Did you know that there are around 1200 metrics and 80 information blocks to be calculated, reported, updated and monitored continuously under the new EU CSRD directive?
Whether you choose to bring in a sustainability system for your reporting or not, CSRD/ESRS requires the management of a lot of data. It will require both data that already exists in the company, as well as data and information that needs to be created for this particular purpose. Your sustainability work, both what you do well and what you can improve, should be presented in the annual report and be able to show change over time. It must also be clear how the values were calculated and from which sources the data comes from.
In addition to increasing costs, which ESRS reporting undoubtedly entails, a smart, sustainable and efficient approach to CSRD can generate business opportunities that balance the increased costs.
Business Intelligence (BI) has long been used to create better understanding and thereby lead to better and more effective decisions. For sustainability, it is no different. However, business analysis using BI requires organized data but the sources can be anything from excel to ERP systems. What BI is good for, besides business analysis, is to create a better understanding of the scope and control of your data, as well as its quality.
What is in focus today in the transition to CSRD is to get past the first mountain top, to create good working methods for collecting data and to get routine on it. This is where BI is invaluable. BI helps you create flows for automatic upload to your sustainability system and quality assures metrics before they are used in your reporting.
Working with data is simplified with the help of BI and thus contributes to more efficient sustainability work. This in turn results in lower costs compared to resources doing the same work completely manually.
Having reached the first peak, you now see the second one ahead, finding new business opportunities through your sustainability focus. These opportunities exist. Some are easy to see, but perhaps difficult to implement. Others are just the opposite, hard to find, but once you understand how it all fits together, they are quite easy to implement.
Bringing in external consultants early on, who have both extensive experience of sustainability and how best to implement the changes, can have a big impact on how much your costs will be increased by CSRD. And how quickly you will be able to generate new business opportunities.
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