CSRD

In November 2022, the European Union adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This new directive states that from 2024, more and more companies will be required to report on the impact of their activities on people and the environment. Future Up saw the fundamental importance of this directive as early as 2021. After all, the directive is the tool for integrating sustainability into business strategy. Many large companies were in an uproar: because what exactly is this CSRD and how should we start using it already? As Future Up received dozens of questions from partners on this topic, we decided to play a guiding role in answering these questions.

We started with a series of free introductory webinars, addressing initial questions. In four editions, we received around 900 participants. For the companies that then wanted to actually get started, we developed a Community of Practice (CoP). In this, companies work together on a topic to learn from experts and each other. A form that Future Up uses more often. The aim of this edition? To help companies prepare for CSRD legislation. And in such a way that it forms the capstone for policies on all themes of the new economy.

"The CSRD provides transparency and standardisation. Companies can be compared with each other on the most relevant components. Key stakeholders such as consumers, supply chain partners, investors and financial institutions will thus also start assessing companies' non-financial performance in this way," said Erwin van Overbeek, Manager Great Companies Network at Future Up.

As the biggest challenge of CSRD implementation is in creating support and bringing the organisation on board, two people within organisations were always invited to the CoP meetings. Together, they worked on and learned about, among other things, what obligations there are, what topics you need to report on at what level, how to get your data strategy in order and how to set up the audit process.

Kennispartners

We gathered five knowledge partners who wanted to partner with us: EY, the Dutch Professional Association of Accountants (NBA), NautaDutilh, Grant Thornton and the Capitals Coalition. Together, we developed a programme of four meetings in which participants learned about the guideline under supervision and could spar with other participants in break-out sessions. We organised the Community of Practice several times in 2022 and 2023.

Results

Expert guidance from knowledge partners during meetings allowed us to provide participants with the right knowledge and tools around e.g. transparency, reporting, materiality analysis. What was also unique was that in break-out sessions, they were given the space to spar about the newly acquired knowledge with other participants. Thus, valuable, new relationships were built and learning was done by and for each other. Some companies even reported that they got to know their own colleagues better.

In total, more than 130 companies have been helped on their way in preparing for the CSRD. They understand the importance of transparency and reporting and what opportunities this can offer for future-proofing the organisation. To their satisfaction, by the way, because with an NPS score of 23 or higher for the three editions, participants say they would recommend the COP to other companies.

"The CSRD forces companies to get their sustainability policies in order and collect the right data. This is a big change involving many different departments. This is a challenge, but also an opportunity: it can lead to people making other sustainable choices and being able to see the impact of their own actions from their own role," says Erwin van Overbeek.

CSRD opportunities for SMEs

In October 2024, we organised a series of four meetings in which we prepared you as an SME for the CSRD and everything that comes with it. What can you expect from large customers, how are other companies already flying this and where are the opportunities to improve your sustainability performance and communicate about it? 24 participants got to work with knowledge partners SRA, Empact, Eevery, Sdu, Flynth and Haagse Hogeschool.