According to PwC’s inaugural 2024 Global CSRD Survey the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will affect about 50,000 companies, having a global impact.
The survey, of more than 500 senior executives and business professionals, including finance, sustainability and risk leaders, found that 63% of companies are confident that they will be ready for CSRD.
What is the EU CSRD
CSRD creates a new requirement for large companies and listed companies operating in the EU to publish regular reports on the social and environmental risks they face, and on how their activities impact people and the environment. The European Commission says that some non-EU companies will also have to report if they generate over EUR 150 million on the EU market.
The first companies will have to apply the new rules in the 2024 financial year, for reports published in 2025.
Key results from the 2024 Global CSRD Survey
According to PWC:
- Almost two-thirds of companies (63%) surveyed are very or extremely confident that they will be ready to report under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
- However, with the first wave of companies due to report soon, executives cite data availability and quality (59%), value chain complexity (57%), and staff capacity (50%) as obstacles to implementation to a large or very large extent.
- Despite even higher levels of confidence for those companies due to report from six months’ time (72%), less than half of these companies have completed key activities, such as confirmation of reporting options (39%), double materiality assessment (38%), and validation of availability of data (20%).
- More than three-quarters (76%) believe that CSRD is or will lead to company leadership considering sustainability in decision making to a greater extent
- Respondents believe that CSRD will benefit their company to a large extent through environmental performance (51%), improved engagement with stakeholders (49%), and risk mitigation (48%).
- Less than 60% of all respondents have involved their technology function, although most respondents plan to do so, and most companies are not using specialist tools or technology.
- Spreadsheets are the most commonly used tool (74%), compared with 26% using centralised sustainability data storage (e.g., a data lake) and 20% using AI, although more have plans to use these tools in the future.
- While respondents report high confidence on topics that are generally included in existing disclosures such as workforce (75%), business conduct (75%), and climate change (60%), they are far less confident in their ability to meet reporting requirements on less familiar topics such as biodiversity (35%), pollution (43%), and workers in the value chain (44%).
