The growing importance of sustainability issues has driven regulatory evolution at both European and Italian levels. However, not all companies are subject to the reporting obligations set forth by Legislative Decree 125/2024, which implements the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

This regulation requires sustainability reporting, both on an individual and consolidated basis, for large enterprises and for listed small and medium-sized enterprises (excluding micro-enterprises).

In Italy, companies excluded from the regulatory requirement constitute the main component of the economic fabric and therefore play a crucial role in the transition process.

How to Draft the Voluntary Sustainability Statement?

Companies subject to the CSRD regulation are required to draft their sustainability statement following the European Reporting Standards (ESRS), introduced by Delegated Regulation 2023/2772 of the European Commission on July 31, 2023, which establish the specific data that companies must communicate to the market.

Companies excluded from the CSRD regulation have seen an intense effort to design a dedicated voluntary sustainability statement to meet the growing need to share their sustainability commitments with client companies subject to CSRD and to access preferential financing. The most relevant contents can be traced to:

1. The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), which prepared in January 2024 a voluntary sustainability reporting standard structured into the following modules:
   • Basic Model, which represents the essential requirement for unlisted SMEs and the target approach for micro-enterprises;
   • Narrative Model on Policies, Actions, and Targets (PAT) and the Business Partner (BP) model, if, following the double materiality analysis conducted by the company, the relevance of such data is confirmed.
2. The Order of Chartered Accountants and Accounting Experts (ODCEC), in collaboration with banking institutions, industrial sector bodies, and university departments, prepared a dedicated questionnaire for Italian SMEs in March 2024.
3. The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) conducted a consultation, concluded in August 2024, based on the document designed by the sustainable finance coordination table, with the aim of facilitating dialogue between SMEs and credit institutions. The proposal is divided into five thematic sections:
   • General Information;
   • Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation;
   • Environment;
   • Society and Workforce;
   • Governance and Corporate Conduct.

Technesthai, with its financial planning product - Dynamic Business Planner (DBP) - has activated the ESG module with the specific aim of helping companies excluded from the scope of Legislative Decree 125/2024 in drafting their sustainability statement: the module already incorporates the ability to create a sustainability report aligned with MEF methodology and compliant with European regulations, as well as to activate specific investment plans to improve ESG performance.

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