Reflection on Popular ESG Reporting Timeline

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In addition to providing ESG Reporting Software to corporates such as Vodafone, PostNL, PensionBee, and more, Nossa Data has been providing thought leadership around regulatory changes, including implications from the CSRD / ESRS, IFRS, and previous versions of the CSDDD.

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This visual has been circulating around a lot in recent weeks, with questions posed around whether there are too many corporate requirements brewing.My main reflection though? Despite some perceptions, ESG reporting requirements have steadily increased over the past three decades, becoming more and more mandatory.

In 1996, voluntary reporting did not start with a single asset manager’s letter to shareholders and ESG-related financial activities like pension plan divestments did not stop regulators like the SEC from increasingly seeing sustainability topics as material to protecting investors. Secondly, while the timeline itself is getting talked about a lot, the consolidated efforts referenced at the bottom of the visual are getting under-highlighted by viewers.

These disclosures are not purely additive, with many stakeholders working together to develop interoperability beyond the most well-known standards. Disclosures like that of Circulytics for example, have seemingly found the ESRS E5 to cover much of their material topics. See here.

‍Lastly, whether through new NGO or regulatory initiatives, there will always be room for updating topics that require tracking. We are constantly learning more about material impacts from new spaces such as Responsible AI, or from scandals that show what can go wrong.

Oldie but a goodie, see how scandals can accelerate ESG topic importance almost instantly.