According to estimates by financial data company Refinitiv, the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will oblige at least 10,000 companies not based in the EU to report and have a number of sustainability data independently verified. A third of the companies affected are based in the USA.
Foreign companies are affected if they:
- if shares or bonds are listed on a European stock exchange
- have an annual turnover of more than 150 million euros in the EU and operate an EU branch with a net turnover of more than 40 million euros
- an EU subsidiary that fulfills two of the following three criteria. More than 250 employees in the EU, a balance sheet total of more than EUR 20 million or a local turnover of more than EUR 40 million
Due to the size of the European economic area, the CSRD has the potential to become the global standard for sustainability reporting. Similar to what the GDPR has already done for data protection.
