How legal turns sustainability risk into value
Explore how legal teams transform sustainability risk into business value, navigating complex ESG regulations for strategic advantage and innovation.
EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) (the ‘Directive’) requires detailed external reporting related to environmental, social, and governance topics. The requirements established through CSRD will impact companies across the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA), including companies owned by multinational businesses who are headquartered outside of the EU and EEA. Organisations will be expected to transform their approach to sustainability.
EU member states and EEA countries are required to implement EU CSRD into national law. The CSRD mandates minimum rules and requirements for member states and EEA countries when implementing CSRD. National governments have a degree of flexibility to implement the CSRD to align with their existing legislation and compliance frameworks with respect to financial and non-financial reporting requirements.
Member states have discretion of the following areas:
- Extending the scope of entities, by thresholds or legal entity type, required to report under the CSRD;
- Mandating which parties can provide assurance over the sustainability information;
- Aligning requirements for submission of the sustainability information with local statutory filing requirements;
- Subsidiary exemption criteria and mandating specific disclosure and filing requirements within the consolidated sustainability report of the parent company where a subsidiary is taking a reporting exemption;
- Extending the requirements set out in the ESRS standards; and
- Imposing sanctions for non-compliance.
Businesses operating across the EU and the EEA will need to navigate different implementing requirements on a country by country basis which could result in additional compliance requirements, stakeholder consultations e.g. employee and directors’ duties for EU and EEA subsidiaries to comply with.
Our EU member state transposition of CSRD briefing provides an update of the status of transposition in each member state and EEA country as at January 17, 2025 and will be helpful to businesses who are affected by CSRD.
EU member state transposition of CSRD - status update
The requirements set forth by the CSRD will have an impact on companies throughout the EU and EEA, including multinational businesses headquartered outside of the EU and EEA.
PwC can help to ensure that CSRD requirements are evaluated for your organisation. Our Legal Business Solutions team work with organisations across all sectors to help manage compliance across the spectrum of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) regulations and standards. We have developed strategic alliances to develop legal technology that lets us evaluate ESG risk and compliance and helps you develop an ecosystem that integrates regulatory requirements with leading industry practices.
Authors
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive
Rethink your business with the CSRD to grow trust, value and performance
Tax and Sustainability Services
Viewing tax through a new lens to deliver sustainable outcomes
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