.png "What is CSRD? A Guide to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive by Key ESG")
Over the past two years, sustainability reporting has undergone a decisive shift: quality, consistency, and auditability now sit at the top of the regulatory agenda.
Nowhere is that clearer than in the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Under the CSRD, firms must publish annual sustainability statements prepared in accordance with European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and subject to third-party assurance.
The EU is not the only global region to be stepping up its sustainability auditing requirements. The California Climate Disclosure Laws mandate that organisations publish their Scope 1 & 2 emissions and that they are audited by an independent third-party. These laws are another example of the increasing scutiny which sustainability data is under. The trend is clear, sustainability data must now be investor-grade: traceable, complete, and comparable.
Organisations without robust data aggregation processes risk encountering challenges in the review and sign-off phases of their sustainability reporting.
Against this backdrop, KEY ESG has introduced four features designed to make sustainability reporting auditable by design.
Feature 1: Real-time guardrails
When users input a data submission the platform now automatically displays the previous year’s figure beside the entry field. This real-time “guardrail” does three powerful things:
- Flags outliers instantly – If a value differs significantly from last year’s data, the reporter notices immediately and can investigate before submission, rather than after an audit exposes issues.
- Improves completeness – Seeing a missing datapoint highlighted against the prior year reduces the risk of teams forgetting to submit data.
- Supports narrative building – Teams can show clear performance trends and see how much they’ve progressed since the previous year.
By leveraging past data, this feature significantly improves the quality of the data at the point of submission, reducing errors and missing data.
Feature 2: Upload evidence documents
Another feature that our users can leverage to improve the quality of data that is submitted in the platform is the ability to upload and file evidence documents to support the data entry. This feature enables:
- Data gatherers to provide proof points of the data point which is easily accessible, saving huge amounts of time in the data review and audit process
- Platform admins can easily see which data points don't have documents uploaded for them and prioritise those areas in their data reviews
- The platform becomes a single source of truth for all data and documents on sustainability for the organisation, reducing the transfer of documents by email and improving cross-functional collaboration
By uploading evidence documents to the platform, users improve their collaboration on data collection tasks and maximise efficiency and data quality.
Feature 3: Impartial data viewer capabilities
Once data has been finalised, KEY ESG’s new software features allow administrators to grant read-only access to any internal or external reviewer. The invitee gains read-only access to the figures and the methodologies, can export the data and create personal “saved views” in the platform, allowing them to impartially audit the data.
This capability tackles two hurdles in sustainability assurance:
- Save time: Auditors often spend a lot of time and energy chasing explanations and evidence. Providing them with complete, audit-friendly data up-front keeps the back-and-forth to a minimum and saves time in the long run.
- Demonstrate clear process: granting read-only access to the data trail and calculation methodology enables internal and external auditors to understand the robustness of the reporting process.
With data easily accessible to third-party auditors, firms can get instant feedback on their metrics and easily identify areas for improvement before their data is officially submitted.
Feature 4: Auditable carbon emissions export
To significantly reduce the workload around an organisation's carbon emission data audit process, KEY ESG provides a one-click export of all carbon emissions data. This explort includes emission factors and calculation methodology, providing a comprehensive document which details all the necessary data to complete the review and audit process.
Future-proof your sustainability reporting process
Regulators have raised the bar and CSRD has raised it even higher. Auditable ESG reporting is no longer something that sets a company apart, it’s the new standard. In order to future-proof your organisation against increasing sustainability reporting demands, a business needs to find a platform which supports the following activities:
- Avoid manual errors: By embedding guardrails and reviewer access into routine workflows, the platform turns what used to be a manual, spreadsheet-heavy exercise into a repeatable, systemised process.
- Build repeatable systems: Real-time checks reduce the need for edits, which can often push sustainability reports up against regulatory deadlines.
- Earn greater stakeholder trust: Investors receive numbers that have already been scrutinised internally and, where appropriate, independently. This enhances credibility in a market where ESG data is increasingly audited under the same scrutiy as financial data
By integrating this functionality into our sustainability software, KEY ESG equips organisations to meet today’s reporting standards more easily and efficiently.
