The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announced plans to expand its sector standards with the development of a new standard designed to enable food and beverage companies to report on relevant impacts in their industries and value chains.

The new planned food and beverage reporting standard will be the first to pilot GRI’s new streamlined approach to Sector Standards development, designed to significantly reduce the time needed for development.

GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards are one of the most commonly accepted global standards for sustainability reporting by companies, developed to enable consistent reporting across companies and industries, providing clearer communication regarding sustainability matters to a broad range of stakeholders, including investors. The GRI’s standards are developed by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB).

GRI sector standards aim to help identify sectors’ most significant impacts, and to reflect stakeholder expectations for sustainability reporting. The GRI published its first sector standard in 2021 covering the oil and gas sector, followed by standards for sectors including coal, agriculture, aquaculture and fishing, mining, and textiles and apparel.

Sectors selected for standard development are prioritized based on the seriousness and the likelihood of their impacts, with consideration also given to the overall size of the sector, their distribution around the world, and the number of organizations that are in a position to use the GRI Standards.

On its project page, GRI noted that food and beverage industries are responsible for around one third of global emissions, have a direct impact on people’s health, and present safety risks for their workers. The new standard will cover food processing, manufacturing of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and tobacco products, and will consider impacts across companies’ own operations and value chains, including connections with agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing.

GRI’s new streamlined sector standard development approach is designed to enable faster delivery of industry-specific impact reporting guidance. GRI said that the food and beverage sector was selected to pilot the new approach given the scale and breadth of its sustainability impacts.

Peter Dawkins, GRI Standards Senior Manager, said:

“The food and beverage sector touches almost every part of society, while its value chains are closely connected with some of the most pressing sustainability challenges we face. From climate change and biodiversity loss to working conditions and public health, companies need to understand and transparently report their impacts.”