We have discussed in a previous article the adoption of new requirements for the submission of the annual sustainability report by companies and the indicators that they must include.
With the new European Union Directive on Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive - CSRD, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group - EFRAG has been tasked with developing a set of industry - specific European Sustainability Reporting Standards - ESRS that will replace all previous standards. Until recently, there has been much concern about what will happen to previous standards, under which sustainability reporting has been structured until now, and how companies will transition to the new standards.
This collaboration marks an important step towards harmonising sustainability reporting standards globally and eliminating the need for double reporting.
Last November, following a three-year collaboration between EFRAG and GRI, their new partnership on sustainability reporting and the alignment of ESRS and GRI standards was announced. As part of this collaboration, the GRI-ESRS Interoperability Index was introduced. Currently under review by the technical expert group and the EFRAG council, this index illustrates the correlation between reporting requirements and indicators in both standards, highlighting the significant similarity already achieved, and building a strong base for mutual digital classification.
Interoperability eliminates the need for dual report submissions. Entities submitting reports based on EFRAG will be considered to submit reports "with reference to" GRI standards, simplifying disclosure processes. Similarly, businesses disclosing GRI data can utilize their existing procedures for submitting sustainability reports based on EFRAG and ESRS.
The Interoperability Index precisely defines how disclosure requirements and indicators align between ESRS and GRI standards, reducing the unnecessary complexity of report submission. The GRI-ESRS Interoperability Index has been published and is under approval in upcoming standard - setting sessions at EFRAG.
Cooperation between the two organisations will continue to further develop standards and guidelines, proportionate reporting for EU SMEs and the extension of standards to non-EU companies under the CSRD. In addition, there will be open and ongoing training for users of ESRS to take advantage of GRI certification programs and promote GRI as a training organization for ESRS standards. For easy adaptation and training towards the new ESRS standards, a digital labelling system and a mapping table between ESRS and GRI (Interoperability Index) standards has been created.
This cooperation marks an important step towards harmonising sustainability reporting standards globally. All stakeholders, including investors, benefit from standardised, reliable and comparable information on their impacts on the environment and society.
At E-On Integration, we are in the process of integrating the new standards into the RIBIA ESG platform. The platform already includes GRI standards, and the connection between the two standards can easily be established, serving entities that want to disclose their reports according to EFRAG-ESRS and/or GRI. Furthermore, the reference indicators are in such a format that once recorded in one index, they will automatically be loaded into both standards without duplication.
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