Episode 4: Entering the new era of sustainability reporting
The 2025 financial year marks the beginning of a new era for many large companies, as they will have to prepare a sustainability report for the first time. What does this mean for companies, what measures need to be taken, how time-consuming is the implementation and what mistakes should be avoided?
Anna-Margareta Gehrs, auditor, tax consultant and partner at HLB Stückmann, Meike Wörmann, auditor and tax consultant, and Sebastian Behrens, tax consultant, are part of the sustainability team at HLB Stückmann. In this podcast, they provide an initial overview of how to get started with sustainability reporting.
How can a company prepare sustainability reporting for the first time and does it make sense not to wait until the 2025 financial year, but perhaps to do a trial run earlier?
What is sustainability reporting about?
The reform of non-financial reporting on the part of the EU places sustainability aspects at the centre of corporate reporting and disclosure obligations across the board for the first time. Information on environmental, social and governance aspects must be provided in the form of strategies, measures, targets and parameters / key figures. Among other things, this is intended to meet the needs of stakeholders such as investors, customers and employees for an understanding of the company's sustainability efforts.
Sustainability strategy
In future, the sustainability strategy will be closely interwoven with the corporate strategy or even form an integral part of it. In addition to reporting on the status quo and performance in terms of sustainability aspects, this is also intended to bring about a change in behaviour among companies.
Standardisation in reporting
The reform also introduces uniform standards to sustainability reporting in the EU for the first time. Sustainability reports must be prepared in accordance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards. This should contribute to the comparability and transparency of the report.
Who is responsible in the company?
Due to the fact that non-financial reporting is to be harmonised with financial reporting, it is to be expected that the implementation of sustainability reporting will require enormous personnel, time and financial capacities. Responsibility within the company should be located in a position with competences and authority to issue instructions.
