Role of accreditation in the implementation of CSRD

EU law requires all large companies and medium-sized companies (except listed micro-enterprises) to disclose what they see as the risks and opportunities arising from social and environmental issues and the impact of their activities on people and the environment.

The EU recognizes that companies' transparency and reporting on environmental, social, human rights, and similar issues are key to sustainable development.

This helps investors, civil society organizations, consumers, and other stakeholders to evaluate the sustainability performance of companies, as part of the European Green Deal. 

The European Green Deal is the EU’s sustainable development strategy for the 21st century. The central issue addressed by this strategy is the environment and climate change – how to develop the EU economy without accelerating climate change. The European Commission defines this strategy as ‘’a new growth strategy with the aim of transforming the EU into a fair and wealthy society, with a modern and competitive economy that uses resources efficiently, with net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and economic growth which is separated from resources exploitation”.

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) entered into force on the 5th of January 2023. This new EU legislation aims to accentuate the growing awareness of environmental, social, and governance factors (ESG factors). One means is moving the publication of information related to firms’ social and environmental responsibility from virtually voluntary to mandatory.

The auditing and reporting processes have been specified in the CSRD and now include the possibility of recognizing accredited Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) as independent assurance services providers.

The basis for the recognition of CABs as per CSRD, would be an accreditation as defined by Regulation (EC) No 765/2008.
Sustainability audits require the corresponding technical expertise. Accredited CABs possess expertise in environmental protection, sustainability, quality, and occupational health and safety, among others.

Relevant topics, such as sustainable supply chains, climate management, protection of human rights, compliance, and overall social engagement, shall be integrated into the company’s day-to-day business processes through a standardized procedure in accordance with the EU’s terms of reference.

CABs have already been auditing their clients' sustainability reports for years according to the reporting standards approved within the scope of the NFRD (Non-Financial Reporting Directive). Therefore, it will be efficient for the companies affected to add further sustainability aspects to their already existing (certified) systems to benefit from the resulting synergy effects. CABs can audit such modifications/additions within a set of approved procedures.

Accredited CABs are assessed by National Accreditation Bodies regularly and therefore demonstrate the required competence of their personnel including knowledge of the industry and compliance requirements. This level of assurance and confirmation of competence is necessary for a well-founded/solid verification procedure and should be used to ensure a comprehensive and valuable audit result.

Since 2020, an accreditation standard has been available for verification and validation, fitting in the scope of the CSRD: EN ISO/IEC 17029: 2020 Conformity assessment – General principles and requirements for validation and verification bodies.

Given that ATS recognized the importance of introducing this new standard into its work system with the goal of extending to a new field of accreditation, training was held according to this standard in the past period. We wrote about this HERE

You can read more about this topic HERE