Article 3: Did you know there were 2 versions of the BRSR?

Recently, we shared a trivia question on?Sustainability101 LinkedIn Page?asking:

For companies that have not been mandated to produce an ESG report. What format of BRSR has SEBI voluntarily asked them to adopt?

So, here is the explanation for the above-mentioned question.

BRSR Comprehensive, BRSR Lite, BRSR Core, NGRBC?

In recent times, the reality of Climate Change has hit the World hard and opened its eyes for a transition towards more sustainable, inclusive, and equitable growth. Investors, stakeholders, and other capital providers are increasingly seeking the business to be more responsible and sustainable towards the environment and society. So reporting a company’s performance on sustainability-related factors (ESG Factors) has become very important.

Several international Standards and frameworks are developed across the globe for Sustainability Reporting.

In this context, SEBI has introduced a new reporting format for #ESG parameters called the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR).

• BRSR aims for disclosure in Environment, Social and Governance components under the nine principles of NGRBC and aims to produce a quantitative and standardized disclosure of E, S &G parameters.
• BRSR enables comparability across companies, sectors, and time concerning ESG parameters and will help investors make better investment decisions.?
• The BRSR enables companies to engage more meaningfully with their stakeholders by encouraging them to look beyond financial aspects but also to focus on the social and environmental impacts of a company’s business.

Two formats are proposed for the BRSR.

BRSR Comprehensive for the listed organisations, and

BRSR Lite for the non-listed organisations.

The BRSR Lite is a lighter version of the BRSR Comprehensive meant for non-listed organizations.         

As it will be difficult for non-listed organizations to report on all elements listed in the comprehensive BRSR format due to their lack of experience of non-financial reporting.

The BRSR Comprehensive seeks disclosures from listed entities on their performance against the nine principles of the ‘National Guidelines on? Responsible? Business? Conduct(NGBRCs). The reporting under each principle is divided into essential and leadership indicators.

The Listed entities under the BRSR Comprehensive report should mandatorily report on both essential indicators and leadership indicators.?

The non-listed entities under BRSR Lite should mandatorily report on essential indicators but disclosure under leadership indicators is on a voluntary basis.?

BRSR Lite seeks only the information that smaller companies are able to provide.

The Lite version was made with the intention of having even the MSME (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises) organisations a part of the BRSR reporting.

Note -NGRBC- National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) are a set of guidelines and principles established by The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Government of India, to provide guidance and to assist businesses to have responsible business conduct and regulatory compliance.

About us: At?Sustainability 101, we are demystifying the dynamic sector of ESG through our content, workshops, Bootcamp and Events! Want to be part of our thriving ESG community?

Join our what's app community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/FNSSLK2XGRRJRv0RC4r8q8

Writer and Graphics: Pratiksha More