GRI study guide
GRI · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The GRI Certified Sustainability Professional credential is a professional certification awarded by the Global Reporting Initiative, the independent not-for-profit organization behind the GRI Standards - described by GRI as "the world's most widely-used sustainability reporting standards." This page is an independent study resource and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GRI. The certification is aimed at sustainability reporters, consultants, assurance and finance professionals, and anyone responsible for preparing or reviewing sustainability reports who needs working command of the Standards rather than general awareness. The GRI study guide has 5 sections and about 1,827 words.
01GRI 1: Foundation - the architecture of the GRI Standards and the reporting process
GRI 1: Foundation (2021) is the entry point to the GRI Standards, and it contains no disclosures . It performs four jobs: it states the purpose of GRI reporting (transparency about an organization's impacts on the economy, environment and people, including human rights); it describes the modular architecture; it sets out the eight reporting principles; and it specifies what an organization must do to state that its report has been prepared in accordance with the GRI Standards .
403 words, about 2 min02GRI 2: General Disclosures - the 30 disclosures every reporter must publish
GRI 2: General Disclosures (2021) contains 30 disclosures in five blocks. Questions frequently ask you to place a disclosure in the correct block.
341 words, about 2 min03GRI 3: Material Topics - determining what to report and how to manage it
GRI 3: Material Topics (2021) replaced GRI 101, 103 and the previous materiality guidance. It has three disclosures: 3-1 the process used to determine material topics; 3-2 the list of material topics; 3-3 management of each material topic.
361 words, about 2 min04Topic Standards: economic, environmental and social disclosures
Each Topic Standard covers one topic and lists numbered disclosures. The numbering scheme is a reliable memory aid: 201–207 economic , 301–308 environmental , 401–419 social .
329 words, about 2 min05Sector Standards and applying the GRI Standards in practice
Sector Standards identify the topics most likely to be material for organizations in a given sector, and for each topic they point to the Topic Standard disclosures to report. Crucially, Sector Standards contain no disclosures of their own - they are a materiality and completeness tool.
393 words, about 2 min