Assessing sustainability: A practical guide for mid-size companies

Unlock business value by assessing sustainability. This guide helps mid-size companies navigate ESG challenges and enhance credibility.

Scris de

Luana Copaci

May 1, 2026

ToC
Example H2

TL;DR:

  • Exemptions from EU ESG reporting do not eliminate supply chain, banking, or reputational risks.
  • Proper sustainability assessments under frameworks like CSRD and ESRS are crucial for compliance and business value.
  • Building internal capacity now ensures companies are prepared for future regulatory tightening and market demands.

The EU’s Omnibus package has quietly redrawn the ESG reporting map. With 95% of Romanian companies now exempt from mandatory ESG disclosure requirements, many executives are exhaling with relief, treating exemption as a green light to step back from sustainability work altogether. That would be a costly mistake. Supply chain partners, institutional lenders, and multinational buyers still expect credible sustainability data, and the companies that dismiss exemption as permission to pause are accumulating risk quietly, one missed tender and one failed audit at a time. This guide shows sustainability managers, procurement leads, and compliance executives exactly how to structure, execute, and apply a sustainability assessment that delivers real business value.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

Point Details
Exemption is not irrelevance Even companies not required to report ESG must assess sustainability due to supply chain and stakeholder pressures.
Double materiality matters Evaluating both internal and external ESG impacts is now essential under CSRD and ESRS frameworks.
Framework alignment eases compliance Choosing the right reporting standards simplifies sustainability assessment and reporting.
Assessments drive real value Robust sustainability assessments create business advantages, not just regulatory compliance.
Continuous improvement is crucial Updating assessments regularly ensures lasting compliance and competitive edge.

Why assess sustainability? The evolving regulatory and business landscape

With this regulatory reset in mind, it is critical to understand why sustainability assessments still matter because exemption does not mean irrelevance.

The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) represent the most rigorous ESG disclosure framework the continent has ever produced. Romania has aligned its national reporting architecture to this framework, with Romanian CSRD requirements mirroring ESRS structure and timelines for the companies they cover. France, already a veteran of mandatory ESG reporting through the Déclaration de Performance Extra-Financière (DPEF), is navigating a parallel transition toward full CSRD alignment.

The Omnibus revision changes who must report, not what good practice looks like. Only around 300 Romanian companies with more than 1,000 employees now fall under direct mandatory reporting. The remaining majority, including most mid-size manufacturers, distributors, and service companies, are technically off the hook for now. But “technically” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

Here is what the exemption does not touch:

  • Supply chain ESG demands: Large companies that must report under CSRD are required to disclose Scope 3 emissions and supply chain impacts. They will request sustainability data from their suppliers, whether those suppliers are legally obligated to report or not. Understanding supply chain ESG demands is no longer optional for companies that sell to large buyers.
  • EcoVadis and procurement ratings: Buyers across France and Romania increasingly require EcoVadis scores as a condition of contracting. A company without a defensible sustainability assessment cannot produce a credible EcoVadis submission.
  • Banking and investment criteria: Lenders using the EU Taxonomy as a reference framework ask for ESG data in credit assessments. SMEs seeking growth capital from ESG-aligned funds face the same scrutiny.
  • Reputational expectations: Consumers, media, and civil society do not check whether a company is exempt from ESG law. They check whether the company behaves responsibly.

“Exemption is not a sustainability strategy. It is a legal status with a shelf life.”

Pro Tip: Use the exemption window as a runway, not a rest stop. Companies that build internal sustainability assessment capacity now will have auditable data, trained teams, and credible scores before the next regulatory cycle tightens the rules again.

Key frameworks for assessing sustainability: CSRD, ESRS, and beyond

Understanding why sustainability assessment matters, companies now need to choose and align to the right frameworks. Here is what leaders should know.

The CSRD and ESRS form the backbone of mandatory assessment structure in the EU. The ESRS introduce a concept that changes how companies think about risk: double materiality. According to a comparative analysis of Romanian and European ESG standards, double materiality means evaluating both how your company’s activities impact the environment and society (impact materiality) and how environmental and social issues create financial risks and opportunities for your business (financial materiality). Both lenses must be applied. This is not a philosophical exercise. It is a structured method for identifying which sustainability topics are genuinely significant for your company, which feeds directly into what you report and what you act on.

Romania’s national ESG code, which transposes EU directives into local practice, is built around four pillars:

  1. Strategy: How sustainability is embedded in long-term business direction and governance
  2. Processes: Internal management systems, controls, and accountability mechanisms for ESG
  3. Environment: Climate, energy, water, biodiversity, and pollution impacts
  4. Society: Labor practices, human rights, community impact, and supply chain social standards

Beyond CSRD and ESRS, companies operating in France and Romania regularly engage with additional frameworks. The table below compares the major standards you are likely to encounter.

