The Regulation That Catches Companies Off Guard
You've built a real business. Revenue is up, investors are happy. Then your enterprise customer's procurement team asks for your CSRD disclosure. Or your VC asks about your Scope 3 emissions ahead of a Series B. Or your EU-domiciled entity just crossed the CSRD threshold and you have 90 days to comply.
You don't have an ESG data pipeline. You don't have a double materiality assessment. You're manually exporting CSVs from three different systems and calling it reporting.
This is exactly the problem our ESG Compliance Sprint solves. We get you to CSRD/ESRS readiness in 3 weeks — with the data infrastructure, the disclosures, the carbon accounting, and the audit trail you need to satisfy regulators, enterprise customers, and ESG-focused investors.
What CSRD Actually Requires (And What Most Companies Miss)
CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) requires companies in scope to report against ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards) — a set of 12 topical standards covering climate, biodiversity, social, and governance topics.
The two things most companies miss:
Double Materiality — You must assess both impact materiality (your effect on people and planet) and financial materiality (how sustainability issues affect your business). This isn't a checkbox — it's a structured stakeholder-informed process that determines which ESRS topics you must disclose in full.
Data Infrastructure — CSRD requires machine-readable, audited disclosures. That means your ESG data needs to flow from source systems (energy invoices, payroll, supply chain) into a structured reporting layer — not a spreadsheet your sustainability consultant updates quarterly.
Our sprint builds both.
What's in the Sprint
Week 1: Materiality Assessment & Data Audit
We start by establishing your reporting perimeter and running the double materiality process. This determines the scope of everything that follows.
- CSRD applicability review (legal entities, thresholds, reporting deadlines)
- Double materiality workshop — impact materiality and financial materiality across all 12 ESRS topic areas
- Stakeholder mapping and materiality matrix
- Current data source audit (energy, travel, procurement, HR, facilities)
- Gap analysis: what data exists, what's missing, what can be estimated vs. measured
- Materiality report documenting your assessed topics and rationale
Week 2: ESG Data Pipeline & Carbon Accounting
We build the infrastructure that makes ESG reporting repeatable — not a one-time consulting project. This is where the engineering work happens.
Data pipelines we build:
- Automated ingestion from utility providers, expense systems, and HR platforms
- Scope 1 emissions: direct combustion, company vehicles, refrigerants
- Scope 2 emissions: market-based and location-based electricity accounting
- Scope 3 emissions: business travel, employee commuting, purchased goods/services (Categories 1, 3, 6, 7 per GHG Protocol)
- Supply chain data request workflows for Scope 3 Category 1
- Emissions factor library integration (DEFRA, EPA, ecoinvent)
Reporting infrastructure:
- Real-time ESG dashboard (connected to live data sources, not manual uploads)
- Data lineage tracking — every number traceable to its source
- Alert system for anomalies and missing data
- Role-based access for finance, legal, and sustainability stakeholders
Week 3: Regulatory Monitoring, Disclosures & Audit Readiness
The final week turns your data infrastructure into actual compliance output — the disclosures, evidence packages, and monitoring systems that keep you compliant as regulations evolve.
- ESRS-aligned disclosure drafting for your material topics
- XBRL/inline XBRL tagging setup for machine-readable submission
- SFDR Principal Adverse Impacts (PAI) statement preparation (if applicable)
- Regulatory change monitoring: automated alerts for ESRS amendments, EU taxonomy updates, SEC climate disclosure changes
- Third-party assurance readiness package (limited assurance standard)
- Audit trail documentation: methodology notes, assumptions, data provenance
What You Get at the End
A complete CSRD/ESRS readiness package:
- Double materiality report — audit-grade assessment with stakeholder input documentation
- ESG data pipeline — automated, connected to your real systems, not a spreadsheet
- Scope 1/2/3 carbon accounting model — GHG Protocol-compliant, with emissions factors and calculation methodology
- Real-time ESG dashboard — live visibility into your sustainability KPIs
- ESRS disclosure drafts — for all material topics identified in your materiality assessment
- Audit evidence package — data lineage, methodology notes, assurance-ready documentation
- Regulatory monitoring setup — automated alerts so you're never caught off-guard by a rule change
- Year 2 roadmap — a prioritized plan for closing data gaps and achieving limited assurance
Who This Is For
The ESG Compliance Sprint is designed for growth-stage and enterprise companies that:
- Are in scope for CSRD (EU-listed, large EU entities, or subsidiaries of CSRD-covered groups)
- Face investor ESG questionnaires from LP-reporting VCs or ESG-focused institutional investors
- Have enterprise customers asking for sustainability disclosures as part of vendor onboarding
- Are building a SaaS product in fintech, supply chain, or real estate where ESG data is a product feature
- Need to respond to an RFP or tender that requires sustainability credentials
It is not designed for companies that already have a dedicated sustainability function, are mid-way through a GRI or CDP reporting cycle, or need full ISO 14064 certification (though we can discuss those as custom scope).
