EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive: Time To Gear Up For A Huge Opportunity

Executive Summary

This report helps decision-makers responsible for climate and ESG disclosures to understand the implications of the European Commission’s proposed Corporate Sustainability Reporting (CSR) directive. Reflecting the EU’s objective to lead globally on climate and ESG policy, the CSR directive envisages requiring specific disclosures from 49,000 undertakings with more than 250 employees in the EU. The European Commission estimates that internal and external costs associated with the proposed law will hit €1.2 billion in upfront costs and €3.6 billion in annual costs. To understand how software and services firms should develop propositions for this market, the report provides a detailed analysis of the content of sustainability reporting standards drafted by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). To maximize market share, climate and ESG solution providers will need to launch CSR directive offerings in 2022 and fine tune them for client use in 2023.