Chapter 7:

Tips from our experts

We know this is a lot to consider, with so many steps and moving parts to keep track of. That’s why we’ve pulled in our experts to share their top tips when it comes to your CSRD disclosures.

From their experience with customers on this journey, here are three things they recommend:

Engage your finance teams early

Oftentimes, customers look at this disclosure as merely a sustainability report which is worked on in isolation by the sustainability team. The data is siloed with only a small team uncovering it, but it is much deeper than this. This disclosure should be thought of at the same level as financial reporting, as it has implications for major financial aspects of your business.

Since the information you’re publishing can have such a powerful impact on your business outlook to investors and potential shareholders, you must engage your finance teams early. This includes stakeholders like your CFO so they can own this process. It may be difficult to get their buy-in, with so much on their plate already, but here’s what our experts suggest.

Include them in the process early, during your materiality assessment for instance, so they can be a part of the journey and see the actual output. This may be new to a lot of CFO’s and finance teams who don’t really know much about the CSRD, let alone sustainability matters. This will help them comprehend things at a deeper level and have a greater sense of understanding of what is reported.

Familiarise yourself with transitional provisions

When it comes to data collection and gap analysis, customers often worry when they don’t have good data or policies on the elements which are material to their business. This creates a large gap which many feel they might struggle to resolve. But don’t worry - our experts have a solution!

In these cases, you should take the time to familiarise yourself with transitional provisions for certain topics. Organisations can defer disclosure of data on such topics to a future date, so they have ample time to introduce processes to collect quality information. Of course you can’t do this for all sustainability matters, but it can be applicable to certain elements.

This is included as part of your gap analysis, where you identify what you have and what may be difficult for you to obtain. Within your report, you must disclose your strategy and action plan for getting this data in the future.

To get a deeper understanding of this topic, please refer to the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772.

Utilise sustainability software to help streamline the process

Finally, our experts recommend using a sustainability software to make this process smoother. “The intent of the CSRD is to elevate ESG reporting to the same level and importance as financial reporting. These non-financial reports should also be managed in the same way; you need transparent, auditable processes which enable you to have confidence in what you disclose externally,” said Neil MacRae, EcoOnline’s product manager for ESG and data intelligence.

Software can offer you that confidence and clarity because it gives you a 360-degree view into all elements related to ESG, so you can get an accurate picture of where your organisation stands. Using paper or Excel spreadsheets is not conducive and can even exacerbate things, with so many elements to keep track of.

Neil shared, “Spreadsheets and manual processes will frustrate the business and increase the risk of non-compliance. Only dedicated software can support an organisation to really manage the CSRD reporting process.”