Custom CSRD platforms that pull ESRS data from your ERP, HR, energy and supply chain systems, calculate Scope 1, 2 and 3, and deliver an XBRL report your accountant can sign off. Fully embedded in your existing architecture.
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (EU 2022/2464) requires large and mid-sized organisations to publish annual sustainability information in line with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The report itself is the end point — the real work lies in structurally gathering, validating and consolidating hundreds of data points from dozens of internal and external sources.
We build CSRD platforms for groups that want to connect their ERP, HR, energy management, supplier portal and financial consolidation in one auditable environment. No loose spreadsheets, no annual panic, but an ongoing process with the same discipline as your financial cycle.
This page focuses specifically on the development project: data pipeline, ESRS rule engine, XBRL output and assurance workspace. If you only want to build the reporting output layer around an existing platform, see our CSRD and ESG reporting software. That page concentrates on the final document; this page covers the broader platform and the integrations that make that final output accurate, verifiable and repeatable.
The challenges differ considerably by type of organisation. Listed large companies are already reporting and mainly look for better automation to remove the annual panic. Non-listed large companies — once they cross the thresholds for headcount, turnover and balance sheet total — are preparing for their first reporting year and only then discover how scattered their data really is.
Banks and insurers combine CSRD with SFDR, DORA and Pillar 3 ESG reporting; for them, what matters most is that a single data layer feeds multiple outputs. Asset managers want to make scope 3 data from their portfolio companies visible for their own reporting. Consultancy and accountancy firms are building their own environment so they can support their clients without repeatedly sending Excel templates back and forth. And supply-chain-driven groups need a supplier portal that fits their existing procurement, contract and quality processes.
Alongside the reporting obligation runs a second track: due diligence across the supply chain. Since Omnibus I, this applies to a smaller group of companies, but it focuses more sharply on direct suppliers; see CSDDD software.
The right approach depends on your starting point: do you already have an ESG tool and want to integrate it more deeply, or are you starting from scratch with a multi-entity group? In an initial conversation, we will clarify that.
You use Watershed, Sphera, Workiva or Microsoft Sustainability Manager, but lack reliable data supply. We build the ETL layer that automatically connects to SAP, Oracle, Workday, energy meters and supplier sources, validates the data and passes it on in the right format. The ingestion layer is deliberately decoupled from the reporting product, so you can switch platforms later without rebuilding the integrations.
A complete CSRD platform: data collection, double materiality assessment, ESRS mapping across E1–E5, S1–S4 and G1, narrative sections, XBRL tagging and an assurance workspace for the auditor. Suitable for multi-entity groups with their own sector-specific KPIs. Includes role-based access, in which you appoint a data owner per ESRS domain who manages their own disclosures, with escalation to the sustainability team for deviations.
For accountancy and advisory firms that want to support their client portfolio with their own CSRD environment. Multi-tenant architecture, branded client workspaces, an audit trail per entity, and LLM-assisted narrative support for the E1 sections. Your consultants work in an advisor view above the client environments, with benchmarking and template management across your entire client portfolio.
A production-ready CSRD platform plus everything around it so you can manage and have it audited yourself. For enterprise audiences where standard packages such as Watershed, Plan A, EcoVadis or Workiva cannot integrate deeply enough with your existing enterprise software architecture.
A CSRD platform consists of six layers, each with its own complexity. The ingestion layer pulls data from ERP (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics), HR (Workday, AFAS, ADP), energy management (sub-meters, energy suppliers, building management systems), procurement, logistics and external sources such as EcoVadis scores or CDP disclosures. We use dbt as standard for transformations, Airflow or Prefect for orchestration, and Fivetran or Airbyte for the SaaS sources.
The warehouse layer is an append-only data warehouse, such as Snowflake, BigQuery or hardened PostgreSQL, in which raw measurement data, its provenance and its timestamp are recorded immutably. On top sits a calculation engine that applies emission factors (DEFRA, IPCC, sector-specific databases), performs unit conversions and runs allocation models for Scope 3 categories. In addition, a materiality engine captures double materiality: financial materiality and impact materiality, with threshold logic and review workflows.
The narratives layer supports the writing that ESRS requires: policy statements, transition plans, and TCFD-aligned climate scenario analyses. LLM augmentation helps teams update last year's narratives with this year's data without the author starting over. Finally, the output layer delivers EFRAG-compliant XBRL tagging, a PDF report for stakeholders, and an API for your investor relations website or investor portal. A data engineering platform as the foundation ensures the same source data can also feed other analytics and compliance questions.
For most mid-sized organisations, a standard platform works well. We step in when complexity outgrows the standard tools. If you recognise one of these patterns, we would be happy to talk further.
Your financial and operational data sits in an ERP with decades of customisations. A standard connector retrieves 70%, but the last 30%, exactly what ESRS asks for, you build yourself. Data engineering work that a product vendor does not do.
Holdings with overseas subsidiaries, joint ventures or cross-border shared services. ESRS requires consolidation according to the financial perimeter; your reality is considerably messier. Roll-up logic becomes sector- and group-specific.
