Regulation & framework

CSRD

EU law requiring large and listed companies to publish sustainability information to the same standard as their financial statements — comparable, assured by a third party, and covering the full value chain rather than just their own operations.

CoreEUPhased from FY2024well covered

What it is

CSRD is the reason sustainability reporting stopped being voluntary in Europe. It requires companies in scope to report against a defined set of standards, to cover impacts across their value chain, and to have that reporting independently assured. The scope has been revised since the directive was introduced, so who is captured and from which year is worth checking against the current text rather than early summaries. What hasn't changed is the shape of the obligation. Three things follow from it almost immediately: you have to decide what is material using a two-directional test, you have to account for emissions you don't directly control, and you have to be able to show an auditor where every number came from. Most companies discover the third one last, and it is the one that takes longest to fix.

Why it matters

It moves sustainability reporting out of the marketing department and into the audit cycle. Once an external auditor has to sign off on your emissions figures, the question stops being what you can claim and becomes what you can evidence.

How it connects

Commonly confused with

ESRS — CSRD is the law that requires reporting; ESRS is the set of standards you report against.

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