How To Verify Your Sustainability Work in Line with the New CSRD!

50 000 companies in the EU are affected and mandatory reporting is required on CSRD.

Get ready, we will be hearing a lot more about it...

Sustainability - a Hot Market

A lot has happened in the Sustainability Market in the last few years. The global green tech & sustainability market is forecasted to reach?USD 48.36 billion by 2027 ?according to Allied Market Research.

All kinds of companies and brands are starting to use the word "sustainable", net-zero, and 100% slave-free in their marketing. Whether it's a t-shirt made from ethical cotton or an "eco" car - companies are increasingly keen to show off their green credentials. At worst, they make claims based on manipulated or biased research.

On the surface, this is good news. The climate crisis is the biggest threat to our existence, so if companies promise to reduce their carbon footprint, shouldn't we celebrate?

Well,

NO!?Read this article and you will understand!

Also, Investors are eager to invest in sustainable companies or impact companies - because they see that Sustainability is the future. However, they also believe ethical businesses will deliver better investment returns.

Investors are increasingly considering companies’ Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) activities when making investment decisions, and this sustainability trend will continue to accelerate.

Why lack of transparency and standardization creates an uncertain world

Data availability, quality, and comparability are critical to the success of ESG investments. Until now, the available data have not yet been sufficiently comparable.

While third-party ESG data providers help gather information about companies' sustainability performance, their different methods limit the relevance of ESG scores. This lack of standardization is worsened by in-house developed methods and a lack of transparency around data collection, materiality, aggregation, and metric weighting.

Companies that use terms like “green" are not bound by any regulatory marketing standards. It allows several brands to advertise themselves with misleading claims and untruthful products.

In a world where greenwashing and fake news occurs, this has led stakeholders to be skeptical of corporate sustainability promises!

On what basis can investors, customers, and business partners verify the truth?

The key to eliminating greenwashing is transparency and standardization.

And if transparency is the key to building trust among stakeholders, then data that can be verified is the key to achieving transparency.

It is about verifying, and confirming the correctness, of a statement or a claim.

In a major step towards the establishment of a new sustainability reporting system in Europe, the European Parliament adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

The rules will begin applying from the beginning of 2024 for large public-interest companies with over 500 employees, followed by companies with more than 250 employees or €40 million in revenue in 2025, and listed SMEs in 2026.

The reporting requirements will be based on the?ESRSs - European Sustainability Reporting Standards.

Why another reporting framework?

In a nutshell, CSRD is the EU's aspiration to strengthen and standardize European companies' communication on sustainability-related information, by putting financial and non-financial information on equal terms.

ESRSs will streamline the most critical European policies and global sustainability standards into?a single, unified framework.

This way, data reported by all businesses will be consistent, comparable, and aligned with both Paris Agreement & EU’s Green Deal (Net-zero emissions by 2050).

Sustainability information will be on an equal footing with financial information where the ESRS specifies both qualitative (statements) and quantitative information (data) to be disclosed, using both a retrospective and forward-looking approach.

What are the main challenges for companies?

• ESG is entering the annual reporting process.
• Sustainability information will sit alongside financial information.
• The amount of data that needs to be collected will significantly increase.
• Sustainability statements will have to be audited by an accredited 3rd party
• Double Materiality will enter the reporting.

What will the standards require companies to disclose?

The?first drafts of ESRSs ?have been published.

We had a look at what kind of climate-related reporting will be required.?

?? A transition plan and strategy: How the company takes the climate-related risks and opportunities into account and how they impact their core business.

?? Policies, actions, and resources the company has adopted to manage climate-related risks and opportunities.

?? Metrics and measurable climate-related targets: All scopes (1-3)

?? If the business has a net-zero emissions target, it must disclose the scope, methodologies and frameworks applied.

?? Current greenhouse gas emissions: All scopes (1-3)

?? Scope 3 includes emissions occurring in the company’s value chain. For the food industry, this is the primary source of emissions, hence particularly important to report as precisely as possible.

?? Greenhouse gas emission reductions and removals, all scopes (1-3)

?? Again, measuring and reporting Scope 3 reductions in a credible way will be particularly important as Scope 3 has the most impact on total greenhouse gas emissions in many industries such as the food industry.

Sounds like a lot?

No worries. You can start to prepare today by using a framework that is already here and covering a lot of the topics!

We help you by following the steps;

1. We measure your level of maturity, find your gaps and help you to decide the way forward. Click here to measure your level of maturity!
2. Your sustainability work and statements can already get verified by?VERIFY Agency ?which will strengthen your competitiveness and future-proof your business.?Take a look at these inspiring reference cases.
3. The program to verify is?ISO 26000 Sustainability Standard and its self-declaration .
4. We will give a free webinar on this topic. Join us on June 1st at 11am - 1pm CET on zoom. Register here!

During this 2-hour Free Masterclass, you will learn:

• WHY - you should prepare for the new EU-legislation CSRD
• WHAT - Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is
• HOW - verification of your sustainability work is done with ISO26000 - and why it is important to become verified by an accredited third-party body!

This event may be free of charge , but it will be invaluable to your career, business, and your success!?

I hope these recommendations can help you in your work to prepare for the new EU regulation for sustainability reporting, which will be here in just about 6 months.

Eva Vati is an Entrepreneur and Business Strategist who helps Executives, Businesses, and Entrepreneurs future-proof their companies.

She is the CEO and Founder of?VATI of Sweden , which is the first company in the world to give certification on integrating sustainability into business strategy. And also the Founder of?VERIFY Agency of Sweden , which is the first?company in the world accredited to verify organisations' statements.

She has a loyal community of over 25,000 people who are committed to creating a better world by running businesses that promote sustainability, equality, and diversity.

Worth to know

VERIFY Agency is the first company in the world to have been accredited to verify organisation’s statements as a 3rd party body. This was done in July 2021. Sweden was the first country in the world to adopt ISO 17029, which is the standard for verification och validation bodies.

VERIFY Agency is accredited by SWEDAC, which belongs to the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. We are operating under the?ISO17029 standard .