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The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) means a massive change for all businesses, including real estate. While sustainability reporting was once voluntary, CSRD makes it mandatory for companies across the EU, with consequences for non-compliance. But no worries, in this article, we will walk you through what the CSRD is, how it connects to the broader EU Sustainable Finance framework, and how you as an asset manager can prepare.
We’ll also explore the critical role of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and how companies must collect, report, and assure sustainability data to stay compliant.
With these insights at hand, you’ll navigate the requirements of CSRD with ease, and you will have the tools to leverage sustainability as a value driver in your portfolio. To not only meet regulatory requirements but also attract capital now and in the future.
How the CSRD will transform real estate Asset Management: what you need to know at a glance
a) Transparency: Delivering Actionable ESG Data for Stakeholders
Under CSRD, transparency becomes mandatory, requiring clear and accessible ESG data for investors, regulators, and stakeholders. For you as asset or project manager, this means going beyond the basics - accurately reporting on direct environmental metrics like energy consumption, emissions, and carbon footprint, while also revealing hidden impacts from tenants and suppliers.
b) Prioritise Material Topics to Maximise Impact
A crucial step under CSRD is conducting a materiality assessment to identify and prioritise the ESG factors that are most relevant to your company. For you this means, focus on key sustainability topics such as energy efficiency, carbon reduction, and tenant engagement. With buildings accounting for 40% of global energy use, prioritising these areas allows managers to direct capital toward retrofitting projects and decarbonisation efforts that drive long-term value.
c) Linking ESG to Financial Performance: Integrating Sustainability into Your Business Model
The CSRD makes sustainability an integral part of your business strategy, not a side activity. Linking green building certifications, tenant well-being initiatives, and decarbonisation strategies to asset performance is crucial. As an asset manager you must be able to demonstrate how ESG factors, such as decarbonisation, green building certifications, and tenant well-being, affect your financial performance, future growth, and overall asset value.
d) Adding Assurance: Third-Party Verification of ESG Data
Another major change is the requirement for third-party assurance. Under CSRD your reporting needs to be auditable.
1. What are CSRD and ESRS?
The CSRD is a regulation developed by the European Union to ensure that companies provide consistent, reliable, and detailed sustainability information.
The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which supplement CSRD, provide detailed guidelines on how companies should report their sustainability data, covering ESG factors. This framework defines how companies should report ESG data, and they are divided into 12 sections:
- ESRS 1 and 2: General reporting requirements and disclosures (cross-sectors).
- ESRS E1 - E5: Environmental requirements, such as energy use and emissions.
- ESRS S1 to S4: Social requirements, covering employee welfare and tenant engagement.
- ESRS G1: Governance requirements, such as transparency in executive pay and board diversity.
As part of the EU’s Green Deal, the overarching goal of CSRD is to redirect capital toward sustainable investments and to ensure that businesses are held accountable for their environmental and social impacts.
What makes ESRS different from other reporting standards?
The ESRS aligns with global sustainability frameworks like TCFD (Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures) and GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), but it goes further by incorporating the EU’s specific regulatory and environmental objectives, such as the EU Taxonomy and SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation). However, CSRD and ESRS bring a new level of rigour and standardisation.
The need for assurance
A key requirement of CSRD is the need for third-party assurance on sustainability data. This means that companies will need to have their ESG reports audited in a similar manner to financial statements.
Currently, the CSRD requires limited assurance for sustainability reports. This involves an external auditor reviewing the data to ensure there are no material misstatements.
What is the double materiality assessment?
The ESRS also introduces the concept of double materiality, meaning companies must report not only how they impact the environment but also how sustainability issues impact their business. This means reporting on two key fronts:
- Assess which ESG factors impact your company’s financial performance.
- Assess which of your business activities impact the environment, society, and governance.
The goal is to ensure that both financial risks and broader sustainability impacts are fully integrated into your management and reporting processes, aligning with stakeholder expectations.
2. Who Is in scope and when?
CSRD introduces a phased implementation to give companies time to adjust. The compliance timeline is based on company size, turnover, and whether they are publicly listed. Here's a breakdown:
2024 (Report for year 2024 and publish in 2025): Applies to large listed companies with over 500 employees.
