The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization which acts to increase the level of business transparency by promoting sustainability reporting among companies throughout the world. The main tool for assimilating sustainability reporting is the GRI reporting framework that contains detailed guidelines for reporting on sustainability impacts and provides a consistent structure that thousands of companies around the world now use to disclose their approach and performance related to sustainability. Over 7,000 sustainability reports were published in 2012 by companies all over the world, many of them using the GRI framework.