This article is for:
- Workspaces in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) with European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) enabled in ESG Explorer
- Workspaces elsewhere with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) add-on enabled
From ESG Explorer, you can create ESG Readiness Assessments to help gauge how prepared you are to report using specific Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks or standards. From 3. Make decisions, you can decide which disclosures to report for the selected reporting year, such as based on research and discussions with stakeholders.
Tip: Depending on the content and number of disclosures included, reporting decisions may be iterative. You can return to an ESG Readiness Assessment to update disclosures as you finalize their reporting decisions.
Note: Currently, ESG Readiness Assessments support only the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
When you make a reporting decision, you can:
- Choose whether to report a disclosure, even if only internally or in a future year.
- Assess the data available for a disclosure, such as in ESG Program or elsewhere.
- Document your decisions, such as to explain why you choose to not report a disclosure.
Record reporting decisions for disclosures
To record the reporting decision your company makes about a framework disclosure as part of an ESG Readiness Assessment:
- From ESG Explorer, open the ESG Readiness Assessment from Readiness assessments.
- In the assessment, select 3. Make decisions.
- In Section, select the disclosures to assess.
- To review the full content of a disclosure and its requirements, click Preview disclosure .
- In Decision, select whether to report the disclosure.
Decision Description Report Prepare to include the disclosure in an external report for the reporting year Omit Exclude the disclosure for the reporting year, regardless of whether it applies to your company Report internally Prepare to include the disclosure in an internal report for the reporting year, such as to the C-suite or other stakeholders Future report Prepare to report the disclosure externally in a future reporting year Not applicable The disclosure doesn't apply to your company, such as based on sector or other criteria
Assess gaps in data collection
If you choose to report the disclosure, even if only internally or in a future report, assess its available data from the Disclosure details
panel.- In Data relevance, confirm or select the disclosure's reporting decision.
- In Data availability, assess whether you have the data necessary to respond to the disclosure, even if just partially.
Tip: In Available in ESG Program, you can view metrics that may collect values relevant to the selected disclosure. You may also have data available elsewhere in Workiva or another system of record.
- If you have data available, select your confidence level — High, Medium, or Low — in it being ready to disclose in a report.
Tip: The ESG Readiness Assessment uses Data availability and Report-ready confidence to help identify potential gaps or areas for improvement in your data collection.
- To help further categorize the available data, apply assessment tags. For example, you can use tags to indicate whether data is publicly-available — and if so, where.
Tip: Workspace Owners can set up the tags available for ESG Readiness Assessments within in your workspace.
- In Available in ESG Program, review the metrics that the assessment finds that have values that may be relevant to the selected disclosure, based on their Related ESG content.
Tip: For each metric, you can view its related ESG content, and an assigned workspace member as a contact for more details about the data. To view more information about a metric or its related ESG content, click the name to open it in ESG Program or ESG Explorer, respectively.
- In Connected metrics, view any metrics that have the disclosure as Related ESG content.
Tip: If a metric doesn't apply the disclosure, click Disconnect from metric
to remove the disclosure from its Related ESG content. - In Potential match, view any metrics that have Related ESG content that has a relationship with the disclosure, as identified in ESG Explorer. If a metric applies directly to the disclosure, click Connect to metric to add the disclosure to its Related ESG content.
- In Connected metrics, view any metrics that have the disclosure as Related ESG content.
- If the ESG Program has a metric that collects values relevant to the disclosure but doesn't appear in Available in ESG Program, click Connect metric, then search for and select the metric to add as a Connected metric.
Note: When you connect a metric to the disclosure, the ESG Readiness Assessment adds the disclosure to the metric's Related ESG content.
Document reporting decisions
From the Decision documentation
panel, document the reasoning behind the reporting decision — especially if you decide to omit a disclosure, or report it only internally or in a future report.- In Point of contact, select the workspace member to contact for more information about the reporting decision.
- To help support the reporting decision:
- In Decision notes, enter an explanation or its reasoning.
- To attach supporting documentation, click Decision attachments, and then:
- Upload a file from your local drive or network, such as for a PDF, image, or other file
- Reference a Workiva file in your workspace, such as a Spreadsheet or Document
- Create a hyperlink to an online resource, such as a file in Google Drive®, Microsoft SharePoint®, or other online storage
To upload a file as an attachment:
- Select Upload file, and click Choose file.
- Browse to and select the file to upload.
To attach a Workiva file — such as a Spreadsheet or Document — in your workspace:
- Select Workiva file.
- In Source file, select the Workiva file to attach.
- To attach a specific section of the file, select it in Source section.
- Click Attach.
To attach an online file:
- Select Web address.
- Enter the full URL for the file.
- In Display name, enter how the attachment's hyperlink should appear, such as in the metric or Workiva Tasks.
- Click Attach.
- After you add all attachments, click Save.