Data Amplified Virtual 2022: What does CSRD mean for filers?
With the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) recently passing into EU law, at Data Amplified Henrik Sandin, Director and principal ESG Specialist at Workiva, shared his insights into what this is going to mean for filers in upcoming years.
The key factors to pay attention to with the CSRD, according to Sandin, are the introduction of integrated reporting, assurance, European sustainability reporting standards (ESRS), and electronic tagging. But what do these aspects mean for firms, and how will they interact?
One element Sandin highlighted is that the CSRD is going to see significant disruption to current reporting processes and controls – the mandate means new processes will need to be put in place in order to reconcile financial and non-financial data. The quality and verifiability of data gathered will increase as the requirement for assurance results in a stronger need for oversight over data within the reporting process. The ESRS and XBRL tagging will mean an increase in data points reported upon, resulting in more meaningful, trustworthy data, and improving the accessibility of reports.
The take home? The CSRD means a wholesale change to how sustainability data is gathered, managed and reported within companies. The kind of information that companies will be disclosing will change significantly, and the information will need to stand up to scrutiny. Teams will need to work together in new ways – including increased collaboration between sustainability and finance teams. The result will be higher quality, more useful information. And Sandin’s advice to filers? Although staggered implementation does not begin until 2024, he recommends filers get started as soon as possible.
View the full session from Data Amplified Virtual on YouTube here.
