We’re making sure our clients are ready for the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which comes into effect on January 1st, 2024. It expands the existing Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) from 12,000 to 50,000 companies.

Does CSRD apply to you? Even if it doesn't directly apply to your organization, you will still need to collect CSRD specific data when your investors are subject to the regulation. So, are you ready? Check out this article for a quick intro to CSRD.

The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), comparable to the SEC in the United States, recently completed an exploratory study into companies’ climate reporting and the related assurance provided by audit firms and found that there was still a lot of work to be done in a short amount of time. The report, in Dutch, can be found here.

A few highlights from the report that are worth noting:

• The AFM recommends more investment and faster uptake in IT-systems and processes regarding sustainability data, not least of all to make data more transparent and ensure that it is trustworthy.

We agree! The size of data sets and complexity around data, analysis, reporting and roadmapping mean that working with spreadsheets and mis- or un-aligned systems is no longer tenable. Scaler has been built specifically to address these problems with the best-in-class technology and engineering of today to ensure that we’re ready to meet the challenges of the industry today and in the future. You can read more about how Scaler can address issues with data collection here and how we are helping clients increase the quality of their data here.

• Most organisations aren’t collecting Scope 3 emissions, which is required under CSRD. They’ll also need to engage with suppliers and other stakeholders like tenants, from whom data is also required.

With Scaler’s Survey Tool, you can engage with and manage data collection from an unlimited number of stakeholders. With a quick and easy way to reach out to tenants for consumption data, you don’t need to worry about more complex and time-consuming processes like obtaining data from tenants.

• The assurance of data becomes necessary for all companies under CSRD, but the AFM notes that there is a shortage of capacity and expertise both within reporting companies themselves and audit firms.

We believe assurance is a great step toward alignment across the industry and a move toward better data. The Scaler Platform is already set up with a complete audit trail to make the process efficient and effective for our clients and the audit firms they engage with. We work with accounting firms to understand their requirements and capacity, so that all of our clients are ready to report through CSRD directly from the Scaler platform, in the same way that we prepare them for other reporting requirements like GRI, GRESB, SFDR and EU Taxonomy.

We also design our analytic tools and dashboards in order to make the insights accessible by all stakeholders. We work closely with clients and partners to ensure that we meet their needs and that user-friendly design is at the core of our development.

With a little over 8 months left to prepare, get in touch to learn how we can support your business and ensure you are ready for CSRD on January 1st.