The proposal to delay the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and reduce the number of organisations within its scope is unlikely to make any difference to EirGrid’s efforts to meet its requirements.
“There are benefits to greater transparency and disclosure,” explains EirGrid chief corporate services officer Errol Close. “They offer opportunities for organisations to become more efficient. CSRD reporting will help us to benchmark what we are doing against independent standards and make the business as sustainable as possible.”
Sustainability has always been at the heart of what EirGrid strives to achieve, he adds. “It’s the very nature of the business. Climate action is at the centre of the transformation and decarbonisation of the electricity system.”
The organisation produced its first group sustainability strategy in 2021. The strategy is based on the three key pillars of driving climate action and the transformation of the electricity system while maintain security of supply, committing to a sustainable society including by supporting learning and skills development, and being a responsible business by embedding climate, sustainability and responsible practices across the business.
The strategy was informed by external stakeholder engagement, Close explains. “Sustainability is such a broad term and we wanted to identify what our stakeholders mean by it. We got a lot of insightful feedback. They said we should get on with the job of decarbonisation and maintaining security of supply. If we do that, we are helping the rest of the economy to decarbonise. While doing that we looked at what else we are doing and at making sure that’s sustainable as well.”
The organisation has continued to build on its partnerships with external stakeholders. “EirGrid partners with Business in the Community Ireland on a number of sustainability and inclusion related initiatives,” says Close. “We run the Cleaner Grid Competition where third-level students are tasked with envisioning solutions that can contribute towards a cleaner energy future. We sponsor the Cleaner Climate award in the second-level SciFest science competition. And we sponsor the energy theme in the An Taisce Green Schools scheme for primary schools. We are now engaged with primary, secondary and third-level education.”
CSRD reporting, as Close explains, seeks to place the reporting of an organisation’s non-finance-related activities on an equal footing with that of its financial performance.
“One of the things sustainability reporting has struggled with is a lack of consistent and cohesive standards,” he says. “We will now have the same reporting standards and will all need to meet the same disclosure requirements. That will give comparability to non-financial performance.”
Among those reporting requirements is the double materiality assessment. Double materiality requires organisations to report on how their business is impacted by sustainability-related factors, including extreme weather events, as well as how their activities impact society and the environment through emissions, procurement and so on.
New reporting structures are required, Close notes. “We had done a lot of work on that in our sustainability strategy and that was very beneficial,” he says. “We used that intelligence and experience and built on it.”
In addition, semistate organisations have been delivering sustainability reports to Government under the Climate Action Plan.
“We looked at each of the reporting requirements under the directive and identified those we already had in place, those which might need to be updated, and others which are brand new. Having identified the gaps, we set to work on filling them,” says Close.
The directive also requires organisations to reach into their supply chains to measure emissions and other impacts arising from those sources.
“This was already an area of focus for us as a big part of our emissions relate to our supply chain,” says Close. “We have been working with the supply chain for the last number of years and did an exercise around the Science Based Targets Initiative to help measure emissions and get external validation for that.
“We work with our suppliers on their sustainability journeys, and we want to ensure that they have an opportunity to differentiate themselves in terms of their sustainability credentials. We will continue to develop our procurement approach independent of CSRD.”
EirGrid is now entering the final phase of its CSRD reporting preparations.
“Our financial year starts in October 2025, so fiscal year 2026 is what we will report on as things currently stand,” says Close. “We have put together a plan for addressing the gaps and our aim is to be ready for September 30th this year. There may be some gaps remaining, but we will be able to fill those during the course of the year.”
That may of course be delayed if the European Commission’s Omnibus package is approved by the European Parliament and Council.
“There has been a lot of reflection in Europe on the regulation,” says Close. “There is definitely an increased focus on competitiveness and on balancing that with the sustainability agenda. The Omnibus package seeks to streamline the regulations and give some pause for thought.
“There are lots of disclosure requirements in the CSRD and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive,” he continues. “There has been a lot of reflection around how to bring the benefits of disclosure and transparency and balance those with competitiveness. But sustainability can be a differentiator, and a component of competitiveness. Sustainability is at the core of what we do at EirGrid. The Omnibus package won’t affect that.”
While there are signs of some pushback against the environmental, social and governance agenda globally, Close believes this should be seen in a European context.
“The encouraging thing from a European perspective is that the Draghi report on competitiveness has a sustainability component in it. The most important thing is to bring everyone along together and get the timing right.”
