This Standard is part of the set of GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards (GRI Standards). These Standards are designed to be used by organizations to report about their impacts on the economy, the environment, and society. The GRI Standards are structured as a set of interrelated, modular standards. The full set can be downloaded at www.globalreporting.org/standards/. 

In the context of the GRI Standards, the social dimension of sustainability concerns an organization’s impacts on the social systems within which it operates. 

GRI 414 addresses the topic of supplier social assessment. The methodology for the former G4 standard for this metric (G4-SO9) can be found here.

An organization might be involved with impacts either through its own activities or as a result of its business relationships with other parties. Due diligence is expected of an organization in order to prevent and mitigate negative social impacts in the supply chain. These include impacts the organization either causes or contributes to, or that are directly linked to its activities, products, or services by its relationship with a supplier. These concepts are covered in key instruments of the United Nations.

The disclosures in this Standard can provide information about an organization’s approach to preventing and mitigating negative social impacts in its supply chain. Suppliers can be assessed for a range of social criteria, including human rights (such as child labor and forced or compulsory labor); employment practices; health and safety practices; industrial relations; incidents (such as of abuse, coercion or harassment); wages and compensation; and working hours. Some of these criteria are covered in other GRI Standards in the 400 series (Social topics).

Full disclosure guidance can be found here: GRI 414 Supplier Social Assessment. Additional disclosures that relate to this topic can also be found in: GRI 308: Supplier Environmental Assessment If the reporting organization has identified both topics as material, it can combine its disclosures for GRI 308 and GRI 414. For example, if the organization uses the same approach for managing both topics, it can provide one combined explanation of its management approach.