While the finance and the investment community is facing the implementation of the EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act [1], also large public and non public companies in the EU should be preparing to report sustainability related information.

A month ago the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) has been announced by the European Commission [2]. With this proposal, which will now go to the European Parliament and the Member States in the Council, all large EU based companies, both publicly listed and non listed companies, will be obliged to report on sustainability. Under the CSRD, companies are considered to be large with an annual net sales above €40MM and/or balance total of above €20MM and/or more than 500 employees in average over a book year. Also to all publicly listed companies in the EU with a smaller size, the CSRD will be applicable to.

Impact

In total 50.000 companies will be needing to report on sustainability. It is expected that over time also Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) will be starting to report voluntarily on sustainability.  It’s explicitly mentioned that companies are to report on the impact of sustainability on their company and the company’s impact on the environment and society. Currently, it’s unclear which standards and KPIs need to be used for reporting. The first set will be decided on October 2022 latest.

It is planned to implement the CSRD from the start of the year 2023. Although it sounds far away and the daily operation, projects and other priorities are always asking for attention, you being the supply chain director, CSR manager, logistics manager and/or logistics procurement manager, needs to be aware of future legislation and is advised to start getting prepared, when your company falls within the scope. Alternatively, you can wait until your accountant will come to you via your CFO with sustainability related demands.

How to proceed?

As part of your preparation for the CSRD, a good first step would be start measuring your carbon footprint on an annual basis. We are ready to help for your transport and warehouse related activities. Would you like to obtain more information on our solutions and the one that would fit you best? Then do not hesitate to contact us via LinkedIn or info@sustainingsupplychains.com.

[1] EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act aims to support sustainable investment by making it clearer which economic activities most contribute to meeting the EU’s environmental objectives.

[2] CSRD link