GRI creates new sustainability reporting standard for agriculture and fishing

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announced the members of the project working group leading the work to create a new sustainability reporting standard for agriculture and fishing.

The multi-stakeholder group, which includes diverse representatives from around the world, has met virtually for the first time. They will now take forward the project to help companies with agriculture and fishing activities in their value chain understand their role in sustainable development and promote transparency and accountability.

The 18 members of the working group are:

• Ligia Baracat, First Peoples Programme (UK)
• Madison Boyd, JBS (USA)
• Rik Beukers, World Benchmarking Alliance (Netherlands)
• Valérie Bizier, UN Food & Agriculture Organization (Italy)
• Joel Brounen, Solidaridad Network (Colombia)
• Chris Brown, Olam International (UK)
• Jaqueline Dixon, Incite / Hong Kong Sustainable Seafood Coalition (South Africa)
• Roxana Dobre, Sustainalytics (Germany)
• Aurélie Gupta, Credit Suisse (Switzerland)
• Tor Eirik Hommes, Grieg Seafood ASA (UK)
• Brian Lindsay, Dairy Sustainability Framework (UK)
• Darian McBain, Thai Union (Australia)
• Gary Philip, Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd (New Zealand)
• Marina Prada, Syngenta (Switzerland)
• Dr. Leah Samberg, Rainforest Alliance / Accountability Framework Initiative (USA)
• Ruth Thomas, WBCSD (UK)
• Jean-François Timmers, WWF (Brazil)
• Yvonne Zhang, Halcyon Agri Co Ltd (Singapore)

This group will develop a draft Agriculture and Fishing Sector Standard, which will undergo a public comment period in the first half of 2021 before further development. The final Standard is expected to publish by the end of next year.

The Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), the independent body that sets the GRI Standards, launched the Sector Program in 2019. The program focuses on sectors with the highest impacts on the world around them.

The agriculture and fishing sector has been prioritised because it has widely documented impacts across the economic, environmental, and social dimensions, such as impacts on climate change, biodiversity, and human rights.

The agriculture and fishing project aims to identify and describe the sector’s significant impacts and stakeholder concerns from a sustainable development perspective. The resulting Sector Standard will provide support for companies as they conduct their own materiality process.

Project timeline (subject to change)

Phase 1: Project commencement (December 2019) 
Phase 2: Appointment of Project Working Group (April 2020)
Phase 3: Development of Exposure Draft (April – November 2020)
Phase 4: Public exposure (expected Q1 2021)
Phase 5: Consideration of respondents’ comments on the Exposure Draft (Expected Q1 – Q2 2021)
Phase 6: Approval of GRI Sector Standard (expected Q3 2021) 
Phase 7: Final Sector Standard released (expected Q3 2021)

The GRI Sector Program is a new program in which standards will be developed that are specific to certain sectors. Authoritative information on sector-specific impacts can focus sustainability reporting on the issues that matter most and can both reflect and set stakeholder expectations for a sector’s sustainability reporting. This will improve transparency and accountability, leading to a stronger foundation for sustainable decision making.

The first sectors selected – oil, gas, and coal, and agriculture and fishing– have widely documented impacts across the economic, environmental, and social dimensions, including impacts on climate change, biodiversity, and human rights.

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References:

This article is based on published information by GRI. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the publication’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/work-program-and-standards-review/development-of-sector-standard-agriculture-and-fishing/