How to prepare for the GRI Certification Exam: Becoming a GRI Certified Sustainability Professional
The GRI Professional Certification Programme seeks to help sustainability professionals strengthen their skills, knowledge, and expertise when applying the GRI Standards for sustainability reporting. Professionals need to complete a series of certified courses which cover the fundamentals of GRI reporting, in preparation for GRI’s final certification exam. After completing all courses, they are qualified to take the GRI Certification Exam.
The certification exam and the title GRI Certified Sustainability Professional will enable sustainability professionals to demonstrate that they completed certified training and possess the unique skills and expertise of a GRI Certified Sustainability Professional, so as to address growing sustainability compliance challenges. Their name will also appear on the GRI website.
Why
50,000 EU & around 10,000 non-EU businesses will need to publish sustainability information.
The European Commission adopted, on 21 April 2021, a proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The proposal:
- extends the scope of mandatory sustainability reporting to all large companies and all companies listed on regulated markets
- requires the reported information to be audited (assurance) and
- introduces more detailed reporting requirements, along with a requirement to report in accordance with obligatory EU sustainability reporting standards (European Sustainability Reporting Standards – ESRS).
What you need to study
- GRI 1: Foundation 2021
- GRI 1: Foundation 2021 introduces the purpose and system of the GRI Standards, explaining key sustainability reporting concepts. GRI 1 also sets out the requirements and reporting principles organizations will have to observe to report in accordance with the GRI Standards.
- GRI 2: General Disclosures 2021
- GRI 2: General Disclosures 2021 contains disclosures that organizations will use to provide information on, among others, their reporting practices, policies, strategy, governance, and stakeholder engagement. This information provides a context for comprehending an organization’s environmental, social and other impacts.
- GRI 3: Material Topics 2021
- GRI 3: Material Topics 2021 provides guidance to organizations on determining their material topics, also explaining how to use GRI’s Sector Standards. Material topics relate to an organization’s most important impacts on the environment, economy, and people, together with impacts on their human rights. Additionally, GRI 3 includes disclosures for organizations to report how they manage their material topics.
In addition to GRI 1, GRI 2 and GRI 3, professionals are also advised to study:
- Integrating the Sustainable Development Goals into Corporate Reporting: A Practical Guide
- This publication presents a three-step procedure to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into current business or reporting processes, to help businesses better report their impact in relation to the SDGs and respond to the information needs of various stakeholders.
- Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework
- These Guiding Principles provide an authoritative global standard to prevent and address the risk of negative human rights impacts linked to business operations, based on three pillars: protect, respect and remedy.
Key facts about the GRI Certification Exam
- The price of the exam is €350. GRI Community Members are entitled to a 25% discount.
- Candidates will have to answer 40 multiple choice questions in 60 minutes
- The passing score for the GRI Certification Exam is 75%
- Once purchasing the exam, candidates can start right away or take the exam within one year
- Candidates not passing the certification exam or whose exam attempt is judged as inadmissible may retake the exam, but will need to purchase it again
- After passing the exam, candidates receive a certificate of achievement from GRI, awarding them the status of ‘GRI Certified Sustainability Professional’
Prepare for success! GRI Certification Mock Exam (Self paced)
Developed by FBRH Consultants, an experienced GRI Global Certified Training Partner, the FBRH Mock Exam is your strategic gateway to succeed in the GRI Certification exam. Our proven methodology, developed over years of experience, empowers you to succeed through our carefully developed mock exam. Continuously securing 95%+, this mock exam helps you ensure you are well-equipped to surpass the 75% GRI Exam requirement. Two sets of questions modelled on the GRI exam Take the exam as many times as you wish.
Link to FREE SAMPLE
Link to FULL version (£30) – two sets of questions.
References:
2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/standards-development/universal-standards/
3) https://www.globalreporting.org/reporting-support/gri-academy/
4) https://www.globalreporting.org/media/f4qlxr53/gri-standards-exam-policy.pdf
5) https://www.unglobalcompact.org/library/5628
6) https://www.unglobalcompact.org/library/2
78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards
SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.
Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.
7 GRI sustainability disclosures get you started
Any size business can start taking sustainability action
GRI, IEMA, CPD Certified Sustainability courses (2-5 days): Live Online or Classroom (venue: London School of Economics)
- Exclusive FBRH template to begin reporting from day one
- Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and People
- Formulate in group exercises your plan for action. Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP.
- Benchmarking methodology to set you on a path of continuous improvement