CSRD: the new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive

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The recent legislative changes introduced by the European Union have completely changed the business landscape of the last few decades. Fortunately, the arrival of CSRD has not only been a real advantage in every sense, but it is also very easy to comply with its requirements if you are clear about what the most appropriate tools are and how they work.

What is CSRD?
The acronym CSRD refers to the English words skype database Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure , which in turn, in Spanish, refer to the Disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility .

And why is CSRD important for any company operating today? Because consumers have been demanding much more than a good product or a good service for years . They want to know what kind of actions their trusted companies carry out. What kind of actions they take to make their operations more sustainable, more environmentally responsible , so that they can spend their money on companies they really identify with.

What are its objectives?
The dissemination of corporate social responsibility pursues different objectives, and all of them have their reason for being and their importance within all industrial sectors:

Applying the correct CSRD policies allows companies to highlight all their initiatives in terms of social responsibility, ethics and sustainability . This is increasingly valued by both the companies' customers and their investors.
In turn, this tool becomes a thermometer of risks and opportunities for investors , who can evaluate much more reliably to what extent it is worth investing their money in companies that do or do not carry out certain activities.
Furthermore, this way of guaranteeing a much more transparent, responsible and sustainable business culture is the best way to generate trust in an industrial world that is increasingly full of opportunities for buyers.
Who is affected by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive?
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive applies to a wide range of companies in different sectors in the European Union . Specifically, to large companies, but also to smaller ones.

The obligation to submit these reports on activities with an environmental and social impact has gone from being required only for companies with more than 500 employees that are also listed on the stock exchange, to doing so for all companies that are listed on the stock exchange or that are not, but that have more than 250 employees. In addition, all of them belong to such strategic sectors as energy, water management, transport or banking .

As we have already said, this type of sustainability reporting is crucial when it comes to demonstrating transparency and assessing the real impact that each of these large and important companies has on both society and the environment.

Entry into force of the CSRD Directive
Although the CSRD Directive was approved by the European Union in June 2021, it did not come into force until January 1, 2023 , replacing the previous Non-Financial Reporting Directive.

Its objective is clear: to standardize the presentation of this type of sustainability reports so that their comparison and, therefore, the drawing of conclusions, is much more agile and at the same time useful in areas of concern such as global warming, gender equality or biodiversity.

The entry into force of the CSRD represents an improvement in the flow of information between companies on all activities related to corporate sustainability .

How to create Sustainability Reports with Microsoft
Microsoft has multiple tools that can be used to produce CSRD Sustainability Reports.

Here are some examples:

Microsoft Dynamics 365 , which allows sustainability reports to be naturally integrated with the rest of the business processes for which they are usually used. This, in addition to ensuring maximum order, allows for a 360º view of a company's impact at both a social and environmental level.
Microsoft Power BI , a highly visual way to present sustainability data.
Microsoft Excel , an essential spreadsheet tool for organizing information and performing in-depth analysis at lightning speed.