Together with our project partners, the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and the Fair Finance Institute, we carried out the project "Further Development of European Sustainability Reporting Standards for Companies" for the German Federal Environment Agency and completed it at the end of 2024. Part of the research project on the CSRD reporting standards included analyses and recommendations on the industry-specific reporting standards planned at the EU level, which are intended to further specify the existing reporting standards (ESRS).

Secondly, in this project we explored the synergies between the ESRS reporting standards and other environmental legislation. To this end, we collaborated with two manufacturing companies on case studies: MAN Truck & Bus SE and Odenwald Faserplattenwerk GmbH (OWA). Together, we examined which environmental information these companies already collect as part of their environmental legal requirements and which of this information can be used for CSRD reporting.

The results from these case studies are published in a paper by the German Federal Environment Agency.

We are delighted to have had the opportunity to explore this exciting perspective with MAN and OWA. Our analysis has contributed to the hope that more existing environmental information within companies will be used for CSRD reporting in the future.