Due to the rising investor-, stakeholder-, and regulatory demand of publishing sustainability information, you might start feeling pressured to report such data through standardized reporting. However, due to the existing ocean of various sustainability reporting frameworks, standards, and guidelines, it can be challenging to know where to start, how and why.

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Our suggestion is to start with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

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GRI is one of the most comprehensible reporting frameworks, and the most used for sustainability reporting. With its many standards covering the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social, economic), it is helpful for your organization to communicate its impact and compare both its internal and external progress. Hence, your organization can become more transparent.

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By not being limited to any industries, it is a fitting reporting framework to any company, regardless of size or maturity.

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In our opinion, GRI is also the easiest to work with. It provides guidance in a detailed approach and has materiality assessment guidelines. Also, they are continuously publishing new sector specific standards, which can further help with evaluating the relevant material topics within a sector.

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There is nothing more discouraging than getting lost in the jungle of information needs and musts, just after starting your sustainability reporting journey. These tools are useful for any reporter, whether having in-depth sustainability knowledge or not.

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So, ultimately: Is GRI for everyone?

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The short answer is: yes. Whether you are a large or smaller business, you can gain benefits from it. What kind?

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Here are GRI framework benefits:

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• Better evaluate and improve your strategies and policies
• Better identify and reduce risks
• Better determine goals and targets
• Compare progress on a yearly basis
• Show responsibility for your impacts by being transparent and honest
• Stakeholders can evaluate the organization’s sustainable development
• Communicate industry-specific insights and in so contribute to research, analysis, and policy making

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The old way of collecting the data isn’t efficient for hotel chains

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In the digital age, your hotel teams expect real-time access to user-friendly tools, accurate ESG data, and reporting that can be reused across channels, not a maze of files and email threads.

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Yet Sustainability Coordinators in hotel chains still chase dozens of properties for spreadsheets, Word files, and email updates, then wait months before they can publish a “final” sustainability report that is already out of date. For a Sustainability Coordinator, that might mean reminding 50 hotels to update their emissions tab before a GRI- and CSRD-aligned deadline, then manually reconciling different formats and versions.

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For Hotel Managers, this spreadsheet ping pong steals time from running the property; for Revenue and distribution teams, it means they rarely have consistent, verified ESG data ready for Online Travel Agencies, Travel Management Companies, and destination partners. Each copy paste, forwarded attachment, or outdated template increases the risk of errors – the wrong energy figure in a GRI content index, the wrong certification status on a booking platform, or inconsistent CSRD disclosures that undermine trust.

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Publishing sustainability information for a hotel chain demands accuracy and freshness to stay credible, comparable, and audit ready. When data lives in scattered files and inboxes, Stakeholders; from investors to corporate buyers to eco conscious guests, struggle to know which numbers to trust, and your internal teams spend more time fixing human error than improving real-world performance. This is why leading hotel chains are shifting from static spreadsheets to shared sustainability data infrastructure that can feed GRI reports, CSRD disclosures, and booking channels from a single, reliable source.

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Why GRI still matters for Hotel Chains in 2026

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The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) remains the most widely used sustainability reporting framework and is still a strong backbone for hotel and tourism ESG reporting in 2026. For hotel chains, GRI is especially useful when used together with CSRD, hospitality frameworks, and credible certifications that your personas already work with.

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What changed in the “new” GRI standards

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In short, GRI has completed its transition to the 2021 Standards architecture, which now underpins reporting in 2026. The key changes your hotel sustainability teams should care about are:

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New structure

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• GRI 1: Foundation 2021 explains core concepts and how to use the Standards “in accordance with” or “with reference to” GRI.
• GRI 2: General Disclosures 2021 replaces earlier general standards, focusing on governance, business model, and policy context.
• GRI 3: Material Topics 2021 provides updated guidance on identifying and managing material impacts, including double materiality thinking, which aligns well with CSRD.

