The European Commission recently adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and finalised the guidelines for mandatory sustainability reporting.
Among other things, these new guidelines aim to steer investors towards sustainable investments, in order to promote sustainable and inclusive growth. From the 2025 financial year onwards, large companies will be required to report on sustainability under the CSRD.
SMEs may also be asked to provide non-financial information to stakeholders who are required to comply with the CSRD, even if they themselves are not required to comply with the CSRD. When reporting on sustainability, the CSRD requires the use of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards as the reporting framework.
The following sustainability topics are identified in the draft ESRS as topics on which reporting is required:
Mandatory assurance for sustainability reporting
The CSRD requires sustainability information to be audited in order to ensure the reliability of the reporting. To achieve this, ‘limited assurance’ will need to be obtained for the sustainability information included in the annual report. This may later change to a requirement to obtain ‘reasonable assurance’ in relation to sustainability reporting.
Sustainability information forms part of the management report and is subject to “digital tagging” (XBRL)
The aim is to publish sustainability information as a clearly identifiable section of the management report in order to improve the readability and recognisability of sustainability reporting. Companies required to comply with the CSRD must file their annual accounts and annual report in Standard Business Reporting (SBR), which is the national standard for the exchange of all corporate reports, such as annual accounts. The CSRD adds a digital taxonomy for sustainability information to SBR, and companies must then ‘digitally tag’ this information.
How to report in accordance with the CSRD guidelines
Many companies do not yet have any experience of reporting on sustainability information and have not yet adapted their information systems accordingly. Furthermore, more information is expected regarding the sustainability of business models, ethical conduct and internal controls. Thorough and timely preparation is therefore essential to be able to report in accordance with the CSRD standards from the 2025 financial year onwards.
Below is an overview of the steps and key questions required to produce reliable and relevant reports.
Steps in sustainability reporting & guiding questions
Step 1: Appointing a designated officer
Step 2: Sustainability criteria that must be met
Step 3: Data quality and internal reporting
Step 4: Drafting and publishing a report on sustainability criteria
Further information
The CSRD has far-reaching implications, primarily for large companies that have not yet been required to report on non-financial information, but also for smaller organisations that form part of these large companies’ value chains. Would you like to know more about the directive, reporting requirements, or do you have any other questions? Please feel free to contact us for a no-obligation discussion. Michael Driessen MSc RA.