Sustainability reporting: CSRD and ESRS
The new requirements for how companies document their responsibility
Sustainability has gone from being voluntary nice words to being something companies must be able to document in line with their economics. The EU has introduced common rules for how larger companies should report on their impact on climate environment and people. This changes what many workplaces need to be able to measure and display.
§What is CSRD?
CSRD stands for Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive — the EU directive on sustainability reporting. It requires covered companies to report on their sustainability according to common, comparable rules so the information becomes reliable and auditable — instead of each company describing it in its own way.
§ESRS — the common language
The actual content of reporting is set out in a set of standards called ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards). They describe what should be reported on — for example climate pollution water biodiversity own employees and business conduct. The standards ensure that two companies report on the same things in a comparable way.
§Double materiality
A central principle in the new reporting is double materiality. This means the company must look both at how its activities affect the world — climate environment and people — and how sustainability conditions affect the company itself for example economic risks from climate change. Both perspectives must be included.
§Why data becomes important for everyone
- 01En stor kunde kan kræve dokumentation, før den vil handle med jer
- 02The reporting must be verifiable, so the figures must be substantiated
- 03What cannot be documented doesn't count — no matter how good it sounds
- 04Reliable data presupposes careful registration in daily life
§Greenwashing becomes harder
When sustainability must be reported according to fixed standards and can be checked it becomes more difficult to present something as greener than it is. This is one of the intentions: to shift focus from marketing to documented facts. For companies that are actually making an effort it is an advantage – their work can now be seen in black and white.
§What does it mean for you?
For most employees the new requirements do not mean you must know the rules by heart. But it means that daily recording of consumption waste working conditions and incidents becomes more important because it becomes part of something the company must stand for publicly. Care with data has become part of doing your job responsibly.
Sustainability reporting is systemized because trust requires documentation. Those who understand that their registration is a building block in a comprehensive, auditable account contribute to ensuring the company's green commitments actually hold.