With the new EU legislative proposal coming into place, approximately 50,000 companies in the European Union face the challenge of complying with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
As advisors for management and technologies, we know from exchanges with clients and industry leaders the difficulties and complexities that companies face on their CSRD journey to compliance, so we decided to set up our own methodological framework to support the regulatory endeavors.
The common challenges in ESG reporting
The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) set the basis and guidelines for complying with the new CSRD. While the European Commission continuously refines these guidelines, the complexity of the reporting remains a significant challenge, as non-financial reporting and ESG data collection is new to many businesses. While some companies already incorporate their sustainability progress into annual or sustainability reports, adhering to standards like GRI, many have yet to embark on their ESG reporting journey.
Regardless of their familiarity with the topic, we observe several common challenges that businesses face:
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Data
Many firms have started measuring ESG data, but the data is often scattered, with data collection complex due to the low maturity of subsidiaries and simplified analysis and tools, e.g., Excel.
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Governance structure
Businesses will face annual CSRD audits; thus, the roles, responsibilities, processes, and overall organizational structure must be clearly defined.
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Value chain
The involvement of the entire organization is needed, meaning collaboration within the firm and more so with its subsidiaries, suppliers, and clients, requiring complexity management and stakeholder management.
Our methodology is based on six distinguished steps that are key for every CSRD project:
Our principles and ways of working differentiate our CSRD approach:
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Tailored
- to your business, ensuring an approach that fits well with your company’s ambition, strategy, governance, capabilities, and sector requirements.
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Impact-driven
- and gradual to reduce company impacts while limiting the workload.
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Comprehensive
- ensuring high-quality, so your report covers the accurate material topics, evaluates your entire value chain, and offers reliable assurance against audits.
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Educational
- to transfer knowledge to your company and enable you to achieve compliance.
Let's embark together on your CSRD journey to enable compliance and fundamental sustainable transformation.
