ESRS 2 General disclosures
ESRS 2 General disclosures specifies essential information to be disclosed irrespective of which sustainability matter is being considered. Mandatory for all companies under the CSRD scope.
The disclosures of ESRS 2 and the topical standards are structured into four key reporting areas: 1) governance, 2) strategy, 3) impact, risk, and opportunity management, and 4) metrics and targets. The ESRS 2 sets minimum disclosure requirements (MDRs) for reporting on policies, actions, metrics, and targets (see Table) related to each material sustainability matter.
The structure of the DR's is consistent across all topical standards and includes:
Policies and actions DR's;
Metrics and targets DR's;
Entity-specific disclosures.
To determine which topical standards are material to your company, a double materiality assessment (DMA) is essential. DMA is fundamental to ESRS 2 General Disclosures as it guides companies in identifying the critical sustainability information to report. By applying the double materiality approach, companies offer a comprehensive view of how sustainability issues affect them financially, as well as how company impacts the environment and people.
Importantly, if a topic is deemed material and is covered by a topical ESRS, the related DR's themselves may not necessarily be material. In other words, even if the overall topic is material, specific DR's within that topic may not be.