If you've been in a boardroom in the last year and heard someone mention "CSRD," they were talking about the most significant overhaul of sustainability reporting the EU has ever attempted. It replaces the older Non-Financial Reporting Directive, and it isn't a light update. It expands both who has to report and how carefully they have to do it.

Who Actually Has to Comply

Thresholds have shifted since the Omnibus I amendments, and it's worth getting them right because they now exclude a lot of companies that once assumed they'd be in scope. As things stand, CSRD applies to companies that pass both bars: more than 1,000 employees, and over €450 million in net turnover. Non-EU corporate groups pulling in more than €450 million in EU turnover fall under the same net.

What the Directive Actually Asks For

A few things sit at the core of CSRD:

• Reporting against the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which EFRAG developed specifically for this purpose
• A double materiality assessment: looking both at how sustainability issues affect the company financially and how the company affects the world
• Mandatory third-party assurance, starting at a limited level
• Filing in digital format under the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF)

The Timeline, In Practice

Wave 1 (companies that were already reporting under NFRD) started in 2025. Wave 2 doesn't kick in until 2028, based on FY 2027 data, thanks to the delay built into Omnibus I. Non-EU groups follow a year later still, in 2029.

It's a lot to absorb in one sitting, and most companies don't get it all right the first time through. That's really the gap we set out to close at BUME: building a platform around the full CSRD lifecycle, from the first materiality workshop through to the final digital filing.