ESRS: Overview of 12 Standards
I. Definition
ESRS stands for European Sustainability Reporting Standards.
They are official EU standards that explain what companies must report about sustainability under the CSRD regulation.
The 12 ESRS standards define:
- which topics must be covered (environment, social, governance),
- what data must be disclosed,
- and how this information must be structured.
Their purpose is simple: make sustainability information comparable, verifiable, and clear across all European companies.
II. Context
The ESRS were created to support the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive).
Before ESRS, companies reported sustainability data in very different ways.
This made comparison difficult and reduced trust in ESG information.
The 12 standards are divided into three main blocks:
- Cross-cutting standards (general rules and double materiality)
- Environmental standards (climate, pollution, water, biodiversity, resources)
- Social and governance standards (workforce, value chain, consumers, business conduct)
Each standard explains what to report, why it matters, and how to present the data.
Companies must not report everything blindly.
They must first apply double materiality to identify what is truly relevant.
The ESRS are technical, but their logic is practical:
report what matters, prove it with data, and explain it clearly.
IV. Related terms
- CSRD: Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive
https://www.orizscore.com/blogs/csrd-corporate-sustainability-reporting-directive - Double Materiality
https://www.orizscore.com/blogs/double-materiality - ESRS E1: Climate Change
https://www.orizscore.com/blogs/esrs-e1-climate-change
V. Example
A mid-sized European manufacturing company falls under the CSRD.
To comply, it must use the ESRS. First, it performs a double materiality assessment. It identifies climate risks, energy use, and workforce safety as key topics.
Then, it applies the relevant ESRS standards. For climate, it follows ESRS E1. It reports emissions, targets, risks, and transition plans using defined metrics.
The result: a structured, comparable, and verifiable sustainability report that regulators, investors, and partners can actually trust.
