Industry insight
If you report using the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) in accordance with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), here's the latest expected timeline for the new simplified Standards:
- April/May — The European Commission (EC) will launch a month-long public consultation on the final version of the simplified ESRS as drafted by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG).
- June/July — After the public consultation, the EC is expected to fully adopt the simplified ESRS. However, once adopted the European Parliament and Council have two months to raise any final objections; if they have none, the simplified ESRS then become law.
In the meantime, you can proactively prepare for the simplified ESRS from your Sustainability Reporting workspace.
Looking for more insight? Workiva has Industry Principals dedicated to gathering and sharing Sustainability & Carbon knowledge and expertise! For more insight, follow them — Alyssa Zucker for Carbon, Esther Toth for EMEA & APAC, and Mark Mellen for North America & APAC — on LinkedIn.

What's new & next
For European Sustainability Reporting Standards
If your Sustainability Explorer includes the ESRS, you'll soon be able to explore a Draft version of the simplified Standards. With this Draft version, you can browse and bookmark material disclosure requirements, assess how it differs from the Current version of the Standards, and get a jump start on your preparation for when the simplified ESRS become law.
To further help prepare for the simplified ESRS:
- As highlighted in February, you can download the ESRS Transition Accelerator from the Workiva Marketplace to help update your Sustainability Program for the simplified Standards. With this Spreadsheet template, you can review changes between the Current and Draft versions of the ESRS, identify Program metrics impacted by the changes, and determine how to adjust those metrics accordingly. To learn more, view Prepare for draft simplified European Sustainability Reporting Standards with ESRS Transition Accelerator.
- If your workspace includes the CSRD add-on, you can request a Spreadsheet template to help prepare your double-materiality assessment (DMA) templates for the new topics and disclosure requirements (DRs) of the simplified ESRS. To prepare your DMA templates, you can either import the new topics to start fresh with the simplified Standards or work with an advisory partner to maintain continuity with your current DMA topics. To learn more, view Update DMA templates for simplified European Sustainability Reporting Standards.
For Carbon
If your workspace includes Carbon, you can now take advantage of recent enhancements to the Analytics Dashboard:
-
New Data Variance Report, to review the quality of year-over-year (YoY) data — for specific years, dimensions, and metrics — in a tabular comparison.
- Measure Summary features more flexible emissions intensity calculations, additional key performance indicators (KPIs), simplified groupings, and enhanced visuals.
- Purchases Report now supports greater decimal precision for more accurate analysis — without affecting the underlying data.
- Portfolio Dashboard no longer includes hardcoded emissions values, to better reflect the underlying data.
- Water Report features updated logic for enhanced accuracy.
- Consistent navigation across all reports, including clearly organized filters and easy-to-read KPIs.
Want to stay current? Follow What's new in Sustainability Reporting and What's new in Carbon!

On the calendar
May 19, join your peers and partner in sustainability — as well as those in finance and risk — for Accelerate New York City 2026. This engaging in-person event will tackle all your pressing questions and challenges in sustainability reporting — including responsible AI, data modernization, and integrated governance — with:
- Roundtable discussions to learn how leaders and peers solve similar challenges
- Actionable advice from Workiva customers and partners who drive their organization's transformation
- First-hand looks at features in the Workiva Platform to help strengthen data, AI, and assurance

Share your thoughts
The Workiva Community provides opportunities to engage with and learn from subject-matter experts (SMEs), advisory partners, and other sustainability reporters. Join the conversation in these threads:
- Community Connect: Sustainability, to learn from industry professionals and peers as you collaborate and share insights, challenges, and solutions.
- Sustainability Management, to discuss best practices and experiences with sustainability reporting, in general and within the Workiva Platform
- What's new in Sustainability, to learn the latest enhancements of Sustainability Reporting features like Sustainability Program and Sustainability Explorer
- Sustainability Feedback, to share and support ideas on how to improve Sustainability Management features
- Beverage Breaks, to learn directly from SMEs, partners, and other experienced sustainability reporters

Questions?
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