Understanding the structure of the ESRS sustainability statement is crucial for companies aiming to showcase their ESG efforts effectively.
According to Position Green, the journey begins with a double materiality assessment, a pivotal step that helps in pinpointing material impacts, risks, and opportunities relevant to your company. This assessment forms the foundation of what you need to disclose, leading to the crucial task of data collection, material disclosure preparation, and consolidation into a comprehensive sustainability statement.
A sustainability statement, a vital component of your organisation’s management report, must be distinct and clear. It should encompass the following:
- General Information (ESRS 2)
- Environmental Information
- Social Information
- Governance Information
Providing strategic context in your sustainability statement is imperative. It’s not just about listing data; it’s about weaving a narrative that links your sustainability efforts to your overall strategy. This approach aids various stakeholders in grasping how your operations and sustainability initiatives are interconnected.
The ESRS framework allows for the incorporation of information by referencing various sections of your organisation’s reports. However, it’s essential to ensure that these references are clear, published in tandem with the management report, and maintain the same language, assurance level, and qualitative characteristics as the sustainability statement.
Under disclosure requirement IRO-2 of the ESRS, it’s mandatory to include two indexes in your sustainability statement:
- A content index detailing the compliance with disclosure requirements, complete with page numbers or paragraphs.
- A table indicating all data points derived from other EU legislations, highlighting the Principal Adverse Impacts (PAIs) for financial and investment stakeholders.
The ESRS also allows for the inclusion of disclosures from frameworks like GRI, as well as national legislations. When integrating these, they must be clearly identified and meet the ESRS’s standards for information quality.
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