Significant Spills (G4-EN24) Methodology

This metric is based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Guidelines. It covers one of the reporting requirements of Indicator G4-EN24 - 'Total number and volume of significant spills'.

Spills of chemicals, oils, and fuels can have significant negative impacts on the surrounding environment, potentially affecting soil, water, air, biodiversity, and human health. The systematic effort to avoid spills of hazardous materials is directly linked to the organization’s compliance with regulations, its financial risk from the loss of raw materials, remediation costs, the risk of regulatory action, as well as damage to reputation. This Indicator also serves as an indirect measure for evaluating the monitoring skills of the organization.

For WikiRate researchers:

Companies who align reports to GRI’s Sustainability Reporting Standards often include a GRI Content Index or Annex where GRI disclosures, with GRI codes, are listed.

• Use the GRI Index, CTRL F, Command F or search button on source preview to search for this index and metrics within the report

• Use G4 codes, G3 codes or keywords to quickly find values, keeping in mind that some companies report on the metric using different terms, e.g. G4-EN24, EN24 or spills

• Always check the metric question and methodology for the unit of measure or currency - researchers may need to carry out calculations or conversions before entering the final metric value

• Add comments documenting exactly where within the source you found the information (page number) and include details of simple or complex calculations or conversions made to determine the metric value

• If you are unable to locate a metric value in a source you can search for additional sources where the data is available and add a new source

Further guidance on how to research values for GRI-based metrics is available here, including detailed guidance on adding, editing and Checking metric values.

Global Reporting Initiative compliance guidance for companies:

To calculate the total number and volume of recorded significant spills - G4-EN24-a:

• Identify the total number of all recorded significant spills.

• Identify the total volume of all recorded significant spills.

Reporting on this Indicator should include the following contextual information as a comment to the metric value. For spills that were reported include the additional information for each spill in the comments section:

• Location of spill

• Volume of spill

• Material of spill, categorized by:

  • Oil spills (soil or water surfaces)

  • Fuel spills (soil or water surfaces)

  • Spills of wastes (soil or water surfaces

  • Spills of chemicals (mostly soil or water surfaces)

  • Other (to be specified by the organization)

G4-EN24-c: ​Report the impacts of significant spills.