Sarah Chenoun
Communications Officer, on parental leave
The study on the sustainability disclosures of 100 influential companies from high-impact sectors provides an early reflection on the general readiness for businesses in the EU to meet the expectations of the upcoming EU sustainability rules and standards. Our report contributes to identifying the main challenges, as well as to highlight emerging good practices.
Following the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), large companies will start to report in accordance with the first set of sector-agnostic European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) in 2025.
This legal framework was adopted to enhance and modernise companies reporting on sustainability matters, with the objective of addressing a market failure in providing relevant, comparable and decision-useful sustainability information.
We assessed the presence and quality of key disclosures according to the requirements and expectations of the EU Sustainability Reporting Standards on:
We examined sustainability statements of 100 influential EU companies in top 5 high-impacts sectors prioritised for the development of EU sector standards: Textiles, Finance, Road Transportation, Energy, Food & Beverage.
The evidence and recommendations drawn from this research aims to support
On November 19, we will hold a webinar presenting the key findings and recommendations of the study. We will also put in context the main aspects gaining attention in the political sphere.
Look forward to hearing from:
Due diligence under the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is designed to direct finite corporate resources towards the issues that matter most for people and the environment. At the heart of that effort is prioritisation, defined in Article 9 of the Directive. Having spoken about this topic at the RBA conference this week, I want to share some reflections on what good prioritisation looks like in practice and what pitfalls to avoid.
The Parliament proposal shows that many of the concerns raised through Frank Bold’s research and engagement with policymakers are now entering the legislative mainstream. But the negotiations ahead will determine whether the final framework is capable of addressing the structural weaknesses that continue to undermine trust in the sustainable investment market.
The European Commission has published its draft Delegated Regulation revising the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The revision follows the Omnibus I Simplification Package and is presented as a burden-reduction measure. Some of it is - but a closer reading reveals a set of changes that go well beyond simplification, departing from EFRAG's technical advice and disregarding formal recommendations from the European Supervisory Authorities. Many of these changes have significant implications for the quality and comparability of sustainability data available to the market and public.
