European companies will now have to include details of their sustainability work in their annual reports.

Companies in the European Union will find it tougher to greenwash under new rules aimed at improving the quality and consistency of environmental reporting. From 2024, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will require all market-listed EU-based companies to publish detailed information about how sustainability issues such as climate change impact their business and how their operations affect people and the planet.

In total, almost 50,000 companies are expected to be impacted by the CSRD, which accounts for three-quarters of business in the European Economic Area. As well as companies listed on regulated markets, companies with more than 250 employees, a turnover of over €40 million, and over €20m of total assets will also need to comply with the new rules.

This means that European companies will need to be much more detailed in their sustainability reporting, with science-based environmental targets and climate risk included in their annual reports. That information will need to be qualitative and quantitative, forward-looking and retrospective, and based in the short, medium and long term.

The new rules are welcomed by Two Sides, which has been tackling greenwash for over a decade to prevent the spread of misinformation so that consumers recognise the value of paper and its contribution to the circular economy. Since 2010, the organisation has contacted over 2,110 companies that have made misleading statements about paper in their communications. As a result, 970 of those companies have removed these misleading statements.

“Greenwashing is a serious danger for our industry which, if left unchallenged, threatens the loss of €337m of value in Europe, £22.4m of which would be in the UK,” says Two Sides Managing Director Jonathan Tame. “So it’s vital that we engage with any greenwashing companies and have these misleading statements removed.”

For more details about our Anti-Greenwashing campaign, go to www.twosides.info/anti-greenwash

If you spot any instances of greenwash, please email greenwash@twosides.info