

Group materiality determination for Meridian: a prioritised material topic list with impact descriptions, severity and likelihood reasoning, and the stakeholder evidence behind each.

Take-home

Complete a GRI 2 general disclosures table for Meridian from the data room, marking each disclosure as evidenced, partially evidenced, or gap.

Sun · Day 6 · Foundation · Aayush Anand

GRI II — Topic Standards, Omissions, Content Index and Report Assembly

By the end of this session you can

Apply GRI 3-3 management of material topics as the backbone of every topic disclosure
Use the four permitted reasons for omission correctly and word them acceptably
Build a content index that will pass review, and understand the statement of use
Write disclosure text that is balanced, comparable and survives assurance and greenwashing scrutiny

Three-hour agenda

00:00–00:20	Take-home review	The most common non-compliances in the class's GRI 2 tables, and what a reviewer looks for first.
00:20–01:00	Topic standards end to end	GRI 3-3 as the spine. Three topics walked fully: emissions (305, and what 102 will change), occupational health and safety (403), water and effluents (303 — material for a dyeing operation and usually under-reported).
01:00–01:25	Omissions	The four permitted reasons and how each must be worded. Why "information unavailable" with a remediation timeline is respectable and a silent gap is not.
01:25–01:35	Break
01:35–02:10	The content index	Structure, mandatory elements, the statement of use, sector standard reference, the Content Index Service, and the errors that come back from review most often.
02:10–02:45	Writing quality	A disclosure vs marketing copy. Balance and comparability as principles with teeth. Greenwashing exposure. What limited assurance will and will not test in narrative text.
02:45–03:00	Timed manual build	Hand-write GRI 3-3 plus 305-1, 305-2 and 305-3 narrative for Meridian using the Week 1 inventory. Time and word count recorded as the Week 4 benchmark.

Exercise

Timed hand-drafting of a complete topic disclosure set for emissions, using only the data room and the Week 1 inventory.

Take-home

Select the topic standards and specific disclosures Meridian should report against, given the material topic list, and note the evidence source for each.