How do companies approach the implementation of the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive in terms of strategies, challenges and opportunities? An analysis based on the insights of ten companies

The escalation of environmental and social challenges in today’s world underscores the critical and urgent situation in which our society finds itself. For too long, societal and corporate evolutions have occurred without consideration for the consequences of activities on the environment and broader society. Recognizing the imperative of a transition towards a more sustainable world, the European Union stresses the pivotal role that corporations must take on. As part of its EU Green Deal Strategy, the Commission introduced the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), reforming corporate sustainability reporting obligations starting from January 2024. This new directive gradually obligates companies to disclose sustainability reports following common mandatory standards, aiming to facilitate the comparability of these reports. After reviewing the context in which the EU introduced the CSRD and the content of the directive itself, this thesis analyses the approach of ten different companies to the implementation of this new directive. The aim is to understand the companies' point of view on the CSRD, the advantages and challenges it represents for them, as well as the different strategies developed by these firms to ensure the publication of compliant sustainability reports. The findings of this thesis reveal several key elements. First, companies recognise the necessity of introducing such a directive for the enhancement of more sustainable corporate practices, as well as the potential benefits it can bring to their businesses. Moreover, they underline that it addresses the increasing market demand for reliable and comparable sustainability information in order to facilitate a better assessment of the environmental and social impact of businesses. However, the interviewed companies also point to the significant additional workload and costs involved in publishing such a report, especially as they have never yet measured or collected some of the required data. This thesis demonstrates that companies generally express a positive outlook on the implementation of the CSRD despite the challenges that the directive raises.