The European Union aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. To do this, the European institutions have worked on a future sustainability standard: the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive). This new directive will replace the current DPEF (Declaration of Extra-Financial Performance) and will apply, initially, from 2024for the companies with more than 250 employees all in improving the content of extra-financial reports. “Europe gives itself three goals major issues regarding CSRD. The first is to redirect capital to sustainable investments, or the fact of standardizing the products offered by financial players. The second is to propose risk managementwhich has already started with the DPEF, and reinforce this risk analysis with the principle of dual materiality. The last point is the transparency of information and long-term perspectives» details Stéphanie Garnier, Crowe partner on the occasion of the round table “From the DPEF to the future sustainability report: the challenge of new ESG issues” organized on September 13 during the Produrable event.
Companies compared to each other
In Europe, the body in charge of this normative ecosystem is EFRAG (European Financial Reporting Advisory Group). “This organization is still working on 13 standards who will build the base of the CSRD”, adds Sarah Guereau, also a Crowe partner. One of the major questions of this new sustainability report is thedata integration of European taxonomy. “The idea behind this reporting is tooffer the possibility to financial investors to achieve the objectives of their wallets taking into account these indicators. In terms of communication, three financial indicators (turnover, Capex, Opex) will be requested and must specify their percentage of so-called sustainable activities according to European standards, continues Stephanie Garnier.
One of the major novelties of the CSRD, unlike the DPEF, is the notion of comparison between companies. “EFRAG insists on the fact that all the information which will be in the CSRD must be relevant, comparable and present a faithful image of the operations and organizations. The subject of the dual materiality (the fact of take into account the risks of the company on climate change and the environment, but also the opposite, the risks that climate change will pose to the company) will also be present, ” completes Sarah Guereau. At the start of 2024, all of its standards will apply to all sectors of activity but EFRAG will propose in the future industry standards that each company will have to respect according to its sector of activity.
Advantageous access to financing
This new regulation will have a certain impact on the companies that will be subject to it. A repercussion which will not necessarily be negative, with in particular a access to financing which can be facilitated and advantageous. ” We are impacted in many ways, but each time we perceive it positivelyexplains Vincent Aurez, director of innovation and sustainable development at Novaxia, a company with a mission specializing in investment in urban recycling. For companies that come up with sustainable ideas within the meaning of European regulations, that anticipate them, this can be a growth lever. What we have seen is that banks are players who are also increasingly impacted by these European regulations. They already have or will have the obligation to postpone the sustainable part of their loans. Banks also have a financial advantage in doing so with green bonds. We have therefore succeeded in take out two impact loans, with a lower interest rate than a traditional loan. »
Another issue is to communicate the financial and extra-financial reports. “Taxonomy helps in this sense because it imposes bring the extra-financial into the financial and on the financial side to take extra-financial issues into account. There is then an important business challenge which is to produce indicators. It is then key to know how to define our activity with this new look that taxonomy brings. Our concern is to think about what information we need to get to produce these indicators. Once implemented, these KPIs will push us to ask ourselves what needs to be done to move things in the right direction, report Nathalie Hababou, taxonomy manager in the SNCF group.
Measure and get support
To make this change a success, certain points must be anticipated on this new regulation, in particular by carrying out regular reports. “You have to measure everything, more and more, and have a measurable approach. The spirit of the regulations basically is to increasingly stop greenwashing and socialwashing through measurement. Take a measurement approach helps enormously to anticipate what can happen. Another way to anticipate is toinvolve as many people as possible internally. The last way we have put in place is to infuse this idea at the highest level of the company so that it spreads more quickly. This has resulted for us in the creation of a salary variable directly linked to our impact measurements,” describes Vincent Aurez.
For Nathalie Hababou, two subjects are absolutely necessary: a support by external entities as well as regular reports to all of its teams. ” We are making help from experts and firms who know these texts and are used to managing these subjects on a daily basis. Regarding taxonomy, we also encounter technical experts who know soil issues, climate issues, which allows us to have key and technical information on different topics. Finally, awareness is also important. To this end, at regular intervals, we meet with our contributors to give them information on the progress of these subjects and the way things are built to mobilize them and continue to motivate them”concludes the taxonomy manager of the SNCF group.