Sustainability Reporting By Companies

1. Introduction

The European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive ("CSRD") was published on 16 December 2022. The CSRD amends the reporting obligations of the Non-financial Reporting Directive ("NFRD"). The NFRD required larger companies, the so-called entities of public interest, to report annually on their environmental, social and human resources issues. In Belgium, these reports are part of the "non-financial statement", which is included in the annual report of the board of directors to the shareholders (Art. 3:6, §4 BCCA).

Reports of the European Commission showed that the information reported by various under the NFRD was inadequate. The term "non-financial reporting" was perceived as misleading because this information does have a financial impact. Therefore, the CSRD uses the term "sustainability information".