By CEO and communications advisor Lars Sandstrøm, Corporate Relations.

Corporate reporting is in a transition phase these years. Companies are to a greater and greater extent taking a more integrated and balanced view on value creation. This is evident when you look at how sustainability has become a built-in element in the annual report. It is included in the key figures, in the business model and strategy, as a significant driver for development and growth, and as a mean to ensure the company’s license to operate. In essence, sustainability affects many of the current trends in corporate reporting.

Naturally, the big “monster” impacting corporate reporting is EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). This will to a full be forming reporting concepts, structure, and content from the 2024 reporting. But for the 2023 reports, many of the large companies have “rehearsed” the implementation of the standards.

This article presents 12 current trends that are especially present in the annual reports from the larger Danish companies. However, taking a look at other large Nordic and European companies’ reporting it is already clear that the new standards are beginning to create some consistency and comparability across countries.