CSRD's Second Year: From Compliance to Value Management

The second year of CSRD reporting reveals a significant shift among Polish companies. Beyond mastering the fundamentals of sustainability disclosures, organizations are now concentrating on enhancing the quality and utility of their reports. Many are also actively setting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) targets that integrate into their broader business strategies.

Across the board, companies are reporting on climate change (ESRS E1), employees (ESRS S1), and corporate governance (ESRS G1) due to mandatory double materiality assessments. Resource use and the circular economy (ESRS E5) are also frequently reported, with about 80% of companies addressing these areas. Water (ESRS E3) and pollution (ESRS E2) issues are considered significant by half of the companies, while biodiversity (ESRS E4) is reported by 40%.

In social reporting, consumer issues (ESRS S4) are addressed by approximately 80% of companies, followed by employees in the value chain (ESRS S2) at 60%, and affected communities (ESRS S3) at 40%. The consistency of these topics compared to the previous year suggests that the initial double materiality assessments were robust and required little revision.

Companies are also becoming more critical of their disclosures, reducing the number of reported impacts, risks, and opportunities (IROs) by about 10%. This indicates a more selective approach, aggregating topics, and removing less significant areas or those presented as positive impacts that are actually mitigation measures for negative ones. Only 28% of analyzed Polish companies report entity-specific topics, a lower figure than the over 50% seen in a similar study across Europe. This suggests that reporting on unique ESG perspectives, often related to cybersecurity and data protection, is still an area of development.