{"id":3243,"date":"2026-07-01T19:01:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/?p=3243"},"modified":"2026-07-01T19:26:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:26:55","slug":"summary-of-the-efrag-state-of-play-2026-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/01\/summary-of-the-efrag-state-of-play-2026-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Summary of the EFRAG State of Play 2026 Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>EFRAG\u2019s second State of Play edition, based on the FY2025 reporting cycle,\u00a0analyses <strong>905 assured FY2025 sustainability statements<\/strong>, offering the most comprehensive evidence to date of how companies are applying ESRS in their second CSRD reporting year.<\/p>\n<p>The findings show continuity with refinement, not structural transformation.<\/p>\n<p>The message is clear: ESRS reporting is becoming more consistent and evidence-based. The next frontier is strengthening the link between materiality, measurable targets, and strategic decision-making.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Geographies and sectors in scope<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The FY2025 sample shows a shift in which countries are most represented in the sustainability reports analysed. Last year, France, Germany, and Finland had the largest share. This year, Sweden is in the lead (14%), followed by Germany (12%) and France (11%). There is also a strong Nordic increase, with Norway growing from 2% to 7% of the sample.<\/p>\n<p>However, the report warns that these numbers are partially influenced by the cut-off date (20 April 2026). Some countries publish their reports (especially English versions) later in the year, so they are under\u2011represented in this dataset.<\/p>\n<p>Among the non-financial companies, Manufacturing remains by far the largest sector, accounting for 36% of the entire baseline.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Cross-cutting insights<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Materiality remains stable:<\/strong> Companies report on average 6.4 material topics, with E1 Climate Change, S1 Own Workforce, and G1 Business Conduct material for &gt;95% of undertakings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DMA methodology:<\/strong> 67% use a hybrid approach combining the benefits of bottom-up and top-down analysis for different topics. 82% updated their DMA since FY2024 through modifications ranging from minor refinements to scope changes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>IROs:<\/strong> Companies disclose ~30 IROs, heavily concentrated in E1 and S1 followed by G1 (60%). At country level, Spain leads with an average of 44 total IROs per company followed by Italy with 40 IROs and France at 35 while Sweden is positioned at 24 IROs. IROs are a key component of double materiality assessment, helping companies to determine which sustainability topics they should report on, and to identify how their business affects people and the environment (impacts), and how sustainability matters are material from a financial perspective.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Targets &amp; incentives:<\/strong> Only 50% of material topics have measurable targets and 63% embed sustainability in executive remuneration, revealing a widening discrepancy between declared materiality and strategic commitment. At country level, France leads with 4 average number of material topics with targets.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Structure:<\/strong> Sustainability disclosures represent 34% of annual report length. Only 6% include an executive summary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Environmental standards<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Climate Transition Plans:<\/strong> Adoption increased from 55% to 69%, reflecting continued momentum in corporate climate planning.<\/li>\n<li><strong>1.5\u00b0C alignment:<\/strong> 57% disclose near\u2011 and long\u2011term targets compatible with 1.5\u00b0C.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Non-climate topics (E2\u2013E5):<\/strong> Slight rise in materiality. However, 77% report metrics only at global level, with minimal geographic disaggregation at regional and site level.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Social standards<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Gender pay gap:<\/strong> Average unadjusted gap is 14.3% in favor of men, with the widest gaps concentrated in the financial sector. Only 12% of companies have enriched this figure with the adjusted pay gap to better account for the particularities of their workforce (i.e. geographic distribution and roles of their employees across the undertaking). At country level, Belgium has the lowest gap (7.7%) followed by Finland (10.7%) and Sweden (12.5%).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Discrimination &amp; human rights incidents:<\/strong> Disclosure is high (85% and 93% respectively).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Human rights policies:<\/strong> 89% have policies covering Workers in the Value Chain and\/or Affected Communities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Governance (G1)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Materiality<\/strong>: a slight increase with Supplier relationship management, including payment practices, material for 54% of the undertakings vs. 50% in FY2024.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Supplier ESG criteria:<\/strong> 81% reference ESG criteria, but the nature of that integration is predominantly declarative &#8211; mostly via codes of conduct &#8211; operational integration remains limited.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SME payment terms:<\/strong> Only 7% disclose SME-specific terms. Average SME payment term is 24 days. This requirement has proved particularly challenging given \u2013 amongst others \u2013 the limitations of standard ERP systems in segmenting supplier data by company size.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If your first ESRS report is due in FY2027, remember: early reporters will already be on their fourth cycle. Building processes, collecting data, and aligning teams takes time. Waiting until 2027 means falling years behind.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udf3f A well\u2011structured, machine\u2011readable sustainability statement strengthens governance, accelerates internal learning, reveals strategic blind spots, and positions your organization for the EU\u2019s dual green and digital transition.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 Contact us if you want to use our guided digital ESRS end-to-end templates to get a head start.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Read the full report from EFRAG here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.efrag.org\/sites\/default\/files\/media\/document\/2026-07\/EFRAG_State%20of%20Play%202026_vShared_Layout%20checked%20-%20DD.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EFRAG_State of Play 2026_vShared_Layout checked &#8211; DD.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EFRAG\u2019s second State of Play edition, based on the FY2025 reporting cycle,\u00a0analyses 905 assured FY2025 sustainability statements, offering the most comprehensive evidence to date of how companies are applying ESRS in their second CSRD reporting year. The findings show continuity with refinement, not structural transformation. The message is clear: ESRS reporting is becoming more consistent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-csrd","category-esrs","post-with-thumbnail","post-with-thumbnail-large"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3243"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3252,"href":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243\/revisions\/3252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cleeritesg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}