Excerpt from course description

Sustainability Reporting and Assurance

Introduction

This course situates corporate reporting within the broader framework of the European Green Deal, utilizing this policy backdrop to introduce the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). By anchoring technical requirements in these macro-level goals, the course provides a comprehensive analysis of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).

As the regulatory landscape shifts from voluntary disclosures to mandatory, audited reporting, this course equips students with both the technical competence and strategic foresight required to navigate these changes. Students will examine the architecture of the ESRS - as developed by EFRAG and adopted by the European Commission - moving beyond the mechanics of compliance to explore how these standards enforce corporate transparency and drive the integration of ESG factors into core business strategy.

Course content

The course is structured around the following key modules:

  • Introduction to the Regulatory Landscape: The European Green Deal and its operationalization through the Sustainable Finance Framework. This module examines the four interconnected components that define this strategy - the EU Taxonomy (classification), the CSDDD (due diligence), the CSRD (transparency), and the SFDR (investor disclosure) - illustrating how they collectively redirect capital flows and support economic thinking beyond growth.
     
  • ESRS 1 General Requirements: The conceptual architecture of the standards, utilizing foundations of ethical reasoning to guide the double materiality assessment process - the critical filter for identifying impacts, risks, and opportunities across the value chain.
     
  • ESRS 2 General Disclosures: Requirements for disclosing governance, strategy, and impact management, emphasizing the strategic integration of sustainability into the core business model.
     
  • ESRS G1 Business Conduct (Governance): Governance mechanisms, specifically addressing corporate culture, supplier relationships, corruption prevention, and systems for whistleblowing, transparency, and accountability.
     
  • ESRS E1 to E5 (Environmental Standards): Detailed reporting requirements for environmental matters, covering Climate Change (E1), Pollution (E2), Water and Marine Resources (E3), Biodiversity and Ecosystems (E4), and Resource Use and Circular Economy (E5).
     
  • ESRS S1 to S4 (Social Standards): Reporting on the workforce and human rights, covering the company's own workforce (S1), workers in the value chain (S2), affected communities (S3), and consumers and end-users (S4).
     
  • Sustainability Assurance: The evolving role of the assurance provider, distinct from financial auditing, focusing on limited assurance engagements and the necessity of professionalism as ethical identity when exercising skepticism and verifying non-financial data.
     
  • Sustainability Analysis: Methodologies for interpreting and critiquing sustainability reports.

Disclaimer

This is an excerpt from the complete course description for the course. If you are an active student at BI, you can find the complete course descriptions with information on eg. learning goals, learning process, curriculum and exam at portal.bi.no. We reserve the right to make changes to this description.