CSRD Knowledgebase

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is a regulation from the European Union that requires companies to report on the impact of corporate activities on the environment and society, and requires the audit (assurance) of reported information.

The main goal of the CSRD is to increase the economic flow towards more sustainable business models throughout the European Union. To achieve that feat, it aims at placing the ESG reporting on an equal footing with financial reporting.

The reporting obligations are defined in the CSRD Annex I, which contains the following 12 volumes of European Sustainability reporting Standards (ESRS): 1 - General requirements 2 - General disclosures E1 - Climate change E2 - Pollution E3 - Water and marine resources E4 - Biodiversity and ecosystems E5 - Resource use and circular economy S1 - Own workforce S2 - Workers in the value chain S3 - Affected communities S4 - Consumers and end users G1 - Business conduct For further details go here.

Yes, see details here, Disclosure Requirement E1-6

Not yet, as the current reporting requirements are sector-agnostic. The aim is to develop sector-specific reporting standards within the next two years.

The ESRS were developed by the EFRAG, previously known as the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, an independent body bringing together various different stakeholders.

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is the overall EU regulation. The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) correspond to the Annex I of this regulation, which specifies the new reporting obligations of companies subject to the CSRD. For further information, see here.

12. For further details see here.

Disclosure Requirements are components of the ESRS, which specify what companies must specifically report. For further details see here.

100, including 82 “core” and 18 “related to”. For further details download the “ESRS Master” file from this page.

The 12 Disclosure Requirements of ESRS 2, the “related to IRO” Disclosure Requirements from ESRS E1 to E5 and G1, and the “related to SBM2” Disclosure Requirements from ESRS S1 to S4 are mandatory for all companies subject to the CSRD. All other Disclosure Requirements are mandatory if deemed material.

Each Disclosure Requirement contains several Data Points. For further details see here.

1541 (as of December 22 2023). For further details download the “ESRS Master” file available from this page.

The XBRL taxonomy has more than 1000 data points with a wide range of types, e.g. GHG emissions, water & energy consumptions, headcount, pollution, etc. having unique defintions for every data point.As of December 22nd, 2023, it is still in preparation.

Once approved, the XBRL taxonomy will supersede the datapoints.

The CSRD applies to all European companies exceeds at least two of the following three thresholds: 250 employees, Annual sales of 50M€, Balance sheet of 40M€. No-EU companies are also subject to the CSRD if their annual sales exceed 150M€ in the EU. There are other rules and exceptions, so it is advised to consult your legal counsel to guarantee a proper interpretation.

46,000

Yes, if they meet certain criteria. See previous questions for details.

Yes, if they meet the abovementioned criteria.

Yes, the CSRD is replacing the NFRD (Non-Financial Reporting Directive).

The EU Taxonomy is a classification system for sustainable economic activities that is applied within the CSRD and SFDR.

While CSRD requires large corporates to compare their sustainability performance with the EU Taxonomy, SFDR mandates financial market entities to disclose how their product line aligns with the same taxonomy.

While the CSRD requirement broadly aligns with the TCFD's recommendations, it goes further in scope and requires organizations to report additional information.

No, but it is expected that most companies will move away from GRI, as this will be redundant with their reporting under the CSRD. GRI is mostly going to be a source of guidance, especially for sector-specific impact materiality.

No, however, companies operating under multiple jurisdictions will have to report under both standards. For this reason, EFRAG (who authored the ESRS) and ISSB (who authored the IFRS S1 and S2 standards) have been working closely together to ensure maximum interoperability between both standards.

There is no direct relationship between the CSRD and the SASB standards, as the former is sector-agnostic while the latter is exclusively sector-specific. For further details on the SASB standards, see The SASB Standards: Powerful tools for companies and investors to optimize sustainability performance.

For now, ISSB only covers General Requirements (IFRS S1, scope similar to ESRS 1 and 2) and Climate Change (IFRS S2, scope similar to ESRS E1). ISSB is expected to publish other standards in the upcoming years that will eventually cover all ESRS topics.

Yes for all European companies meeting the criteria described in the “Companies subject to the CSRD” section.

Undertaking a 'double materiality' assessment is mandatory under the CSRD.

Under the CSRD, Double Materiality means looking at the materiality (in other words significance) of sustainability matters from two different perspective: • The potential effect of changes in the ESG landscape on the company’s financial performance (financial materiality, “outside in”) • The impact that a company’s activities have on Sustainability matters (impact materiality, ‘inside out)

In ESRS 1 paragraph AR16, the CSRD defines a list of 92 sustainability-related topics (referred to as “sustainability matters”), which a recommended as the starting point to conduct a double materiality assessment. To access the list of sustainability matters click here.

Entity-specific disclosures correspond reporting elements that the company decides to add to the CSRD reporting scope because they were deemed material through the double materiality assessment and are not covered by the ESRS.

Yes. Limited assurance during the first two years, turning subsequently into reasonable assurance.

If a business is guilty of non-compliance with the CSRD, it can expect administrative sanctions and three possible penalties: a public denunciation; an order to change conduct; and financial punishment.

This will vary by country. It is expected that typically companies that fail to report and comply with the CSRD face fines of up to 10 million Euros or 5% of their annual revenue.