GRI 1: Foundation - the architecture of the GRI Standards and the reporting process
What GRI 1 actually does
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.
The architecture has three layers. The Universal Standards - GRI 1, GRI 2 (General Disclosures) and GRI 3 (Material Topics) - apply to every organization that uses the Standards. Sector Standards identify likely material topics for a sector. Topic Standards contain the disclosures for economic, environmental and social topics.
The eight reporting principles
Accuracy, balance, clarity, comparability, completeness, sustainability context, timeliness, verifiability. Questions often test the distinction between balance (both favourable and unfavourable impacts) and completeness (sufficient information to assess impacts over the reporting period and across the value chain).
The "in accordance" test
The organization must: apply the reporting principles; report all disclosures in GRI 2; determine material topics using GRI 3; and report the relevant disclosures from the Topic Standards for each material topic. Where a required disclosure cannot be reported, only four reasons for omission exist: not applicable, legal prohibitions, confidentiality constraints, information unavailable or incomplete.
Rule of thumb: an organization may be selective about topics, never about GRI 2 disclosures. If a question offers "the CEO did not want it published" or "stakeholders did not request it" as a reason for omission, it is wrong.
Worked example: a company reports GRI 3 and its Topic Standards in full but drops disclosure 2-9 (governance structure) because it is "commercially sensitive". This is not a valid omission - general sensitivity is not one of the four permitted reasons, and confidentiality must be specifically argued and explained in the report.