In April 2021, the European Commission adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) which requires companies to report on their sustainability performance. We guide companies on their sustainability journey, from getting started, to reporting and all the way to maximizing the value of their sustainable practices.
We are big fans of CSRD because it is more than just a directive for sustainable reporting - it is ensuring that we are fostering a sustainable development in favor of people and the environment.
It is pointing at a comprehensive list sustainability topics that might be relevant to a given company, which helps uncover risks and opportunities and makes it so impactful and inspiring to work with.
Thanks to CSRD, stakeholders and investors will more easily be able to compare companies' sustainability efforts, and hence be able to assess investment risks arising from climate change and other sustainability issues. This helps in making better decisions on where to place capital and other interests.
Through your CSRD work, you are setting up your organisation on a long term path to sustainability. You can communicate not only what impactful initiatives you are taking, but also prove it with standardized measures that are fully transparent. This eventually also helps in eliminating social and green washing.
Part of the CSRD is the development of common standards for reliable and comparable sustainability information, called the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). It is therefore beneficial for you to start aligning to CSRD as soon as possible, as the standards allow companies to now set a clear direction for their sustainability management; relevant topics can be integrated into and implemented into business strategy, which in turn will create value for all stakeholders.
Independent of the size of your organization, aligning to the standards will help companies to communicate and manage their sustainability performance more efficiently.
Hence, the earlier you start, the more risk you can take off the table and the more value you can create for the long term.
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Companies that are already reporting according to the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) with 500+ employees. In 2021, in Germany, the NFRD was updated into the Corporate Social Responsibility Richtlinie-Umsetzungsgesetz (CSR-RUG).
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Companies meeting two of the following three conditions
1) €40 million in Net Turnover
2) €20 million in Assets
3) 250+ employees
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Listed SMEs meeting two of the following three conditions will report according to a simplified listed (LSME) standard.
1) €700K in Net Turnover
2) €350K in Assets
3) 10+ employees
SMEs may opt out of Fiscal Year 2027 and 2028 reporting.
A Voluntary sustainability reporting standard for non-listed SME (VSME) is in development by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). Publication is not expected before late 2024.
In addition, non-EU companies will need to report in 2029 if their Net Turnover is €150+ million for two consecutive financial years and they have a subsidiary or branch in the EU.
The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) are newly introduced standards that affect all reporting entities in the EU that need to comply with CSRD. The ESRS were developed by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), which is responsible for the development and adjustments of the reporting standards. The first set of 12 sector-agnostic standards have been adopted by the European Commission and as of October 21, 2023, are fully integrated into the European legal framework.
To comply with the CSRD, companies will be required to use the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) which includes the ESG areas of Environmental, Social and Governance. Companies need to further give general disclosures on how they are applying governance, strategy, impact, risks & opportunities in each of these areas, as well as what targets they have and what metrics they are using.
In other words, the CSRD is more than just disclosing information, companies also need to disclose their targets and their progress towards reaching those targets.
The concept of double materiality provides criteria for deciding what sustainability matters to report on. Sustainability matters are those topics where the company has an impact on people or the environment, or those topics that result in risks or opportunities for the company.
Yes, a digital XBRL Taxonomy is being designed for companies to report in a structured, machine-readable data format, so that the sustainability data is comparable across companies. Companies will digitally tag (or
mark-up) sustainability information within their current human-readable reporting format.
If a business is guilty of non-compliance with the CSRD, it can expect three possible penalties: a public termination; an order to change conduct; and/or a financial punishment. The CSRD also makes it mandatory for companies to have an audit of the sustainability information that they report.
The CSRD is a commitment sprung from the initiatives taken under the European Green Deal, which aims to make Europe into the first climate-neutral continent. The overarching target is to reduce the EU's net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% before 2030 (compared to the levels in 1990).
The ESAP will offer a single access point for public financial and sustainability-related information about EU companies and EU investment products. This will give companies more visibility towards investors, opening up more sources of financing. This is particularly important for small companies in small capital markets, as they will more easily be on the radar screen of EU, but also international investors.
The ESAP will also contain sustainability-related information published by companies, which will support the objectives of the European Green Deal. As a common data space, the ESAP is a fundamental enabler of the EU's Digital Strategy and the Digital Finance Strategy. The ESAP platform is expected to be available from summer 2027 and gradually phased in to allow for a robust implementation.
Source: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-an-economy-that-works-for-people/file-european-single-access-point
We expect that reports would possibly end up at around 50-60 pages (rough idea) for most companies.
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