From practitioners for practitioners – A guide to implementing the European Sustainability Reporting Standards

The ESRS guide "Implementing the European Sustainability Reporting Standards – a position paper by practitioners" published today by Deutsches Aktieninstitut contains recommendations from companies for companies on how to apply the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The guide is also a clear signal of companies' commitment to the sustainability transformation.

"For German companies, the transformation to sustainable value creation is right at the top of the agenda. One building block for the success of this transformation is European sustainability reporting. However, the complexity and granularity of the sustainability standards, as well as the uncertainty regarding their interpretation, still leave many questions unanswered when it comes to implementation. With our ESRS guide, we want to help find answers to these questions," emphasises Henriette Peucker, Chief Executive and Member of the Board of Deutsches Aktieninstitut.

When implementing the ESRS, key questions arise in areas such as double materiality, the scope of consolidation, definitions of terms and the internal control system for sustainability reporting. Representatives of our member companies have addressed these issues in this position paper and formulated recommendations for dealing with them from a practical perspective.

Companies present possible solutions

In the guide, the participating member companies share their implementation experiences. They outline the challenges faced when implementing the ESRS and present possible solutions. The practical recommendations can serve as a guide for other companies, regardless of whether they are already in the middle of implementing the ESRS or still at the beginning.

The guide should be seen as a snapshot, as sustainability reporting is constantly evolving. The guide deals with the following questions:

• How do companies implement the concept of double materiality?
• How should the scope of sustainability reporting be defined?
• How do companies define key terms from the European standards for sustainability reporting?
• How can an internal control system be structured in accordance with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive?

"The ESRS guide from our member companies is a clear signal to politicians that companies want the transformation and are doing their bit to achieve it. However, we also believe that German and European legislators have a duty to streamline sustainability standards as part of an evaluation," says Peucker. "At national level, it is also crucial that the implementation law for the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) passes through the parliamentary process quickly and comes into force on 1 January 2025 at the latest. Companies need legal certainty as to whether and how the CSRD is to be applied."

You can find the ESRS guide here.