Pricing
$4,999 · 3-week fixed sprint
Same model as our AI MVP and Security sprints — fixed price, fixed timeline, clear deliverables. No hourly billing, no "we'll scope it after kickoff," no surprise retainers.
The sprint is delivered by a senior ESG engineer and a sustainability reporting specialist. You get a dedicated Slack channel, weekly syncs, and a final walkthrough with your team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are we in scope for CSRD?
CSRD applies to large EU companies (500+ employees or €40M+ turnover), EU-listed SMEs (from 2026), and non-EU companies with €150M+ EU revenue. Subsidiaries of in-scope groups are also covered. If you're not sure, the gap analysis in Week 1 will clarify your obligations.
What's the difference between ESRS and GRI?
ESRS is a regulatory reporting standard — mandatory for CSRD-in-scope companies. GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) is a voluntary disclosure framework used widely for stakeholder sustainability reports. They're compatible and share concepts, but ESRS is more prescriptive and legally required. Our sprint is ESRS-first, with GRI mapping included.
Can you help with Scope 3 data collection from suppliers?
Yes — supplier data collection is one of the hardest parts of Scope 3 Category 1 reporting. We build the workflow, the data request templates, and the estimation methodology for suppliers who don't respond. We can't make suppliers share data, but we can make the process as frictionless as possible.
Do we need to be independently audited?
CSRD requires limited assurance initially, moving to reasonable assurance from 2028. Our sprint produces an audit-ready package designed for limited assurance engagement. We can recommend sustainability assurance providers who are startup-friendly.
What if we also need to report under SFDR or the EU Taxonomy?
SFDR (for financial products) and EU Taxonomy alignment are related but distinct obligations. If you're a fund manager or financial institution, SFDR PAI reporting is included as optional scope in the sprint. EU Taxonomy alignment assessments are custom scope — get in touch.
Can the ESG dashboard become a product feature for our customers?
Yes — and this is increasingly common for SaaS companies in supply chain, real estate, fintech, and HR. If you want to expose ESG data as a feature to your own customers, we can architect the pipeline with multi-tenancy from the start. That's a separate product scoping conversation, but the sprint infrastructure is a natural foundation.
Related Articles
- CSRD Compliance for Tech Companies: What You Need to Know in 2026 — What CSRD means for SaaS and tech companies entering EU markets
- Building an ESG Data Pipeline: Architecture Guide for Engineering Teams — Technical architecture for collecting, normalizing, and reporting ESG data
- How AI is Transforming ESG Reporting: From Manual Spreadsheets to Real-Time Dashboards — How AI reduces ESG reporting effort from weeks to hours
- Scope 3 Emissions: The Hidden Challenge Most Startups Ignore — Why Scope 3 is the hardest part of ESG and how to tackle it
- ESG, CSR, and Sustainability: What Investors Actually Mean and Why It Matters for Startups — Decoding investor ESG expectations and what they actually want to see
- CSRD Compliance Checklist: 25 Items for 2026 — Actionable checklist covering all ESRS disclosure requirements
- CSRD Omnibus 2026: What Changed and What It Means — Summary of the 2026 CSRD amendments and their impact on reporting scope