This article is for:
- ESG workspaces with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) add-on enabled
The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) help companies in the European Union (EU) — including EU-based subsidiaries of International companies — comply with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting.
To help align your ESG reporting with the quantitative and qualitative requirements of the ESRS, you can contact your Workiva Customer Success Manager (CSM) to learn how to supplement Workiva's ESG solution with additional templates.
Note: To connect data across files, these templates include connected queries and reports. An additional cost may apply to deploy these supplemental files as an add-on to your ESG Reporting workspace. For details, contact your Workiva CSM.
These templates include:
- Gap assessment spreadsheet, where you can identify any gaps in data collection toward ESRS topics your company deems material
- ESRS SMF spreadsheet, to ease the creation of ESG Program metrics to resolve any gaps identified
Step 1. Map ESRS and double-materiality results
From Assessments , your company can use templates to assess the double-materiality of ESRS topics based on key stakeholders' perspectives. After you collect the results of these assessments, you can identify the topics that matter most to your company and focus on their related gaps.
To start the gap assessment, refresh these sheets' incoming connections from the Connections panel of the Gap assessment spreadsheet:
- User list, to update the spreadsheet with available workspace members who may be able to lead efforts to resolve any gaps
- ESRS framework, to update the spreadsheet with any ESG Program metrics already aligned with ESRS content
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Double material and ESRS mapping, to update the spreadsheet with the results of the double-materiality assessment performed with the Assessments templates
Note: If you perform a double-materiality assessment outside of Assessments, manually update the Double materiality and ESRS mapping sheet based on your results.
Step 2. Perform gap assessment
Based on your double-materiality assessment, determine how well your company can meet the disclosure and application requirements for the ESRS:
- Disclosure requirements define what to disclose for a standard
- Application requirements define how to report the disclosure, including its required formulas and table layouts
From each standard's sheet in the ESRS assessments section of the Gap assessment spreadsheet, review its disclosures and assess any gaps.
Review ESRS disclosures
- In Pillar, review the disclosure's type:
- Governance, for governance (GOV) disclosure requirements
- Strategy, for strategy and business model (SBM) requirements
- IRO, for sustainability impacts, risks and opportunities (IRO) requirements
- Metrics and targets, for data- and goal-related application requirements (ARs) — also known as minimum disclosure requirements (MDRs)
- In Content type, review whether the disclosure is additional context — such as guidance — or a voluntary or mandatory data point.
Tip; If a disclosure is a data point with both voluntary and mandatory requirements, select Data point — Partially voluntary and mandatory.
- Review whether the disclosure maps to a topic or an impact, risk, or opportunity (IRO) identified as material by your DMA results.
- If you choose to not report a material disclosure, select Yes in Disclosure omission, and enter an explanation for the omission.
- In Materiality results, review any material topic or IRO the disclosure maps to, if applicable.
Tip: To help focus on only gaps for reported data points, the ESRS assessment section automatically grays out disclosures with a Content type of Context.
Analyze disclosures for gaps
- If you already report the disclosure (even only partially), enter details about what's disclosed in Current disclosure, and where it's disclosed in Current disclosure source.
- In Gap, select whether the disclosure has a gap — and if so, whether it's a full or partial gap — based on the Current disclosure, related ESG Program metric, and any other sources.
Tip: If a disclosure maps to a metric in ESG Program, you can view its ID and name in Existing metric code and Existing metric name, respectively.
- If a gap exists for a voluntary or mandatory data point disclosure:
- In Gap reasoning, enter an explanation of why the gap exists.
- In Gap type, select what's needed to resolve the gap — Data, Processes, Controls, Governance, or Disclosure.
- In Disclosure nature, select the type of disclosure needed to resolve the gap — Quantitative, Qualitative, or Semi-qualitative.
Note: If no gap exists, select No gap in Gap type to gray out the disclosure.
Plan to close gaps
For each data point, plan how to resolve any gaps:
- In Reporting cycle, select the first year you plan to report the disclosure.
- In Action, select the step to take to resolve the gap — such as Legal review, Regulatory interpretation, or Data gathering.
- In Responsible team/function and Assisting function, enter the primary and secondary teams or functions — respectively — to resolve the gap.
- In Gap lead, select the workspace member to lead the effort to resolve the gap.
Tip: To resolve a gap that requires data gathering, align its disclosure with a metric in ESG Program (if necessary), and assign the gap lead as the metric value's Assignee.
After you assess your material standards' gaps, from the Connections panel, select Outgoing , and click Refresh .
Step 3. Analyze or visualize gap assessment results
To help identify gaps to resolve for ESRS, review the Analyze assessment results or Visualize results and progress section.
Tip: To update these sections with the latest results of the gap assessment, from the Connections panel, select Incoming , and click Refresh .
- For the full results of the gap assessment, review the Analyze assessment results section.
From this section, you can view results for:- All ESRS content
- Only material disclosures, based on topic — Environmental, Social, or Governance
- Only mandatory or voluntary data points, by gap type
Tip: The Analyze assessment results sheet includes all results of the gap assessment by default. Apply filters to column headers as necessary to focus on only specific results.
- For a summary of the gap assessment, review the Visualize results and progress section.
From this section, you can view:-
ESRS breakdown, which summarizes the materiality of ESRS disclosures by their requirements, data points, and omissions
Note: For completeness, the ESRS breakdown sheet includes ESRS 2: General disclosures, which is mandatory and therefore not subject to materiality.
- Gap assessment progress, which summarizes of the percentage complete across all stages of the gap assessment — overall, and for each standard
- Gap assessment results, which summarizes the gaps identified by the assessment — overall, and for each standard, pillar, gap type, and disclosure nature
Tip: The Visualize results and progress sheet includes common breakdowns of the gap assessment results by default. You can customize the breakdowns as necessary, such as to break down results by location or other criteria.
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ESRS breakdown, which summarizes the materiality of ESRS disclosures by their requirements, data points, and omissions
Tip: From the ESRS Readiness dashboard presentation included with the templates, you can track the progress of gaps and analyze their reconciliation by company function or topic.
Step 4. Create ESG Program metrics to resolve gaps
Based on the results of the gap assessment, you can create metrics in ESG Program, such as to help gather data or responses needed to resolve gaps.
Tip: From ESG Explorer, you can also create a Readiness Assessment for the ESRS. From the Readiness Assessment, you can then create tasks and ESG Program metrics as needed to resolve gaps identified for disclosures.
To help create these metrics, use the ESRS structured metric file (SMF):
- From the Connections panel of the ESRS SMF spreadsheet, click Refresh from Outgoing and then Incoming — in that order — to update the file with the metrics required for material disclosures not omitted from the gap assessment or already aligned with metrics.
- Review the Metrics to create CY sheet, then copy and paste any metrics to add to your ESG Program into the Metrics sheet.
- From the Metrics sheet, update the metrics' details as necessary.
- From the Dimensions sheet, edit the default values as necessary to meet your company's needs.
- To add the metrics to your ESG Program, contact your Workiva CSM.
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