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Report in the standard your customers report in
Your largest customers report under the EU sustainability reporting rules (CSRD), and they need data from their suppliers to do it. If you report in the same European standards (ESRS), your answers fit straight into their reports, and one report answers many of their questions. We compile the ESRS datapoints from your own records, draft the disclosures and show what is missing.
CSRD / ESRS in five lines
- The law
- The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), as amended by Directive (EU) 2026/470, in force since 18 March 2026
- Who is in scope
- Companies with more than 1,000 employees and more than EUR 450 million turnover
- The standards
- The simplified ESRS adopted by the European Commission on 3 July 2026, applying to financial years from 1 January 2027 (early use for 2026 allowed)
- Why suppliers use it
- Customers that report under the CSRD need data from their value chain. Answers in the ESRS structure fit their reports directly
- What you buy
- The ESRS datapoints you need, with an evidence trail per datapoint, draft disclosures and a gap list
What the ESRS cover
- General requirements and disclosures
How the report is prepared, your governance, strategy and business model, and the double materiality assessment behind it.
- Environment
Climate change, pollution, water, biodiversity, and resource use and circular economy, insofar as they are material for you.
- Social
Your own workforce, workers in the value chain, affected communities, and consumers and end users.
- Governance
Business conduct: corporate culture, supplier relationships, and the prevention of corruption and bribery.
The ask
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires large companies to publish a sustainability statement prepared under the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Those statements cover the whole value chain, so the companies that report need data from their suppliers: energy and emissions, workforce, policies, targets.
In 2026 the EU narrowed the law: only companies with more than 1,000 employees and more than EUR 450 million turnover remain in scope, and the simplified ESRS adopted on 3 July 2026 cut the number of datapoints substantially. Your customers in scope still report, and they still ask. Reporting in their standard is the most direct way to answer.
Who this applies to
Mostly suppliers whose customers report under the CSRD. You are not obliged to report yourself, but you want to hand your customers data they can use as it is, and answer once instead of per questionnaire.
It also applies if your parent group reports under the CSRD and needs your data for its consolidated statement, or if your company is in scope itself and reports for financial year 2027.
If your customers only ask for basic sustainability data, the lighter VSME report may be enough. The same data serves both, so you can start with one and grow into the other.
What you need to have ready
This list doubles as our intake. Whatever is missing becomes the gap list.
- The requests themselves: your customers’ questionnaires or data templates, or your group’s reporting template and deadline
- Energy bills and fuel purchases, and any existing greenhouse gas inventory
- HR data: headcount by contract type, gender and country, leavers, accidents, training and pay data
- Policies, codes of conduct and any targets you have set
- Waste, water and materials records, where material for your operations
- Earlier sustainability reports, EcoVadis or CDP responses, and certificates
What Humboldt delivers
The ESRS datapoints that matter for you and your customers, compiled from your records into the structure of the standards. Every value carries an evidence trail back to its source document. Emissions are calculated per the GHG Protocol, and where your records leave a sound route to a number, we estimate it and mark it clearly as an estimate with the method used.
Alongside the numbers we draft the narrative disclosures on your policies, actions and targets from your own documents, and the gap list shows what cannot yet be evidenced and what to collect for next year. A senior ESG expert checks and signs the whole pack before it reaches you.
The finished deliverable, ready to submit.
Included
- The ESRS datapoints that are material for you, or that your parent group asks for, compiled from your records
- An evidence trail per datapoint: every number traces to a document, an export or a record you gave us
- Greenhouse gas emissions calculated per the GHG Protocol, with sound estimates clearly labelled as estimates
- Draft narrative disclosures on policies, actions and targets, written from your own documents
- Support for your double materiality assessment: a first draft from your documents and the input you provide, for your team and board to decide on
- A gap list of datapoints that cannot be evidenced or soundly estimated, with what to collect next
- Checked and signed by a senior ESG expert before delivery
Good to know
- Your company decides what is material and remains responsible for the sustainability statement in its management report.
- Assurance of the sustainability statement is done by your auditor or an independent assurance provider.
- If you have fewer than 1,000 employees, customers in scope may not require more from you than the voluntary SME standard (VSME). Reporting in ESRS is your choice, made because it serves your customers.
Your CSRD / ESRS evidence works for other requests too
Everything we collect and check for this deliverable goes into your evidence file. The next request starts from there, whichever scheme or customer it comes from.
CSRD / ESRS: common questions
Something else? Ask it on the call.
We are not in scope of the CSRD. Why report in ESRS?
Because your customers are. Companies that report under the CSRD need data from their suppliers for their own report, in the structure of the ESRS. When your answers already follow that structure, they fit straight into your customers' reports, and one report answers many of their questionnaires.
VSME or ESRS?
VSME is the lighter, EU-endorsed standard for SMEs, and customers in scope may not require more than that from suppliers with fewer than 1,000 employees. ESRS goes further and matches your customers' own reports. Which one fits depends on what your customers ask; we advise you on the call, and the same data serves both.
Our parent company reports under the CSRD. What do they need from us?
Usually your site or entity figures for the datapoints that are material for the group, in the group's format and by the group's deadline. We compile them from your records, with a source for every value, so the group can use them directly.
Do you write the whole sustainability statement?
We prepare the datapoints and draft the disclosures. How much of the full statement we take on depends on your situation, and we agree that on the call. The materiality decisions and final sign-off of the statement stay with your company.
Where these facts come from
Checked against the official sources on 26 October 2026. Spotted something outdated? Tell us and we will fix it.
Is a request sitting in your inbox?
Tell us what your customer is asking for and when it is due. In 20 minutes a senior ESG expert tells you honestly whether we can deliver it in time.
No commitment. We'll tell you on the call whether we can hit your deadline.