Framework Governing body Scope Key feature Who uses it most
CSRD / ESRS European Commission EU mandatory Double materiality, assurance Large EU companies
GRI Standards Global Reporting Initiative Global voluntary Modular, sector-specific All sizes, global
EcoVadis EcoVadis SAS Supply chain ratings Scorecards across 4 themes Procurement, buyers
CDP CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) Climate, water, forests Investor-focused disclosure Listed companies
EU Taxonomy European Commission Finance/investment Green activity classification Banks, large cos

For companies seeking ESRS compliance guidance across France and Romania, the practical starting point is always the same: identify which frameworks your buyers, lenders, and partners reference, then build your assessment architecture to cover them efficiently. Trying to pursue all five frameworks simultaneously without a coherent data strategy is how sustainability teams burn out.

Understanding why carbon footprint matters is central here, because Scope 1, 2, and 3 carbon data is required or referenced by every framework in the table above. Getting your carbon accounting right is not one item on a checklist. It is the foundation everything else rests on.

The core steps: How to structure an effective sustainability assessment

With frameworks selected, it is time to drill into the practical steps. Here is how successful teams deliver solid assessments.

A well-structured sustainability assessment follows a clear sequence. Skipping steps does not save time. It creates rework, audit gaps, and credibility problems later.

  1. Define scope and boundaries. Decide which legal entities, geographies, and operational activities are included. Align this with your organizational structure and the framework requirements you are targeting. Vague scoping is the single most common reason assessments fail to produce usable data.

  2. Engage stakeholders. Map internal and external stakeholders: management, employees, suppliers, customers, investors, and regulators. Conduct interviews or surveys to identify their sustainability concerns. This step directly feeds the double materiality analysis.

  3. Conduct a double materiality analysis. Score each potential sustainability topic on both impact materiality and financial materiality. The output is a prioritized list of material issues that shape the entire rest of the assessment. Do not skip or rush this step.

  4. Collect data. Gather quantitative and qualitative data on your material topics. This includes energy bills, fuel consumption records, waste disposal invoices, HR data, supplier audits, and more. The ESRS comparative analysis confirms that structured data collection aligned with the four-pillar framework (strategy, processes, environment, society) produces the most audit-ready outputs. Use a standardized collection template to reduce errors.

  5. Map gaps and risks. Compare current performance against regulatory requirements, industry benchmarks, and your own stated targets. Identify where you are exposed and where you are performing well.

  6. Develop an action plan. Translate findings into concrete initiatives with owners, timelines, and measurable targets. This is where sustainable procurement strategies become operational, because supplier engagement is often the highest-impact lever available.

  7. Report and communicate. Prepare disclosures aligned to your chosen framework, share findings with relevant stakeholders, and document the process for future audits.

The comparison below helps teams decide whether to run the assessment internally or engage external support.

Factor Internal assessment External assessment
Cost Lower direct cost Higher direct cost
Objectivity Risk of bias Greater credibility
Speed Depends on team capacity Typically faster with specialists
Learning Builds internal capability Depends on knowledge transfer
Best use case Ongoing monitoring, mature teams First-time assessments, regulatory audits

For companies that are new to formal sustainability assessments, external support for the first cycle followed by internal management thereafter is a sensible model. It is also worth understanding CSRD compliance implications for suppliers, because your supply chain data collection approach will shape both your Scope 3 accuracy and your buyers’ confidence in your numbers.

Pro Tip: Avoid the trap of trying to report against too many frameworks simultaneously in your first assessment cycle. Pick the two frameworks most relevant to your buyers and regulators, build solid data for those, and then expand. Fragmented coverage of five frameworks is less valuable than thorough coverage of two.

From compliance to performance: Leveraging your assessment for impact

Having successfully structured and completed an assessment, the question becomes: how do you move from compliance on paper to real performance and impact?

Colleagues discussing sustainability in bright office

An assessment that sits in a PDF and collects dust is not sustainability management. It is a compliance artifact. The companies that actually improve, and that stakeholders actually trust, are the ones that close the loop between findings and action.

