Methodologies & guidance
Here you’ll find guidance for your sustainable business reporting. There’s information on stakeholder identification, double materiality assessment, reporting, and other guidance that can be useful in the process. We’ve included links to country-specific sustainability reporting information where available.
EFRAG IG 2 – Value chain implementation guidance
Guidance on ESRS requirements of organisation upstream and downstream value chain. Identifying your value chain stakeholders is relevant for materiality assessment and for acquiring information on material impacts, risks, and opportunities of the organisation.
Stakeholders
Guidance on identifying stakeholders for materiality assessments helps the organisation to understand its value chain. The section includes tools like the GRI Standards, which align closely with ESRS, and SASB’s Materiality Map for industry-specific issues in financial materiality.
Double materiality engagement
EFRAG IG 1 – Materiality assessment implementation guidance
Guidance on ESRS requirements of the materiality assessment. Find illustrations of possible steps of the process and FAQs on the assessment to provide practical implementation guidance. Double materiality assessment is relevant to identifying your organisation’s material impacts, risks, and opportunities.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
The GRI Standards represent global best practices for reporting publicly on a range of economic, environmental, and social impacts (impact materiality assessment). GRI standards and ESRS standards are strongly aligned, the first being the standard that ESRS closely follows. GRI standards also include sectorial standards, which ESRS does not have yet. As defining impacts is strongly related to the sector of the organisation, GRI sectorial standards provide guidance on defining impacts as part of your double materiality assessment and certain sustainability matters that ESRS do not include but might be relevant to your organisation.
Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) industry materiality finder
SASB's Materiality Map identifies likely material sustainability issues on an industry-by-industry basis that you can use as a starting point when doing financial materiality as part of your double materiality assessment.
Reporting
Sustainability reporting roadmap
Visual presentation of activities needed to carry out to prepare the sustainability report
European sustainability reporting standards (ESRS)
Standards to be followed while creating a sustainability report
Sustainability target setting
The Sustainability Goals Database gathers more than 1000 goals for sustainability matters for organisations to benchmark but also directs with its seven criteria evaluation that is needed for a good target. The embedding project also includes databases for positions on sustainability matters, sustainability issues snapshots with related resources, and a sustainable procurement wheel tool.
EFRAG question and answer platform
The Sustainability Goals Database gathers more than 1000 goals for sustainability matters for organisations to benchmark but also directs with its seven criteria evaluation that is needed for a good target. The embedding project also includes databases for positions on sustainability matters, sustainability issues snapshots with related resources, and a sustainable procurement wheel tool.
EFRAG IG 3 – list of ESRS data points
Full list of ESRS disclosure requirements by data points, which can be both qualitative and quantitative. Data points are presented according to standards. Only material topics/standards need to be disclosed, which is determined by double materiality analysis.
EFRAG IG 4 – transition planning implementation guidance
The guidance should address the scientific basis and references, policy environment and requirements, financial system needs and expectations, and good practices and challenges of transition plans. Disclaimer: this is an early draft. Once approved in draft by SR TEG and SRB, it will be exposed for public feedback and finalised reflecting the outcome of this feedback. This document will be publicly available in EFRAG website.
Additional tools
EU Taxonomy tools reporting roadmap
EU Taxonomy Navigator offers a selection of tools to understand and implement EU Taxonomy. The tools consist of a Taxonomy Compass (visual representation of sectors, activities, and criteria), Taxonomy Calculator (step-by-step guide), FAQ, user guide, and NACE classification mapping.
UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
ESRS requires that the materiality assessment of a negative impact is informed by the due diligence processes as well in the due diligence statement itself according to specific UN and OECD guidelines. Organisations also need to disclose if they do not meet certain requirements in those guidelines. In all social standards, the organisation needs to disclose to their own workers, value chain workers, affected community, and consumers/end-users their policies, including human rights policy commitments and how they monitor compliance with these guidelines. Processes to remediate negative impacts can be guided by these guidelines.
OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
ESRS requires that the materiality assessment of a negative impact is informed by the due diligence processes as well in the due diligence statement itself according to specific UN and OECD guidelines. Organisations also need to disclose if they do not meet certain requirements in those guidelines. In all social standards, the organisation needs to disclose to their own workers, value chain workers, affected community, and consumers/end-users their policies, including human rights policy commitments and how they monitor compliance with these guidelines. Processes to remediate negative impacts can be guided by these guidelines.
Corruption Perceptions Index
Countries corruption perception index. Useful for ESRS G1 standard corruption matter
Global Worker's Rights Index
Countries on global rights index. Useful for ESRS G1 standard corruption matter
Key biodiversity areas
Country-based key biodiversity areas and their descriptions list. Useful for ESRS E4, Biodiversity and ecosystems, standard sustainability matters
Natura 2000
Natura-protected sites list with statistics. Useful for ESRS E4 to define biodiversity-sensitive and risk-prone areas
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