In January 2023, the EU passed the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) which compliments the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and the EU Taxonomy. As part of the CSRD, the EU created the European Sustainability Reporting System (ESRS) which outlines all the criteria and relevant indicators that organisations must use to fulfil their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting commitments, as per the CSRD.

The rules initially only apply to large organisations, but the threshold for organisational size reduces each year. In 2025, entities with more than 500 staff must report for the year 2024, and in 2026, the company size reduces to 250+ staff for the reporting year 2025. In 2026, listed companies with 10 or more staff will need to report for 2025 and we may well see SMEs needing to make their first limited reports either then or the year after.