The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) released the final version of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) on November 15, 2022, which sets out the rules and requirements for reporting on sustainability impacts, opportunities, and risks under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Recently, EFRAG also published a draft guide containing 1178 data entry points related to the ESRS.
EFRAG, in its role as a technical advisor to the EU Commission, has prepared new Sustainability Reporting Standards to enable companies within the scope of the CSRD to report sustainability information in a standardized and common manner, with the aim of ensuring reliable, transparent, auditable, and comparable data access.
The ultimate goal is to establish a global set of standards for reporting on strategies and business models related to sustainability practices, plans, and performance concerning the EU’s upcoming CSRD reporting requirements.
The European Commission announced its adoption of the standards published by EFRAG on July 31, 2023, for companies to report sustainability impacts, opportunities, and risks under the CSRD starting from the beginning of 2024. The CSRD is expected to be a significant update to the existing EU non-financial reporting framework, the 2014 Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD).
EFRAG has released a draft guide containing 1178 data entry points related to the ESRS in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. The guide primarily plans for the highest number of data entries under the heading of climate change. The data provided in this guide is expected to be supplied by companies reporting under the CSRD starting from 2024.
Sustainability reporting standards for SMEs have not been published yet, and there are no plans to release more accessible standards for SMEs in 2024.
The Draft ESRS Data Points List, an Implementation Guide, presents a complete list of all disclosure requirements in sector-agnostic standards in Excel format. The date for the first companies within the scope of the CSRD to begin preparing their sustainability disclosures according to ESRS is indicated as January 1, 2024.
Furthermore, the guide document aims to support companies in preparing their initial sustainability disclosures according to ESRS.
For businesses already reporting ESG data, this list can be used as a basis for comparing existing information.