At this year’s Future Law E-Signature Day in April, our New Business Manager Omid Shaker delivered a presentation on the topic of Green Reality – The role of MOXIS in mandatory sustainability reporting. As the session was met with great interest, we have summarised the most important facts on the topic in our online magazine.
As of 2024, sustainability will become mandatory for more companies. The new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive aims to expand sustainability reporting and standardise it across the EU. It stipulates the disclosure of all corporate measures in the area of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Contents
The CSRD in brief
Who is affected by this CSR reporting obligation?
Timetable: when do the requirements apply?
Scope and standards of the sustainability report
CSRD x MOXIS: how you can benefit from MOXIS for your report
What is the mandatory sustainability reporting all about?
The Corporate Sustainability Directive (CSRD for short) is the latest version of the EU-wide Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD), which has been in force since 2014. The CSRD standardises and effectively regulates reporting on sustainability issues for the first time. The scope of the directive now places sustainability reporting on the same level as financial reporting. The primary aim is to increase the transparency of environmental and social aspects of companies within the EU.
The reporting obligation covers environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects: in future, information must be disclosed on environmental, social and labour issues as well as respect for human rights and the fight against corruption and bribery. This involves forward-looking and retrospective information, both qualitative and quantitative. It may also include information about the company’s value chain, including its own operations, products and services, its business relationships and its supply chain.
At XiTrust, we believe that we can help shape the future. We want to support our partners and assist them in this major challenge that is sustainability reporting.
Omid Shaker, New Business Manager XiTrust
Who does the Directive apply to?
The Directive applies in principle to all large companies. A company is categorised as “large” if at least two of the following criteria are met:
More than 250 employees
Balance sheet total greater than 20 million Euros
Net turnover greater than 40 million Euros
So how many companies are affected? In Austria, the number of obligated companies will increase from 90 to around 2000 in 2025. In Germany from 500 companies to around 15,000. Within the EU from around 11,000 to 49,000.
(Source: Wiener Zeitung, article from 2 January 2022 “EU puts sustainability reports on a new footing”)
When will the directive come into effect?
The new sustainability reporting directive will be implemented in 3 stages:
from 1 January 2024: applying to companies that are currently already subject to the reporting obligation (i.e. the NFRD). First reporting is due in 2025.
from 1 January 2025: applying to large companies that are not currently subject to the reporting obligation. First reporting is due in 2026.
from 1 January 2026: applying to listed SMEs. First reporting is due in 2027. However, an exemption (opt-out option) is provided for the transitional period until 2028.
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Scope and standards of the sustainability report
As a reminder, the aim of the directive is to ensure improved accessibility to non-financial information and greater efficiency in its disclosure. Sustainability reporting is to be elevated to the same level as financial reporting. As part of an audit, it must therefore fulfil certain criteria that are at the same level as financial information. Uniform European reporting standards in accordance with CSRD are specified for this purpose.
Reporting in accordance with the principle of dual materiality: companies are now obliged to report not only on the impact that the company has on people and the environment (inside-out perspective) but also on the impact that people and the environment have on the company (outside-in perspective).
Digitalisation: All sustainability information is to be published in a machine-readable format following a predefined structure. The information is to be published in a Europe-wide register that is still in the planning stage.
Audit requirement: As part of the annual report, sustainability reporting will also be subject to audit – initially, however, only with limited assurance. An independent auditor or certification body must ensure that the sustainability information complies with EU standards. Non-compliance may result in sanctions.
How you can benefit from MOXIS for your sustainability report
This new EU directive poses major challenges for some of our customers. Especially those companies that have not yet published a sustainability report and do not yet have any structures in place to do so.
“In light of the new regulations, we have given some thought to how we can use our expertise to find solutions. We also thought about what we could deliver to MOXIS to simplify the implementation of sustainability reporting in certain areas,” says Omid Shaker.
And so the XiTrust team came up with the idea of integrating part of the EU CSRD into MOXIS from 2024. In fact, there will be a reporting button in MOXIS in the future. This new feature will allow users and administrators to pull information on certain sustainability aspects directly from MOXIS for their reporting.
An example: Company XY signs 40,455 documents with MOXIS within a certain period of time. This allows us to calculate exactly how much water, how many kilograms of wood, how much energy and CO2 emissions have been saved by using the e-signature. We will make this information available to our customers and interested parties for their reporting from 2024.
Our conclusion:
One thing is clear: the CSRD will change the world of business. The good news is that there is still plenty of time to prepare! And the CSR reporting obligation also offers a great opportunity to integrate all sustainability measures into brand, product and HR communication. After all, how sustainably a company operates is becoming increasingly important for customers, investors and potential employees.