Here is how to make that transition:

  • Build an emissions reduction roadmap. Use your carbon footprint data to set science-based or internally meaningful reduction targets. For context, Romania’s national climate trajectory requires a 12.7% ESR reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, with an additional gap of 2 MtCO2eq in land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF) that remains unresolved. Companies operating in Romania exist within this national trajectory, and their own decarbonization targets should reflect it.
  • Engage your supply chain. Assessment findings often reveal that the largest emission and risk hotspots sit upstream. Engaging suppliers on energy efficiency, materials sourcing, and social standards turns your assessment into a supply chain improvement program.
  • Drive product and process innovation. Sustainability data reveals where your products generate the most environmental impact across their lifecycle. This is the starting point for eco-design, circular economy initiatives, and new product development.
  • Communicate progress credibly. Use your assessment results as the evidence base for sustainability communications. Stakeholders are increasingly able to detect greenwashing, so grounding every claim in measured, audited data is both an ethical responsibility and a competitive advantage.

“The goal is not a perfect report. The goal is a better company with a credible record of trying.”

The business case is real. Companies that use sustainability assessments as active management tools rather than one-time reporting exercises see measurable gains: stronger supplier relationships, lower energy costs, more favorable financing terms, and differentiated positioning in competitive markets. To see how CSRD compliance creates business value, it helps to look at companies that have completed their first assessment cycle and tracked outcomes over two to three years. The pattern is consistent: early movers benefit most.

The uncomfortable truth: Why exemption doesn’t mean optional

We have worked with companies across Romania and France, across manufacturing, retail, banking, and construction, and we have seen the same pattern repeat. When a new regulatory exemption arrives, a significant portion of leadership interprets it as a signal that sustainability is no longer urgent. That interpretation is almost always wrong, and almost always expensive.

The 95% exemption granted by the Omnibus revision applies to a specific legal obligation. It does not apply to what your largest customer puts in their supplier questionnaire next quarter. It does not apply to the ESG covenant your bank includes in your next credit facility. And it does not apply to the EcoVadis reassessment your French buyer schedules for autumn.

We have watched companies lose significant contracts not because their sustainability performance was catastrophically bad, but because they could not demonstrate what they were doing in a structured, credible way. Exemption provides no protection against that outcome.

The harder truth is about the future. Regulatory scope rarely contracts over time. The Omnibus revision is a recalibration, not a retreat. Companies that treat this moment as a reason to pause sustainability investment are essentially betting that the regulatory direction will permanently reverse. That is a bet we would not take. The ESG supply chain pressures that large companies exert on their suppliers are, in many ways, a more reliable indicator of where the market is heading than any single legislative amendment.

The companies we see thriving are the ones that use the current breathing room to build real internal capacity rather than delay again. They are training sustainability managers, implementing carbon accounting tools, and running annual assessments that give them a clean data trail. When the next wave of requirements arrives, which it will, they are ready. The others scramble.

Voluntary action now is not idealism. It is the cheapest form of regulatory insurance available.

Advance your sustainability strategy with expert support

Understanding what a sustainability assessment requires and actually building one are two different challenges. ECONOS works with mid-size and large companies in Romania and France to bridge that gap practically, without creating long-term consultant dependency.

https://econos-esg.com

Our approach starts with building your internal team’s capacity through ECONOS Academy and AVA, our AI-powered carbon accounting assistant, so your organization can run and maintain assessments autonomously. Whether you need carbon footprint assessment services to establish your Scope 1, 2, and 3 baseline, comprehensive ESG reporting aligned to CSRD and ESRS, or EcoVadis certification help to strengthen your supply chain position, we have the expertise and the track record across 158 projects in 17 industries to get you there efficiently. The next step is a conversation, not a commitment.

Frequently asked questions

Are most Romanian companies still required to report ESG under the new rules?

No, only about 300 of the largest companies remain directly required to report under mandatory ESG rules, as roughly 95% of Romanian companies are now exempt from the CSRD reporting obligation.

What is double materiality and why is it relevant?

Double materiality means evaluating both how your company affects the environment and society and how environmental and social issues affect your company financially. It is required under CSRD/ESRS and shapes which sustainability topics your assessment must prioritize.

How do supply chain demands affect companies exempt from ESG reporting?

Multinational partners and large buyers who fall under CSRD must disclose Scope 3 and supply chain impacts, so they will request sustainability data from their suppliers regardless of whether those suppliers are legally exempt.

What climate targets should Romanian companies be aware of?

Romania has a 12.7% GHG reduction target under the Effort Sharing Regulation by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, with additional gaps in land use and renewables progress that companies should factor into their own climate planning.

How often should a company review or update its sustainability assessment?

Best practice is to review your sustainability assessment annually or whenever there are significant regulatory changes, major shifts in your operations, or new requirements from key customers or lenders.