ESRS vs CSRD: What It Means for Suppliers and ESG Data Requests

ESRS and CSRD in plain language

CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) is the EU law that expands sustainability reporting to a much larger population of companies, with phased deadlines over the coming years. In-scope companies must publish sustainability information alongside financial statements and obtain third‑party assurance.

ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards) are the detailed reporting standards CSRD companies must follow. They translate CSRD’s legal requirements into specific disclosures, metrics, and structures across environmental, social, and governance topics.

How ESRS sit under CSRD (and why that matters)

Think of CSRD as the ‘who and when’ and ESRS as the ‘what and how’. In practice, CSRD compliance largely means producing an ESRS-aligned report that can be assured.

Under CSRD, companies report across 12 ESRS standards: two cross‑cutting standards (general requirements and general disclosures) and topical standards covering climate, pollution, water, biodiversity, resources, workforce topics, consumers, communities, and business conduct.

All companies in scope apply the cross‑cutting ESRS, while topical ESRS apply based on a double materiality assessment.

Why ESRS/CSRD suddenly matter for suppliers

Even if your business is not directly in scope of CSRD, ESRS requires reporting companies to gather information across their value chain. That pushes ESG data collection and evidence requirements upstream and downstream to suppliers.

For many suppliers, this shows up as more frequent ESG questionnaires aligned to ESRS topics (especially climate and workers), shorter deadlines, and more requests for auditable evidence.

Suppliers who can respond quickly, consistently, and with good evidence become lower‑risk partners when customers assess CSRD/ESRS readiness.

• More ESG questionnaires aligned to ESRS topics (climate, workforce, governance)
• More requests for evidence (policies, certifications, invoices, incident logs)
• Higher expectation of consistency across customers and reporting cycles

ESRS/CSRD concepts suppliers should know

You don’t need to become an ESRS expert to respond well — but a few concepts explain why customers are asking for more detailed, documented information.

• Double materiality: companies assess both impact materiality (effects on people/planet) and financial materiality (effects on the business).
• Value chain coverage: ESRS can require disclosures on upstream and downstream activities where topics are material.
• Assurance and evidence: CSRD moves ESG closer to financial reporting, raising the bar for traceability, definitions, and supporting documentation.

How suppliers can respond without adding headcount

The operational fix is to treat ESG data like a reusable dataset, not a one-off project per customer. Centralize your key datapoints once, attach evidence to each datapoint, and reuse the same approved answers across questionnaires.

Complezy supports this workflow by giving suppliers a structured workspace (single source of truth), AI question matching to map new questions to your existing datapoints, and professional exports with evidence attached.