The European Sustainability Reporting Standards
Since January 2024, the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) have defined how companies in the EU disclose sustainability information under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Built by EFRAG and adopted by the European Commission, ESRS brings the rigour and transparency of financial reporting to ESG: creating a consistent, comparable and decision-useful view of impacts, risks and opportunities. At the core sits double materiality, requiring companies to report both their outward impacts and the financial effects of sustainability matters on the business.
ESRS exists to standardise, elevate and streamline sustainability reporting across Europe so that stakeholders get relevant, comparable and reliable information.
Establishes cross-cutting requirements (ESRS 1: principles and concepts; ESRS 2: general disclosures on governance, strategy, and impact-risk-opportunity management) that apply to all in-scope companies.
Provides topical standards across Environmental, Social and Governance areas for topic-specific disclosures, selected via double materiality. ESRS is not just a checklist—it's a structured approach to embed sustainability into corporate reporting, support the EU Green Deal objectives, and enable better capital allocation throughtransparency.
identify material impacts, risks and opportunities (IROs) using impact and financial materiality; explain the process, criteria, and stakeholder engagement.
describe governance, strategy, impact-risk-opportunity management, and metrics & targets for all material topics.
for relevant E/S/G standards, report policies, actions, targets and metrics; explain methodologies, boundaries and value-chain coverage.
put in place systems to collect, validate and consolidate data; maintain traceability (data lineage) and evidence packs to support assurance.
understand connections to the EU Taxonomy/SFDR, and leverage interoperability with GRI and ISSB to avoid duplication and ensure consistency.
See it on your own data
A short walkthrough with someone who knows the standards — no slide deck.