2025 (Report for year 2025 and publish in 2026): Companies with over 250 employees and specific financial criteria (e.g., net turnover over €40 million or total assets exceeding €20 million).
2026 (Report for year 2026 and publish in 2027): SMEs with securities listed on EU-regulated markets.
2028 (Report for years 2028 and publish in 2029): Non-EU companies with significant operations in the EU.
3. What information and topics will asset managers need to report on?
To comply with CSRD, you will need to deliver integrated reports that combine both financial and sustainability data into a single document.
The 4 key areas of the ESRS reporting framework for Asset Management
As an asset manager, your ESG reporting under the ESRS framework will need to focus on four key areas.
- Governance: Share how you keep an eye on sustainability in your portfolio. This means outlining the steps, rules, and checks you have in place to manage any risks or opportunities tied to ESG, and how your team stays accountable in making sure everything runs smoothly.
- Strategy: Describe how your investment approach considers key sustainability issues. Show how you’re tackling these challenges while staying aligned with long-term financial goals and meeting any regulations.
- Impact, Risk, and Opportunity Management: Explain how you spot and evaluate important sustainability risks and opportunities in your assets. Then, detail the actions and policies you’ve put in place to manage them effectively.
- Metrics and Targets: Share how your portfolio is performing on key sustainability goals, including the targets you’ve set and how close you are to hitting them. This keeps things transparent and gives stakeholders a clear view of your ESG progress.
4. What happens if you don’t report?
Failing to comply with the CSRD can lead to serious consequences, including fines and reputational damage. More importantly, non-compliance could result in increased scrutiny from investors, who are increasingly prioritising sustainability in their decision-making. Investors are likely to perceive non-compliant companies as higher risk, which could affect capital allocation and stock performance. Understand how your company can be affected:
a) High Financial Risk
Regulators have the authority to impose financial penalties for non-compliance.
Example: For example, in Ireland, a breach of the NFRD may lead to six months imprisonment for company directors and/or a €5,000 fine. In Italy, the penalty is a fine of between €20,000 and €150,000, and in Germany, companies face fines of up to either €10 million, 5% of the total annual turnover or twice the total profits made/losses avoided due to the breach. (Source)
b) Reputational Damage
Failure to meet reporting obligations can lead to negative perceptions of the company, potentially damaging relationships with key stakeholders.
Example: Volkswagen suffered massive reputational and financial damage when it was revealed that the company had cheated on emissions tests using illegal software. The scandal led to $42.5 billion in lost market value within two months, alongside billions in fines and settlements. (Source)
c) Missed Investment Opportunities
Investors have increasingly prioritised sustainability in their investment decisions, and under CSRD, the exclusion of non-compliant companies from ESG funds and green bonds will be even more common. This can result in significant limitations on access to capital.
Example: With sustainable investment projected to grow to $50 trillion by 2025 (Source), companies that fail to comply with CSRD could miss out on this influx of capital.
5. How do I report?
One of the most challenging aspects of CSRD compliance is the volume of data required. To avoid being overwhelmed, you can perform a materiality assessment in the first place to determine which data points are relevant to your operations.
Follow these steps to ensure your reporting is fully compliant with CSRD:
1. Materiality Assessment
Start by identifying which ESG factors matter most for your portfolio’s financial performance and impact on society and the environment. For real estate assets, focus on key areas like emissions, energy use, water, or waste, as these are significant.
2. Data Collection
You'll need real-time, integrated data on various ESG factors. For real estate managers, using ESG software simplifies this by automating data collection, analysing energy performance (like CRREM pathways), and tracking Scope 3 emissions.
3. Reporting Structure
Make sure your reports follow ESRS guidelines and include the required sustainability disclosures under the CSRD. Highlight the important topics from your materiality assessment and keep your reporting consistent across the portfolio.
4. Verification and Assurance
Get third-party assurance for your sustainability data. External verification adds credibility and strengthens trust with stakeholders.
5. Comparability and Standardisation
Standardise your metrics across the portfolio for consistency. You can set internal benchmarks or use frameworks like GRESB to compare performance across different real estate assets.
