New study reveals: This is how the EU deals with corporate sustainability!

New study reveals: This is how the EU deals with corporate sustainability!

Europa - Compliance with the new European guidelines on corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD) is becoming increasingly important. According to a current report by Datamaran, which has investigated over 300 companies in Europe, it can be seen that the implementation of these guidelines is not only a legal obligation, but also an opportunity for companies to optimize their sustainability strategy. The report analyzes how companies implement the CSRD and which topics they treat.

In the study "CSRD Reports Uncovered: Insights from a Detailed Analysis of 11,000+ IROS from 300+ Companies" trends are shown in the essentials and the interpretation of the disclosure requirements, which are important for corporate management forces. The analysis showed that negative effects go beyond opportunities - in relation to 3 to 1. 99 % of companies reported about climate change, 98 % about their own workforce and 92 % about business conduct. In contrast, topics such as affected communities, water and biodiversity can only be found in less than half of the reports.

New requirements from the CSRD

The CSRD was introduced to the growing importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in response to the growing importance of corporate. The EU Commission published its proposal in April 2021, and after an agreement between the instances, the guideline came into force on January 5, 2023. This introduces comprehensive changes and significantly expands the scope, so that the number of companies subject to report increases from 11,600 to an estimated 49,000. It applies in particular to large corporations and capital market -oriented small and medium -sized companies (SMEs). However, small companies are excluded from the obligation to report.

According to the new requirements, companies must report comprehensively on their sustainability practices with more than 500 employees from January 1, 2024 and all other large companies from January 1, 2025. The reporting requirements provide for the introduction of the double essence that addresses both the effects of companies on humans and the environment and their financial consequences.

uniform standards and test obligations

The new guideline not only offers extended reporting obligations, but also introduces binding EU standards and an external examination of the sustainability reporting. This examination will initially be carried out with limited security and will later be extended to sufficient security. Sustainability information becomes part of the management report and are subject to the same requirements as financial reporting. A renaming of the "non -financial declaration" into "sustainability reporting" is intended to substantiate this claim.

Bafin will also actively intervene in monitoring and take into account the sustainability reporting in your balance sheet controls. It checks the reporting of capital market -oriented companies to ensure that the new standards are observed.

The results of the DataMaran study based on sustainability reports from 304 companies from 21 countries clarify that many companies still have to deal with challenges in implementing the CSRD guidelines. The average length of the CSRD declarations is 103 pages, which represents an increase compared to previous requirements.

Overall, it can be seen that the CSRD is not only a regulatory instrument, but can also act as a strategic tool for improving transparency and responsibility in the field of company sustainability. Time will show how effective these measures can be implemented in practice.

For more information on the first results of the CSRD rating, please visit Öconews, the CSR in Germany for political backgrounds Bafin for regulatory information.