Implementing the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive: Challenges, Opportunities, and Emerging Practices

Éditeurs invités

• Diogenis Baboukardos, Audencia Business School
• Begoña Giner, Universitat de València
• Ronita Ram, University of Reading
• Frank Schiemann, University of Bamberg

Synthèse

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), adopted by the European Union in 2022, represents a major transformation in corporate sustainability disclosure regulation. The directive expands the scope of affected companies, introduces European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) covering environmental, social, and governance topics, and mandates third-party assurance. However, these changes present significant implementation challenges for companies, assurance providers, and information users. In 2025, the EU proposed amendments through an 'Omnibus' package aiming to simplify reporting requirements and reduce compliance burdens, though these changes have created uncertainty and raised concerns about potentially weakening the EU's sustainability leadership.

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Thèmes proposés

• The role of CSRD/ESRS to fulfil investors and other stakeholders' needs and be a strategic mechanism to enhance Europe's competitiveness, resilience, and capacity for innovation
• Implementation challenges: Practical hurdles or burdens faced by companies in adopting CSRD/ESRS, including data collection, stakeholder engagement, and materiality assessment
• Benefits of the EU transparency disclosure framework: The economic, operational, and reputational effects of CSRD/ESRS implementation
• Interactions and alignment between ESRS and global frameworks: How ESRS aligns (or conflicts) with other frameworks, such as GRI or IFRS S1 & S2, and the implications, especially for multinational companies
• Regulatory, institutional, and political dynamics: Institutional and political forces impacting the CSRD's evolution, including the role of EFRAG and EU member states
• Sector-specific disclosure challenges: Unique hurdles and burdens faced by different sectors, such as finance, energy, manufacturing, or technology, in meeting CSRD requirements
• Implications of CSRD for audit firms and assurance providers: The evolving role of auditors, the requirements for the development of assurance standards, and the impacts of the CSRD/Omnibus on the capacity of the assurance market to meet demand
• Implications of CSRD for small and medium-sized enterprises and non-European companies: Direct and indirect effects of the CSRD/Omnibus on small and medium-sized enterprises and non-EU firms operating in or trading with the EU
• Comparative perspectives: Variations in CSRD implementation across EU member states, including differences in national enforcement
• Critical perspectives: Risks of greenwashing, standard overload, and compliance-driven reporting, as well as (threats to) the potential for the CSRD to drive meaningful sustainability outcomes
• CSRD impact beyond the EU: CSRD's influence on sustainability reporting regulation and practices in non-EU countries and its role in shaping global standards