The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have announced a collaborative workplan to provide more clarity on how their two sets of standards can be used together for sustainability reporting by the end of 2020. The announcement comes amid rising global demand for clarity in a sustainability disclosure landscape that can at times seem complicated.

Initially the collaboration will focus on delivering communication materials to help stakeholders better understand how the standards may be used concurrently, and how the standards can be used together, but it is expected that this may lead to the identification of further collaboration opportunities.

GRI and SASB provide compatible standards for sustainability reporting. Both have already been working together as part of the Corporate Reporting Dialogue, an initiative organised by the International Integrated Reporting Council that has been working to bring together the various standard-setters to promote greater consistency and comparability among the different sets of standards and frameworks for non-financial reporting.

Some companies use both standards, making their reporting effort high. To help address this, SASB and GRI plan to collaboratively demonstrate how some companies have used both sets of standards together and the lessons that can be shared. GRI and SASB also aim to help the consumers of sustainability data understand the similarities and differences in the information created from these standards.