Two of the world’s leading sustainability disclosure organizations, the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have released a new joint tool, GRI–CDP Mapping, designed to help companies align and streamline their climate and energy reporting. The initiative aims to reduce duplication, enhance interoperability, and ensure that environmental data disclosed across the two major frameworks remains consistent and comparable.

Bridging Frameworks for Consistent Climate Data

The new mapping connects the GRI Climate Change (GRI 102) and Energy (GRI 103) standards with CDP’s environmental disclosure system, outlining exactly where data points overlap. The result is a practical roadmap that allows organizations to report once and use the same data across both systems, easing the reporting burden for companies operating under multiple frameworks. According to CDP’s Director of Climate, Amir Sokolowski, the collaboration marks a critical step toward unified sustainability disclosure.

“We’re pleased to launch this mapping with GRI – an important step towards more consistent and effective environmental disclosure. Through CDP, and with the support of this new tool, companies can report GRI-aligned data directly to stakeholders and the global market, easing the reporting burden while strengthening access to high-quality, comparable information,” Sokolowski said.

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Global Standards, Shared Goals

Both CDP and GRI are foundational to the global sustainability reporting ecosystem.

CDP, which operates one of the world’s largest environmental disclosure systems, recorded 22,700 company submissions in 2024, an 8% rise from the previous year. Its datasets help investors, regulators, and supply chains assess performance on climate, forests, and water security.
GRI Standards, meanwhile, remain the most widely adopted sustainability reporting framework, enabling companies to communicate their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance to multiple stakeholder groups, including investors and civil society.

Earlier this year, GRI finalized its new Climate Change (GRI 102) and Energy (GRI 103) standards, expanding on its core framework to help companies disclose impacts and management approaches related to climate transition, energy use, and emissions reduction.

The GRI–CDP mapping now builds on these standards, giving users clear guidance on how to cross-reference GRI disclosures with CDP’s environmental datapoints, such as emissions intensity, energy consumption, and mitigation targets.

Easing the Path to Global Alignment

The launch follows a formal cooperation agreement signed in 2024 between CDP and GRI, aimed at unifying their methodologies and aligning with other major reporting frameworks, including the EU’s European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the IFRS’ Climate-related Disclosures Standard under the ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board). Both organizations have since released correspondence mappings linking their frameworks to these standards, helping companies meet multiple regulatory and investor expectations through a single, coherent disclosure process. GRI’s Director of Standards, Harold Pauwels, said the new mapping reflects growing demand for practical integration among sustainability frameworks.

“This mapping tool is a new milestone in the cooperation of GRI and CDP, and will help entities to use the same data for different information purposes like the CDP questionnaire and GRI sustainability reporting,” Pauwels said. “It directly addresses the needs expressed by reporting organizations implementing the GRI Standards for Climate Change, Energy and Biodiversity, who were seeking clearer guidance and alignment to smoothen their reporting journey.”

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Towards Simplified, High-Quality Sustainability Reporting

The collaboration between CDP and GRI underscores the global momentum toward harmonized sustainability disclosure, as regulators and investors call for clearer, comparable data on corporate climate performance. By bridging two of the most widely used reporting systems, the GRI–CDP mapping tool is expected to simplify compliance, improve data quality, and help companies allocate resources more efficiently, a critical advantage as sustainability reporting moves from voluntary to mandatory in many jurisdictions. For businesses navigating a complex web of ESG frameworks, the message from CDP and GRI is clear: report once, disclose everywhere.

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