CEN and CENELEC welcome the first set of Sustainability Reporting Standards adopted by the European Commission

The Delegated Act takes into consideration the need to better align sustainability reporting with sustainability standards produced by the European and International Standardization System. This is an important step towards providing transparency on the ESG impact of business practices: the new Sustainability Reporting Standards will assist in encouraging the sustainable investment needed for Europe to meet its green transition goals.  

CEN and CENELEC, in cooperation with ISO and IEC, develop several standards that help companies improve their sustainability by providing comparable metrics and clear guidance for the implementation of sustainability procedures. Examples of relevant standards include, among others: EN ISO 14090:2019 ‘Adaptation to climate change - Principles, requirements and guidelines’; EN ISO 14064-1:2019 ‘Greenhouse gases - Part 1: Specification with guidance at the organization level for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals’; and EN ISO 26000:2020 ‘Guidance on social responsibility’. 

With the inclusion of an application requirement under ESRS 2 ‘General Disclosures’, companies will be able provide information on what CEN, CENELEC, ISO and IEC standards they use to help them reach sustainability objectives when reporting against the ESRS. This is a great step in improving interoperability and preventing the duplication of efforts by companies who are subject to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and use CEN, CENELEC, ISO and IEC standards.  

CEN and CENELEC also intend to build upon recent cooperation with EFRAG to concretely identify how European and International standards can best support the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.