What Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) means for your logistics organization in 2025
Friday, December 6, 2024
What is CSRD and where does freight fit into it?
The EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires companies, especially large shippers, to disclose detailed information about their environmental impact, including carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from freight transport. These emissions, classified as Scope 3, come from the broader value chain, including transportation and logistics managed by third parties. Shippers must measure and report emissions from all transport modes—road, sea, air, and rail.
A disclaimed for all, this is not new news and the legislation has been long in the making. But now the time has come, where the proverbial rubber has hit the road for many EU companies.
For a very detailed insight into what's implied by the directive, please see the official EU website:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32022L2464
How has implementation been phased?
From 1 January 2024: Companies already subject to the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) must comply.
From 1 January 2025: Other large companies that meet at least two of the following criteria are required to comply:
More than 250 employees
Net turnover exceeding €40 million
Total assets over €20 million
From 1 January 2026: SMEs and other specified entities must comply.
What do I need to start measuring it?
Data - ideally your historic shipment data. From this you can derive the important variables needed to calculate how much CO2 your business "spends".
Framework - this feels like learning a new type of maths for some people. Luckily to simplify things, frameworks have been developed such as GLEC (Global logistics emissions council) which enable you to plug your data into a formula which will approximate your environmental impact. This is current best practice. You can view their framework here
Who in my organization is best fit to calculate CO2 emissions for freight?
As a former logistics procurement person myself, I'm sorry to say but in multinationals, its probably you guys. Here's why:
You own the relationship with the carrier / freight forwarder.
You have access to the historic shipment data.
You have reach across the entire corporate structure.
You're probably good with numbers!
Can I get help?
Luckily yes. A number of 3PLs, 4PLs and software providers saw this coming. At Prodensus, if you have historic shipment files you can quite literally drag and drop them into our DataMate tool and it will clean the data and give you back your "CO2 spend" (following GLEC framework).
To see for yourself, get in touch with us today here
