Beyond the CSRD: How Emitwise’s Data will Future-Proof Your Business with Carbon Audit Assurance

The growing importance of mandatory non-financial reporting

Businesses have become used to stringent financial reporting requirements, so they’ve built processes to streamline reporting every year and ensure compliance with regulations. Recently, they’ve been asked about another line in their books: greenhouse gas emissions.

In the world of mandatory non-financial reporting, businesses are realising that regulators are asking them for their carbon accounting to be done with the same diligence as their financial accounting. Some are finding themselves ill-equipped to respond to the demands of a growing list of ESG regulations.

These demands are coming from new regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). To ensure compliance, businesses must be transparent about their methodologies, consistent in their calculations, and demonstrate a data-backed emissions reduction strategy.

To survive in the world of non-financial reporting, businesses need to implement robust data collection processes and use that data to inform the creation of long-term emissions reduction plans. On that journey, how can businesses get accurate emissions data they can trust now to start building for the future?

Regulatory realities

The CSRD is the overarching EU legislation for non-financial reporting. It’s informed by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group’s (EFRAG) European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which cover a wide range of non-financial information, from Scope 3 emissions to human rights risks.

The CSRD requires companies to provide a comprehensive inventory of their Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, with the inventory needing to be audited and assured by a third party. Third-party assurance of carbon accounting seeks to assess businesses on the accuracy, auditability and actionability of their carbon accounting.

While it should impact over 50,000 businesses, it isn’t just the CSRD that businesses will need to pay attention to, as there’s a global wave of non-financial reporting coming towards them. To navigate these waters, dedicated carbon management platforms can play a key role in streamlining reporting and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Get your data under control to future-proof your business

With no crystal ball to predict how regulations will evolve and what they will require, businesses might be unsure of where or how to start. However, there is a commonality with these regulations, and it is that they require the disclosure of accurate emissions data.

That’s where carbon management platforms step in, helping you collect data, calculate emissions, and make this data actionable so that you are empowered to implement reduction initiatives. As they measure their greenhouse gas emissions, businesses will also need to disclose the methodology behind the calculations and how they plan to achieve reductions.

Auditors will look at the emissions factor databases you use to evaluate the consistency and certainty of your accounting. That is why leveraging trustworthy, granular, accurate emissions factor databases is a must. To simplify the audit process, Emitwise creates an audit trail for all its emissions calculations and provides methodology reports.

Additionally, supplier engagement programmes can allow businesses to track emissions reductions in their supply chain and engage suppliers on a joint decarbonisation journey. This value chain approach to carbon management is becoming a regulatory requirement. To facilitate data collection from their suppliers, businesses can leverage platforms such as Procurewise.

Supplier engagement will support regulatory compliance, but it can also advance your decarbonisation objectives. With everyone pulling in the same direction, companies will find it easier to make progress towards reaching their science-based targets and track that progress.

By helping businesses accurately measure their scope 3 emissions, Emitwise is empowering businesses to comply with a growing amount of sustainability regulations and seamlessly pass emissions data audits.