European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)
ESRS stands for the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) to be used by all companies subject to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
The standards cover the full range of environmental, social, and governance issues, including climate change, biodiversity and human rights.
They provide information for investors to understand the sustainability impact of the companies in which they invest.
They also take account of discussions with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in order to ensure a very high degree of interoperability between EU and global standards and to prevent unnecessary double reporting by companies.
ESRS take a “double materiality” perspective – companies are obliged to report both on their impacts on people and the environment, and on how social and environmental issues create financial risks and opportunities for the company. ESRS 1 (“General Requirements”) sets general principles to be applied when reporting according to ESRS and does not itself set specific disclosure requirements. ESRS 2 (“General Disclosures”) specifies essential information to be disclosed irrespective of which sustainability matter is being considered. All the other standards and the individual disclosure requirements and data points within them are subject to a materiality assessment.