EU Companies Need to be Ready for CSRD in 2025

With the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) poised to transform the landscape of corporate transparency in Europe, companies must act swiftly and strategically to prepare for the new reporting requirements set to commence in 2025. The directive mandates comprehensive sustainability disclosures that go beyond traditional financial reporting, encompassing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors.

Obstacles to CSRD Implementation

Common challenges to CSRD adoption include:

• Dealing with disparate data sources, which can significantly extend the time needed to prepare data for CSRD reporting.
• Reliance on manual data collection, updates, and Excel-driven reporting processes further complicates the situation, as these methods are often time-consuming and prone to errors.
• Poor data quality and inadequate data governance can lead to difficulties in auditing and certification, making it challenging for organizations to meet the stringent requirements of the CSRD.

Six Key Capabilities That Will Help Accelerate CSRD Readiness

As the CSRD introduces more stringent and comprehensive reporting requirements, European companies must leverage technology to meet these new standards effectively. Preparing for CSRD reporting in 2025 from a technology standpoint involves several key actions.

To meet the stringent CSRD reporting requirements in 2025, EU organizations need advanced technical solutions to manage and analyze extensive sustainability data. Implementing robust data management systems, real-time data collection through IoT devices, and big data analytics will ensure accurate, timely, and comprehensive reporting. AI and machine learning can automate data processing and analysis and using user-friendly reporting dashboards can further streamline the reporting process and ensure regulatory compliance.?

Expedite Your CSRD Journey with TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange?

TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange? for sustainability is a cutting-edge decisioning and reporting tool designed to simplify and streamline sustainability reporting, aligning seamlessly with the CSRD regulations.? Whether your organization is well-versed in sustainability reporting or just beginning its journey, TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange? for sustainability offers robust solutions to meet your CSRD compliance needs.

AI-ML Powered Sustainability

TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange? for sustainability provides companies with actionable AI-ML insights into emission and resource usage patterns, helping them identify opportunities for cost savings and carbon footprint reduction.? It also enables businesses to monitor and manage their resource utilization more effectively, driving operational efficiencies.? Additionally, the platform offers predictive analytics that forecast potential sustainability challenges, allowing companies to proactively address them and align with environmental goals that include:

• Forecasting of emissions, water, and waste
• Benchmarking operating entities, divisions, and processes, and obtain recommendations to improve performance
• Simulating value chain for optimization recommendations
• Improving source mix optimization to reduce carbon emissions
• Assess suppliers and vendors to improve supply chain sustainability

Seamless Integration for Established Systems

For organizations with existing sustainability reporting systems, TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange? for sustainability integrates effortlessly with your current tools, ingesting all relevant data required for CSRD reporting. This integration brings several key benefits:

• Automation of CSRD Reporting: By connecting with your existing tools, TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange? automates the CSRD reporting process, significantly reducing manual efforts.
• Automated Data Collection: The platform conducts automated assessments to gather both qualitative and quantitative data from various stakeholders across the organization.
• Strict Data Governance: With maker-checker functionality, TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange? ensures rigorous data governance, maintaining high data integrity.
• Data Auditability: Built-in audit reports provide complete transparency and traceability, making data verification straightforward.
• Versatile Report Generation: The tool can generate reports in multiple formats, including PDF and Word, to meet diverse stakeholder requirements.
• XBRL Support: TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange? supports XBRL, facilitating digital filing of reports as required by regulatory bodies.

Comprehensive Support for Newcomers

For organizations new to sustainability reporting, TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange? for sustainability offers powerful capabilities to generate necessary sustainability metrics (ESG metrics) using your organization’s existing activity data. These calculated metrics are seamlessly incorporated into CSRD reports, delivering several advantages:

• Automated Metrics Calculation: The platform automates the calculation of sustainability metrics, ensuring accuracy and consistency in your reports.
• Integrated Reporting: Sustainability metrics are automatically populated into the CSRD reporting module, streamlining the report generation process.
• Stakeholder Data Capture: The assessment module efficiently captures data from various stakeholders within the organization.
• Digitized Data Governance: Complete digitization of data capture processes, supported by maker-checker functionality, ensures robust data governance.
• Regulatory Flexibility: The highly configurable tool adapts to the evolving regulatory environment, keeping your reporting compliant with the latest standards.
• Built-in Traceability and Auditability: Data traceability and auditability are embedded in the tool, enhancing transparency and accountability.

Enhancing Efficiency for Sustainability Managers

TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange? for sustainability automates and digitizes the entire reporting process, significantly reducing the workload for sustainability managers. The tool streamlines assessments, approvals, and report generation, making it an ideal fit for organizations mandated to start CSRD reporting next year.

By choosing TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange for sustainability, your organization not only ensures compliance with CSRD requirements but also adopts a comprehensive solution that enhances your overall sustainability reporting process. Embrace TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange? for sustainability to navigate the complexities of CSRD reporting with ease and confidence.

About Tata Consultancy Services

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that has been partnering with many of the world’s largest businesses in their transformation journeys for over 56 years. Its consulting-led, cognitive powered, portfolio of business, technology and engineering services and solutions is delivered through its unique Location Independent Agile? delivery model, recognized as a benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata group, India's largest multinational business group, TCS has over 601,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 55 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $29 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024, and is listed on the BSE and the NSE in India. TCS' proactive stance on climate change and award-winning work with communities across the world have earned it a place in leading sustainability indices such as the MSCI Global Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good Emerging Index.

Learn More:

Visit the TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange? page on https://www.tcs.com

Email us to request a demo or more information: [email protected]

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About the Author:

Doug Tinning is the Director of Product Marketing for the TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange solution suite at Tata Consultancy Services.? In over 20 years of experience Douglas has held number of technical and sales roles at a number of tech companies ranging from startups to Fortune 50 organizations.