The basics
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is EU legislation requiring in-scope companies to report detailed sustainability information — environmental, social, and governance — using a standardised set of disclosure standards (the ESRS). It replaced and significantly expanded the EU's earlier Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD).
What it originally required
As adopted in 2022, CSRD was set to phase in across four "waves," eventually reaching companies with as few as roughly 250 employees — a dramatic expansion from the NFRD's narrower scope of large public-interest entities.
What changed
That original scope has since been substantially cut back through the EU's "Omnibus" simplification package. A "Stop-the-Clock" directive delayed reporting for later-wave companies, and a December 2025 political agreement — formalised as Directive (EU) 2026/470, in force since March 19, 2026 — narrowed the scope considerably. See our full Omnibus guide and our who must report guide for exactly who's still in scope.
CSRD vs ESRS vs XBRL — how the pieces fit
- CSRD is the directive — the legal requirement to report sustainability information at all.
- ESRS are the standards — what specifically has to be disclosed, and how.
- ESRS XBRL is the digital format — how that disclosure gets tagged for machine readability, once the mandate is confirmed. See our ESRS XBRL guide.
Who administers it
The European Commission adopts CSRD's implementing standards; EFRAG develops the technical detail (including the XBRL taxonomy) and submits it for the Commission's adoption; ESMA is responsible for supervisory coordination and the digital tagging technical standard specifically.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CSRD only relevant to EU-headquartered companies?
No — non-EU companies can fall within scope if they generate sufficient revenue within the EU, though the Omnibus reforms raised that threshold considerably. See our who must report guide.
Does CSRD apply to private, non-listed companies?
It can, depending on size — CSRD was never limited to listed companies, though the post-Omnibus thresholds now exclude many mid-sized companies that were originally expected to be in scope.
What happened to the original phase-in timeline?
It's been pushed back and the scope narrowed through the Stop-the-Clock directive and the broader Omnibus agreement — see our CSRD Omnibus guide for the specifics.