Directive Deep Dive: CSRD

Welcome to Agriplace's latest edition of the newsletter: the Directive Deep Dive! Today we are jumping headfirst into the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The CSRD is one of the most wide-reaching sustainability directives and applies to companies inside and outside of the EU. It affects many companies indirectly through the supply chain. This newsletter shares the recent CSRD-themed blogs we have shared recently, and updates on the latest news from the CSRD.

Unpacking the CSRD

It is no secret that the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) has been at the top of everyone's minds recently. With the first large businesses publishing their first CSRD-aligned sustainability reports in 2025, people are eager to see what state these reports are in.

The CSRD has come as a response to the minefield of sustainability reporting, it outlines a framework for companies to report and names certain topics and subtopics they are required to report on. The idea is that making a minimum standard of sustainability reporting will encourage businesses to improve processes and it will give consumers the transparency they have been asking for.

The CSRD has one of the largest scopes of sustainability reporting directives to date, affecting 50,000 companies at full compliance. Catch up on our 'CSRD explained' article detailing the ins and outs of who has to report and when. In this article, we explored what the objective of the CSRD is and why reporting is structured the way it is. We delved into the scope and reporting timelines of various organisation types and investigated the impact of the CSRD on supply chains.

A level playing field

The sustainability reporting landscape has grown hugely over the last few years with the addition of the CSRD as an extension of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) as well as the introduction of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), and the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The idea with all of these regulations is to create a level playing field for companies championing sustainability and transparency in their field. The introduction of these new legislations aims to cover the vast majority of companies in different sectors to ensure they are taking accountability for their impacts and allow consumers to make informed choices.

Although the CSRD is an overarching sustainability reporting directive, it can also be a good starting point for companies looking to increase the ROI of Sustainability. Many studies have pointed to the connection between increased sustainability efforts and increased stakeholder engagement and financial returns due to reputation increases and lower risk profiles. In this way, the CSRD can be used to improve your organisation's ROI. Our article Beyond Compliance: How to make CSRD reporting work for your business investigates how businesses can leverage the CSRD to enjoy reputation-related and operational benefits.

Updates to the reporting landscape

Recently, the CSRD has been in the news for a proposed new form of reporting. The proposal is to combine the CSRD, the CSDDD and the taxonomy into an omnibus legislation, merging the three directives. This would essentially mean that all directives would be consolidated into one EU legislation. This is a result of recent criticism about the bureaucratic burden of the three directives. Although President von der Leyen emphasised that the content of the laws would not be changed, it is impossible to predict whether this merging of the rules will lead to a dilution of the standards.

Despite their similar acronyms, the CSRD and CSDDD differ in certain ways. The CSRD focuses on an organisation-wide framework for sustainability reporting, whereas the CSDDD outlines expectations for organisational efforts throughout the value chain. Dive into our CSRD vs CSDDD: Similarities and Differences blog piece to learn more about these differences, and importantly, explore how to successfully harmonise reporting between the two.

Stay tuned for our future Directive Deep Dives, soon we will be uncovering upcoming sustainability directives and sharing valuable insights in compliance and adoption.