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:
The revised EU Sustainability Reporting Standards have been significantly reduced down to just one-third of the original disclosures.
Under intense pressure to cut reporting obligations and prioritise deregulation over transparency and safeguards against greenwashing, Europe's leadership in setting sustainability standards is at risk. While the new standards provide a functional framework, their application relies on companies approaching implementation in good faith.
For the first time, the European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament is relying on the support of the anti-European, right-wing groups to pass a legislative text - its position on the Omnibus 1 simplification package. This represents a clean break with the cordon sanitaire that previously kept such alliances off-limits.
As Europe’s sustainability reporting rules face intense political scrutiny, a new analysis by Frank Bold provides timely evidence that the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is already driving meaningful change in practice.
