CSR reporting is increasingly becoming the focus of public attention. A new EU directive is bringing far-reaching changes to corporate sustainability reporting.
“Austrian companies urgently need to take a closer look at their sustainability reporting, because unlike in the past, we are moving into largely uncharted territory – I’m just saying: taxonomy and supply chain. For the first time, the sustainable transformation can be compared using largely standardized facts and figures. In the past, the focus of reporting was primarily on traditional financial indicators, but the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) now also covers areas of the company and issues that previously only played a subordinate role,” says Heidrun Kopp, Head of the ESG & Sustainable Finance course at FHWien der WKW.
Stakeholders should be able to better assess companies’ contribution to sustainability
The aim of the new directive is to provide the public with reliable information about a company’s contribution to sustainability. From 2026, around 2,000 companies in Austria will be subject to this extended reporting obligation, but very few have already done their homework. There is still a lot of catching up to do here: in future, companies will have to report more comprehensively and according to more uniform standards. This requires a competent team and a professional cross-departmental ESG strategy. This is because the greater quantification of report content using key figures will enable the measurability and international comparability of the information.
In order to facilitate access to sustainability information, this should be a mandatory part of the management report in future. In addition, sustainability reporting must be externally audited in future, just like financial reporting. The EU Commission is defining audit standards for this. In addition, the depth of the audit is to be gradually expanded: In a first step, an audit with limited assurance is planned. Subsequently, reasonable assurance will be required, which corresponds to the depth of assurance required for financial reporting.
Sustainability is becoming a key corporate management factor
The first major hurdle for many companies is the so-called double materiality, which in future will oblige companies to report both on the impact of their own business operations on people and the environment and on the impact of sustainability aspects on the company. In future, companies will therefore no longer be assessed solely on the basis of financial criteria such as liquidity and profitability, but also on how they deal with the issues of climate and environmental protection, biodiversity and their social and societal responsibility. This professional sustainability risk management requires new knowledge at all hierarchical levels and the entrepreneurial vision to actively shape the challenges ahead.
Green transformation needs know-how
For Heidrun Kopp, the “green transformation” is also an opportunity for Austrian companies, for which they should be well prepared: “ESG & sustainable finance measures require a systemic approach and de facto affect all areas of the company – from purchasing to production, risk management, controlling, accounting, HR, marketing, compliance and all hierarchies from the supervisory board to top management and employees. To ensure that the regulatory requirements can be implemented within the company in a timely manner, the relevant human and technical resources must be built up and trained in good time.”
The “ESG & Sustainable Finance” courses of the Vienna Management Academy by FHWien der WKW offer practice-oriented and efficient tools for the implementation of ESG programs in companies. The continuing education programs provide orientation and a well-founded overview of operational and strategic measures as well as the legal framework at national and European level. Specialist areas of focus include the EU Action Plan, EU taxonomy, sustainable management, supply chain law, greenwashing, sustainable investments, ESG impact measurement, KPIs and data management. The focus is also on solutions in the areas of sustainable financial instruments, climate risks, sustainability reporting, non-financial reporting, sustainable risk management and carbon accounting.
Here you will find details of your further education opportunities in ESG and Sustainable Finance Management.