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Universal + Topic + Sector standards

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• Universal Standards (GRI 1, 2, 3) now apply to all reporters.
• Topic Standards cover themes like energy, emissions, water, labor, and human rights; they must be linked to your material topics.
• Sector Standards, rolled out since 2022, highlight the most significant impacts and disclosures for specific industries and will increasingly be relevant to tourism and hospitality value chains.

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Stronger human rights and impact focus

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• The 2021 update puts much more emphasis on human rights, stakeholder engagement, and impact-based materiality, rather than just what is financially important.
• This dovetails with growing expectations on decent work, supply-chain practices, and community impacts in the hotel sector.

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CSRD relevance to GRI

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• Companies reporting under CSRD can use GRI as a complementary framework to ensure completeness of impact data and stakeholder friendly disclosures.
• The new GRI structure (GRI 1–3 plus Topic and Sector Standards) is fully in force, and organizations preparing 2024–2026 reports should transition accordingly if they have not already.
• Sector Standards, including those already published (like GRI 13 Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fishing), are a preview of how tourism related sectors will be covered: focused on the highest impact topics and disclosures.

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How To Start With GRI

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A 5 step process for hotel chains to get started with GRI:

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1. Map your ecosystem and data sources (Role of Sustainability Owner/Coordinator)

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• Inventory existing certifications, frameworks (e.g., WSHA Universal KPIs, CSRD), and internal tools already used by your hotels.
• Align them to GRI Topic Standards to avoid duplicate data requests and reduce reporting fatigue at property level.

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2. Run an impact based materiality assessment (Role of Sustainability Leads/Champions)

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• Use GRI 3 to identify material topics across environmental, social, and economic impacts for hotels, including energy, emissions, labor practices, and local community impacts.
• Involve hotel and revenue managers in workshops so material topics reflect operational realities and market expectations.

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3. Build a hotel ready data model (Role of Sustainability Coordinator)

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• Turn relevant GRI 2 and Topic disclosures into standardized fields, templates, and checklists in your central system, not just a spreadsheet.
• Define clear responsibilities: hotel managers input primary data, coordinators validate and consolidate, and Owners sign off on narrative and targets.

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4. Automate, standardize, and integrate (Role of Sustainability Coordinator + Tech Lead)

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• Connect meters, PMS, and certification databases to reduce manual input and errors, using your platform as a central hub.
• Ensure outputs can be reused “as is” for CSRD, destination reporting, OTAs, and internal dashboards.

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5. Turn GRI reports into commercial and stakeholder value (Role of Sustainability Coordinator Owner + Revenue Driver + Head of Marketing)

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• Use the GRI report and content index to provide evidence in RFPs, enhance brand storytelling, and feed sustainability widgets on booking channels.
• Highlight credible third party verification (certifications, external assurance) to strengthen trust and reduce greenwashing risk

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Making GRI-aligned sustainability reporting simple for hotel chains

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In BeCause, GRI disclosures are translated into clear questions, supported by practical guidance and contextual help, so your teams can focus on good data instead of deciphering technical standards. Manual spreadsheets are replaced with structured, automated workflows: you collect and validate the qualitative and quantitative data once, and the platform helps you map it to relevant GRI topics and disclosures.

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Sustainability Coordinators can coordinate internally through shared workspaces and support resources, while Hotel Managers contribute property-level data in a format that is ready for GRI content indexes, CSRD reports, and certification schemes. From there, you can communicate progress through exportable reports, dashboards, and embeddable widgets that reuse the same verified dataset, rather than recreating numbers for every request.

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As GRI- and CSRD aligned reporting becomes a core expectation in tourism and hospitality, starting early with a digitized, hotel specific approach gives you a real advantage. You reduce scattered information in multiple spreadsheets, make life easier for stakeholders who need consistent, comparable data, and give your colleagues a shared, visual understanding of what the chain has achieved so far – and where you are headed together.

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