Skip to main content

GRI 416: Customer Health and Safety 2016

EFFECTIVE DATE: 1 JULY 2018

Introduction​

GRI 416: Customer Health and Safety 2016 contains disclosures for organizations to report information about their impacts related to customer health and safety, and how they manage these impacts. The Standard is structured as follows:

  • Section 1 contains a requirement, which provides information about how the organization manages its impacts related to customer health and safety.
  • Section 2 contains two disclosures, which provide information about the organization’s impacts related to customer health and safety.
  • The Glossary contains defined terms with a specific meaning when used in the GRI Standards. The terms are underlined in the text of the GRI Standards and linked to the definitions.
  • The Biblogrpahy lists authoritative intergovernmental instruments used in developing this Standard.

Background on the topic​

This Standard addresses the topic of customer health and safety, including an organization’s systematic efforts to address health and safety across the life cycle of a product or service, and its adherence to customer health and safety regulations and voluntary codes.

These concepts are covered in key instruments of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: see the Bibliography.

1. Topic management disclosures​

An organization reporting in accordance with the GRI Standards is required to report how it manages each of its material topics.

An organization that has determined customer health and safety to be a material topic is required to report how it manages the topic using Disclosure 3-3 in GRI 3: Material Topics 2021 (see clause 1.1 in this section).

This section is therefore designed to supplement – and not replace – Disclosure 3-3 in GRI 3.

REQUIREMENTS​

  • 1.1 The reporting organization shall report how it manages customer health and safety using Disclosure 3-3 in GRI 3: Material Topics 2021.​

GUIDANCE​

  • The reporting organization can also disclose whether the health and safety impacts of products and services are assessed for improvement in each of the following life cycle stages:
    • Development of product concept
    • Research and development
    • Certification
    • Manufacturing and production
    • Marketing and promotion
    • Storage, distribution, and supply
    • Use and service
    • Disposal, reuse, or recycling

2. Topic disclosures​

Disclosure 416-1 Assessment of the health and safety impacts of product and service categories​

REQUIREMENTS​

The reporting organization shall report the following information:

  • a. Percentage of significant product and service categories for which health and safety impacts are assessed for improvement.​

GUIDANCE​

  • This measure helps to identify the existence and range of systematic efforts to address health and safety across the life cycle of a product or service. In reporting the information in Disclosure 416-1, the reporting organization can also describe the criteria used for the assessment.

Disclosure 416-2 Incidents of non-compliance concerning the health and safety impacts of products and services​

REQUIREMENTS​

The reporting organization shall report the following information:

  • a. Total number of incidents of non-compliance with regulations and/or voluntary codes concerning the health and safety impacts of products and services within the reporting period, by:
    • i. incidents of non-compliance with regulations resulting in a fine or penalty;
    • ii. incidents of non-compliance with regulations resulting in a warning;
    • iii. incidents of non-compliance with voluntary codes.

  • b. If the organization has not identified any non-compliance with regulations and/or voluntary codes, a brief statement of this fact is sufficient.​

  • When compiling the information specified in Disclosure 416-2, the reporting organization shall:
    • 2.1 exclude incidents of non-compliance in which the organization was determined not to be at fault;
    • 2.2 exclude incidents of non-compliance related to Incidents related to labeling are reported in Disclosure 417-2 of GRI 417: Marketing and Labelling 2016;
    • 2.3 if applicable, identify any incidents of non-compliance that relate to events in periods prior to the reporting period.

GUIDANCE​

Guidance for Disclosure 416-2
The incidents of non-compliance that occur within the reporting period can relate to incidents formally resolved during the reporting period, whether they occurred in periods prior to the reporting period or not.

Background
Protection of health and safety is a recognized goal of many national and international regulations. Customers expect products and services to perform their intended functions satisfactorily, and not pose a risk to health and safety. Customers have a right to non-hazardous products. Where their health and safety is affected, customers also have the right to seek redress.

This disclosure addresses the life cycle of the product or service once it is available for use, and therefore subject to regulations and voluntary codes concerning the health and safety of products and services.

Bibliography​

This section lists authoritative intergovernmental instruments used in developing this Standard.

  1. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, 2011.