Sustainability Reporting

As sustainability reporting requirements grow more complex and expansive, reporting have become essential for companies' market access and competitiveness. These requirements include all three pillars of ESG in the concept of sustainability, encompassing the qualitative aspects of environment, social relationships, and business ethics that investors and financial institutions examine when considering a business case.

ESG reporting serves as a tool for companies to identify and manage risk, evaluate and measure success, and to identify future challenges and opportunities. You can read more about the ‘S’ and ‘G’ in ‘ESG’ here.

The Norwegian Act on Sustainable Finance, which implements the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), came into force on 1 January 2023. The Act imposes significant reporting obligations on the companies, financial market participants and financial advisors within its scope.

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD, which was adopted by the EU in December 2022, requires a large number of companies to disclose information on risks and opportunities relating to social and environmental matters, and on the social and environmental impact of their activities. The CSRD has been incorporated into Norwegian law primarily through additions and amendments to the Accounting Act, but it also modifies provisions in several other laws and regulations.The CSRD expands reporting requirements and enables investors, stakeholders and the public to access more reliable information concerning a company's sustainability record.

To ensure compliance with existing and new reporting obligations, affected businesses should:

Identify which reporting obligations will apply in future
Regularly conduct double materiality assessments
Establish effective routines for collecting necessary data
Identify and integrate sustainability-related KPIs within leadership and the organisation.
Conduct strategic assessments of ‘additional reporting’ with regard to market or financial advantages
Develop a sound methodology for reporting

At Wikborg Rein, we assist our clients to identify which reporting requirements apply to their business and establish good systems for data collection, reporting and follow-up.