IBM announced that it has expanded the capabilities of its ESG data collection, analysis and reporting platform IBM Envizi, with features in the platform’s ESG Reporting Frameworks module aimed at helping organizations meet the reporting requirements of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). 

The CSRD, which began applying to some companies as of the beginning of 2024, will significantly expand the number of companies required to provide sustainability disclosures to over 50,000 from around 12,000 currently, and introduce more detailed reporting requirements on company impacts on the environment, human rights and social standards and sustainability-related risk.

The CSRD mandates disclosure based on the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which set out the rules and requirements for companies to report on sustainability-related impacts, opportunities and risks, requiring companies to collect and analyze thousands of data points across the value chain.

According to IBM, with the new capabilities, the Envizi suite now embeds ESRS questions in its software, enabling questions and answers to be viewed and managed with response workflow tools, role-based access, collaboration tools and approval controls. The solution automates collection and management of thousands of data types to support ESRS environmental disclosures, and enables qualitative social and governance responses to be formatted and aggregated to ESRS requirements, and allows report-ready data to be extracted and reported in various formats. The tool also facilitates audit trails and the ability to provide third-party access, and enables cross referencing of questions from other frameworks and leveraging of historical responses.

In a post announcing the new capabilities, Kendra DeKeyrel, VP, ESG & Asset Management Products Leader at IBM, said:

“As ESG data management and reporting become more pervasive throughout organizations, tools need to be more specialized, comprehensive and scalable. IBM Envizi offers support for customers through their entire sustainability journey, from ESG data capture, to and reporting to performance improvement.”

IBM acquired Envizi in 2022, as part of its efforts to enhance its AI-powered ESG solutions capabilities.