Introducing Watershed for CSRD

ESG REPORTING

Prepare for your CSRD disclosure

Under the CSRD, more than 50,000 organisations worldwide will need to begin disclosing information about their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. Learn what data you’ll need and how you can start preparing today.

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The Watershed CSRD disclosure reporting tool
Logo for the CSRD regulation agency

What is the CSRD?

Starting in 2025, the European Union will require large and listed companies to disclose information on risks and opportunities related to their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices, with a particular focus on the impact of their activities on people and the environment. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) replaces the EU’s legacy ESG reporting program—the NFRD—and raises the bar for breadth and robustness in sustainability reporting, covering categories beyond just carbon, including pollution, water, waste, and biodiversity. The CSRD’s technical rules known as the ESRS lay out what companies need to disclose and how. Disclosures on these topics will need to exist in annual reports alongside financials, and will also be subject to audit assurance.

Does CSRD apply to my company?

  • Large listed companies, banks, and insurance companies already subject to the NFRD
  • Other listed EU companies
  • Listed European SMEs
  • Large private European companies
  • Non-European companies with significant business in the EU

How to prepare for the CSRD

Watershed helps companies prepare for CSRD reporting

Prepare for CSRD reporting

Watershed helps you understand your CSRD reporting requirements, manage your ESG data, track progress, and prepare your disclosures—all in one intuitive enterprise platform. Not sure whether you need to report under the CSRD? Take our quick assessment.

How to track CSRD data with Watershed

Add your data

Watershed offers 60+ pre-built integrations with existing business systems to ingest data required by the ESRS instantly, or you can upload data in a variety of flexible formats. Watershed tracks entity-level data to ensure that if your reporting consolidation level changes, you can easily adjust to include only the relevant entities.

Watershed helps avoid missing climate reporting deadlines

Track your progress

With Watershed, you can monitor data collection across multiple subsidiaries and departments to ensure they’re keeping pace with your reporting timeline. Granular progress-tracking lets you see the status of different data types—so you never miss a reporting deadline.

Easily review your climate data with Watershed

Check your numbers

Getting your data into the Watershed platform is just the first step. Using machine learning, Watershed automatically identifies data gaps and flag anomalies so you can correct them and build the audit trail for every number.

Watershed enables companies to quickly build CSRD reports

Prepare your report

Watershed automatically formats your data to match CSRD reporting requirements, and leverages data you’ve already collected and formatted for previous reports to accelerate your path to disclosure readiness. We also integrate directly with systems like Workiva to consolidate your ESG disclosures with other reports and to finalise XBRL tagging.

What are the CSRD requirements?

The CSRD requires companies to disclose a broad range of data relating to their environmental, social, and governance practices, according to the ESRS technical standards released in July 2023.

General disclosures
Governance
Strategy
Impacts, risks, and opportunities
Metrics and targets
Topical
Environmental
Climate change
Pollution
Water
Biodiversity
Resources & circular economy
Social
Own workforce
Workers in value chain metrics
Consumers and end-users metrics
Affected communities metrics
Governance
Business conduct
  • Mandatory for all companies
  • Mandatory if material

What is the CSRD timeline?

Under the CSRD, the first wave of impacted companies will need to begin reporting in 2025, based on data from 2024. For companies that haven’t previously measured their carbon footprint or are worried about the audit-readiness of their data, starting early is essential.

Regulatory timeline

CSRD timelines
Year20232024
ReleaseJuly 2023: Finalized ESRS technical standards with detailed CSRD requirementsJuly 2024: Reporting standards for SMEs and non-EU firms; sector-specific disclosures

Implementation timeline

EU Firms (and large non-EU subsidiaries)Global firms
Report due2025
Based on FY 2024 data
2026
Based on FY 2025 data
2027
Based on FY 2026 data
2029
Based on FY 2028 data
ScopeCompanies already subject to NFRD, including (i) large listed firms (500+ employees) and public interest entities; and (ii) banks/insurance firmsNon-SME/micro listed companies, and large private companies with 2 or more of:
  • 250+ workers
  • €50m+ net turnover
  • €25m+ assets
Listed SMEsNon-EU companies with €150m net turnover in EU (in each of last 2 years), and either (i) a large or listed subsidiary* or (ii) a significant EU branch**
Required standardsESRSSimplified ESRS reporting standardsSimplified ESRS reporting standards
Reporting levelOne consolidated report added to the management section of your annual financial report in electronic reporting format, to be available in the public European Single Access PointThe subsidiary or branch is responsible for publishing CSRD reports for non-EU undertakings at a consolidated group level
  • * Large subsidiary = 2 or more of: 250+ workers; €50m+ net turnover; €25m+ assets
  • ** Significant branch = generating €50m in revenue

How does CSRD compare to other ESG disclosures?

TCFDNFRDISSBGRI
Must reportGeneralGovernance, strategy, risks
Report if material
Environmental
Climate change
Pollution
Water
Biodiversity
Resources & circular economy
Social
Own workforce
Workers in value chain metrics
Consumers and end-users metrics
Affected communities metrics
Governance
Business conduct
  • Strong overlap with CSRD
  • Future overlap with CSRD
  • Weak overlap with CSRD
  • No overlap with CSRD

FAQ

  • As the CSRD significantly broadens the scope of NFRD, it is expected to roughly quadruple the number of covered organisations to over 50,000 companies—many of which will be required to report their full carbon emissions for the first time. The new regulations also cover an estimated 10,000 non-EU companies with significant operations in Europe.
  • The CSRD will apply to EU-based public companies (only excluding micro-enterprises), alongside all EU-based private organisations considered to be “large”— i.e., that have two or more of (1) 250+ employees, (2) €50m+ annual revenues, (3) €25m+ balance sheet.
  • For many non-EU parent companies, their EU subsidiaries will qualify for CSRD reporting if they meet the criteria above. That will require reporting by their EU subsidiaries, with some reporters opting to consolidate reporting and report at the global level.
  • However, the CSRD will eventually layer on separate requirements for non-EU companies, extending the scope of firms included, and requiring CSRD reporting to cover the whole entity – including the parent company – not just their EU activity.
  • This second wave of requirements will specifically apply if a non-EU parent has €150m+ in annual EU revenues, with at least one branch or subsidiary where: (1) the branch has €50m+ in annual EU revenues, (2) the subsidiary is either EU-listed or meets the large criteria above.

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