Paper 04 — Embedding the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive in ERP Data Models

Paper numberCONFENIS 2027 / 04

TrackSustainability and ESG-aware EIS

Pages46–60

ProceedingsSpringer LNBIP vol. 528 (2027)

Correspondingpetr.novak@mff.cuni.cz

DOI10.1007/978-3-031-XXXXX-X_4

Abstract

The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), in force since January 2024 and reaching first-wave reporting in 2025, requires approximately 50,000 European companies to disclose against the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Most affected organisations rely on spreadsheet-based collection of ESG data; this approach is unsustainable at the granularity and audit-readiness required by ESRS. We propose an extension to the standard ERP data model — the ESRS-Aware Master Data Layer (EAMDL) — that natively represents the double-materiality concepts of ESRS. We evaluate EAMDL through a prototype implementation on top of SAP S/4HANA and a controlled comparison against the spreadsheet baseline at a Czech industrial holding company, showing a 73% reduction in CSRD report-preparation effort and a measurable improvement in audit-trail completeness.

Keywords: CSRD; ESG; Sustainability Reporting; ERP Data Models; ESRS; European Sustainability Reporting Standards

1. Introduction

The CSRD (Directive (EU) 2022/2464) replaces the 2014 Non-Financial Reporting Directive and substantially expands both the scope of reporting entities and the granularity of required disclosures (European Commission, 2022). Mandatory disclosure is structured against the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), adopted by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) in 2023. ESRS imposes a double-materiality principle: organisations must report both how sustainability matters affect them (financial materiality) and how their activities affect society and environment (impact materiality). Operationalising this in enterprise data systems is not trivial.

2. Method

We follow a design-science approach, constructing EAMDL as a data-model extension comprising four core entities: ESRS Topic, Disclosure Requirement, Data Point, and Materiality Assessment. These integrate with standard ERP master-data entities — Material, Plant, Vendor, GL Account — via a structured mapping layer. The prototype extends SAP S/4HANA 2023 using custom CDS views and ABAP-based reporting modules. Evaluation followed a within-subject controlled comparison at a Czech industrial holding (€780M revenue, four operating segments, 4,200 staff) preparing its first-wave CSRD report for fiscal year 2026. The same four-person sustainability team produced the fiscal-year 2025 baseline report using spreadsheets and the fiscal-year 2026 report using EAMDL.

3. Results

Aggregate report-preparation effort dropped from 1,184 person-hours (baseline) to 316 person-hours (EAMDL), a 73% reduction. The largest savings were in data collection (89% reduction) and audit-trail preparation (81%); savings in narrative drafting were modest (22%). Auditor-noted material weaknesses fell from 14 to 3 across the year. The remaining three weaknesses concerned Scope 3 emissions categories where upstream supplier data is not yet automated.

4. Discussion

EAMDL demonstrates that ESRS compliance can be operationally embedded into the ERP rather than handled as an after-the-fact reporting layer. The 73% effort reduction is consistent with industry analyst projections (Verdantix, 2024) and our results lend controlled-empirical support to those projections. Limitations include the dependence on master-data quality in the upstream ERP — sites with unreliable plant and material master data will see smaller gains — and the open question of how EAMDL extends to value-chain (Scope 3) emissions where the data crosses organisational boundaries.

5. Conclusion

Embedding ESRS in the ERP master-data layer is feasible, operationally beneficial, and audit-positive. We release the EAMDL specification as an open artefact (CC-BY) to accelerate adoption across the 50,000 in-scope European reporters.

References

EFRAG: European Sustainability Reporting Standards — Set 1. EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board (2023).
European Commission: Directive (EU) 2022/2464 on corporate sustainability reporting. Official Journal of the European Union L 322 (2022).
Hevner, A.R., March, S.T., Park, J., Ram, S.: Design science in information systems research. MIS Quarterly 28(1), 75–105 (2004).
Novák, P., Dvořáková, E.: Sustainability reporting in Central European industrial holdings. Politická Ekonomie 72(3), 312–340 (2024).
Verdantix: ESG and sustainability software market outlook 2024–2030. Verdantix Research Report (2024).

Citation: Petr Novák, Eliška Dvořáková, Tomáš Černý. "Embedding the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive in ERP Data Models." In: Tjoa, A.M., Mendling, J., Wimmer, M. (eds.) Research and Practical Issues of Enterprise Information Systems. CONFENIS 2027. LNBIP 528, pp. 46–60. Springer, Cham (2027).

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