The Society and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) submitted this joint position paper to European Commission officials this week suggesting targeted recommendations to enhance interoperability between the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the ISSB Standards. We are using the position paper to support engagement with EU policymakers and staff on these issues.
The paper focuses on a limited number of proposed technical amendments, including:
- Removing prescriptive requirements regarding the structure of the sustainability statement;
- Clarifying that investor-relevant information should be clearly identifiable and not obscured; and
- Moving beyond reliance on the current interoperability mechanism to facilitate a more direct “single report” approach.
The position paper, which we vetted with our EU Sustainability Working Group, is aimed at supporting EU policy objectives, including improving the usability of sustainability disclosures, while reducing duplicative reporting burdens and compliance complexity for companies subject to both ESRS and ISSB requirements.
Our previous EU sustainability disclosure submissions are posted here.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!