Book a demo today to see our new tools in action.
Over the past two years, sustainability reporting has undergone a decisive shift: quality, consistency, and auditability now sit at the top of the regulatory agenda.
Nowhere is that clearer than in the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Under the CSRD, firms must publish annual sustainability statements prepared in accordance with European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and subject to third-party assurance.
The EU is not the only global region to be stepping up its sustainability auditing requirements. The California Climate Disclosure Laws mandate that organisations publish their Scope 1 & 2 emissions and that they are audited by an independent third-party. These laws are another example of the increasing scutiny which sustainability data is under. The trend is clear, sustainability data must now be investor-grade: traceable, complete, and comparable.
Organisations without robust data aggregation processes risk encountering challenges in the review and sign-off phases of their sustainability reporting.
Against this backdrop, KEY ESG has introduced four features designed to make sustainability reporting auditable by design.
Feature 1: Real-time guardrails
When users input a data submission the platform now automatically displays the previous year’s figure beside the entry field. This real-time “guardrail” does three powerful things:
- Flags outliers instantly – If a value differs significantly from last year’s data, the reporter notices immediately and can investigate before submission, rather than after an audit exposes issues.
- Improves completeness – Seeing a missing datapoint highlighted against the prior year reduces the risk of teams forgetting to submit data.
- Supports narrative building – Teams can show clear performance trends and see how much they’ve progressed since the previous year.
By leveraging past data, this feature significantly improves the quality of the data at the point of submission, reducing errors and missing data.
Feature 2: Upload evidence documents
Another feature that our users can leverage to improve the quality of data that is submitted in the platform is the ability to upload and file evidence documents to support the data entry. This feature enables:
- Data gatherers to provide proof points of the data point which is easily accessible, saving huge amounts of time in the data review and audit process
- Platform admins can easily see which data points don't have documents uploaded for them and prioritise those areas in their data reviews
- The platform becomes a single source of truth for all data and documents on sustainability for the organisation, reducing the transfer of documents by email and improving cross-functional collaboration
By uploading evidence documents to the platform, users improve their collaboration on data collection tasks and maximise efficiency and data quality.
Feature 3: Impartial data viewer capabilities
Once data has been finalised, KEY ESG’s new software features allow administrators to grant read-only access to any internal or external reviewer. The invitee gains read-only access to the figures and the methodologies, can export the data and create personal “saved views” in the platform, allowing them to impartially audit the data.
This capability tackles two hurdles in sustainability assurance:
- Save time: Auditors often spend a lot of time and energy chasing explanations and evidence. Providing them with complete, audit-friendly data up-front keeps the back-and-forth to a minimum and saves time in the long run.
- Demonstrate clear process: granting read-only access to the data trail and calculation methodology enables internal and external auditors to understand the robustness of the reporting process.
With data easily accessible to third-party auditors, firms can get instant feedback on their metrics and easily identify areas for improvement before their data is officially submitted.
Feature 4: Auditable carbon emissions export
To significantly reduce the workload around an organisation's carbon emission data audit process, KEY ESG provides a one-click export of all carbon emissions data. This explort includes emission factors and calculation methodology, providing a comprehensive document which details all the necessary data to complete the review and audit process.
Future-proof your sustainability reporting process
Regulators have raised the bar and CSRD has raised it even higher. Auditable ESG reporting is no longer something that sets a company apart, it’s the new standard. In order to future-proof your organisation against increasing sustainability reporting demands, a business needs to find a platform which supports the following activities:
- Avoid manual errors: By embedding guardrails and reviewer access into routine workflows, the platform turns what used to be a manual, spreadsheet-heavy exercise into a repeatable, systemised process.
- Build repeatable systems: Real-time checks reduce the need for edits, which can often push sustainability reports up against regulatory deadlines.
- Earn greater stakeholder trust: Investors receive numbers that have already been scrutinised internally and, where appropriate, independently. This enhances credibility in a market where ESG data is increasingly audited under the same scrutiy as financial data
By integrating this functionality into our sustainability software, KEY ESG equips organisations to meet today’s reporting standards more easily and efficiently.
Book a demo today to see our new tools in action.
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