Scope 3 often makes up 80% or more of your total footprint, but requires data from hundreds of suppliers. A supplier portal with sustainability questionnaires, validation and evidence uploads is then core functionality.
Banks and insurers combine CSRD with SFDR and DORA. Healthcare providers report patient safety within S1-S4. The manufacturing industry has unique E5 circularity metrics. Standard tools generalise; you need specificity.
For the narrative sections of ESRS (policy statements, transition plans, materiality explanations), an LLM can greatly speed up your teams by updating previous reports rather than rewriting them. For numerical disclosures, the same model detects deviations from previous periods before your auditor notices them.
CSRD is moving from limited to reasonable assurance. Standard platforms meet limited assurance, but once your auditor moves to genuine detailed testing, you need immutable logging, versioned calculation rules and evidence attachments per data point. That is not an extra feature; it is the architecture.
For listed issuers and asset managers who want to give investors and analysts machine-readable access to ESG data. An API layer on top of the CSRD platform that exposes interim figures alongside the annual report, with the same audit trail.
No organisation produces only a CSRD report. The underlying data sources are affected by several regulations, and you want to avoid setting up a new spreadsheet stack for each reporting obligation. SFDR (financial sector, scope 3 of portfolios) shares source data with CSRD. The EU Taxonomy determines which economic activities qualify as green and uses the same activity classifications. CSDDD (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive) overlaps strongly with ESRS S2 and S4 on value chains and human rights.
TCFD and the ESRS E1 climate disclosures built on it require scenario analyses covering physical and transition risks. The EU Battery Regulation affects product passports in manufacturing and shares data with ESRS E5. Banks and insurers combine CSRD with DORA (operational resilience) and Pillar 3 ESG disclosures. GDPR applies to your HR data, and if you process biometric or sensitive employee information for S1 disclosures, NEN 7510 or ISO 27001 applies for security as well.
We design the platform so that a single set of source integrations, one data warehouse and one governance layer can feed multiple reports. Over time that saves far more than the CSRD work alone: you get a regulatory reporting platform as a by-product, not as an extra project.
A conversation in which we determine your reporting category under CSRD, review the current data landscape (ERP, HR, energy, supply chain), and clarify who the data owners are for each ESRS domain.
A workshop with your sustainability team and stakeholders to establish both financial and impact materiality. This determines which of the 12 ESRS standards are mandatory for you and which data points are truly needed.
A working build every two weeks. First the connectors and data pipeline, then the ESRS rule engine and double materiality workspace, followed by XBRL output and the assurance portal. Your team tests continuously, your data owners accept their own modules incrementally, and we accommodate small changes to ESRS interpretations without a major impact on the schedule.
Early involvement of your external auditor so that the audit trail and evidence trail align with their audit programme. For the first reporting year we plan a dry-run cycle in which we simulate the complete annual process with historical data, so the auditor can assess whether the evidence quality is sufficient for limited assurance. After go-live, a maintenance rhythm that runs in step with your financial closing cycle.
ESRS isn't standing still. EFRAG is updating the standards, sector-specific addenda are being added, and the market around emission factors is professionalising. An ongoing maintenance and development arrangement absorbs those changes without you having to launch a major project each time. At the same time, the platform grows with you as you want to report on the same data more often: for investors, ratings, customer questions, and supply-chain disclosures to your buyers.
The CSRD platform market is saturated at the commodity level, so there's no need to build custom software there. Watershed, Plan A, Greenly and EcoVadis cover much of the mid-market well. Sphera and Workiva are the established names for larger enterprises, with Workiva strong in compliance reporting and Sphera in operational HSE data. Microsoft Sustainability Manager is worth a look if you're already deep in the Microsoft stack, and SAP Sustainability Footprint Management if your core systems run on SAP. Oracle ESG Cloud, Datamaran, Novata SDX and ESG Book each cover their own niche.
We don't replace those platforms for standard use cases. What we do: help you integrate when a commodity platform covers 70 or 80 per cent but not the last part, build a dedicated platform if you face a combination of complexity that falls outside the standard products, or deliver a white-label environment if you offer ESG services to your own clients. Our starting point is that our role must pay off compared with the standard route; otherwise we'll advise you to take that route.
The same principle applies to how we position ourselves against the large consultancies. A Big Four firm will handle CSRD implementation at much higher day rates, with deeper methodology but also different incentives around hours. We are a small team of senior developers and data engineers, specialised in enterprise software development, who would rather build a working platform than write a thick advisory report. For pure compliance advice we'll refer you to your accountant or a specialised adviser; for the software built around it, we're often a better match.
What clients typically want to know before starting a CSRD project.
A free, thirty-minute introductory call. We listen to your reporting deadlines and data landscape, ask sharp questions, and give direction where it helps you, even if the conclusion is that a standard platform will suffice. For specific regulatory reporting in financial sectors, we also look at the overlap with SFDR and DORA in the same conversation.
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