Sustainability Reporting and the new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive: A Case Study of BCC Iccrea Group

Abstract

The concept of sustainability has become a fundamental element of our society and is increasingly expected to serve as a cornerstone of every type of organization. This thesis explores a recent and central regulation issued by the European Union: The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The CSRD introduces significant changes in the way companies must address sustainability issues, aiming to improve their awareness, transparency and accountability. After having described the main steps that brought to its approval, namely the Paris Agreement and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the thesis analyses the core features of the new Directive, including Double Materiality, Forward-looking approach and improved transparency. The study concludes with the presentation of the Case Study: the consolidated non-financial report of BCC Iccrea Group, a leading cooperative banking group in Italy. The case study involves a gap analysis of the group’s sustainability report against CSRD requirements, highlighting both strengths and areas for improvement. The findings underlined that CSRD effectively requires companies to be more detailed and rigorous in their sustainability reporting, compared to the previous frameworks. Nevertheless, BCC Iccrea Group’s non-financial report has proven to be almost fully aligned with the new requirements.