On 3 July 2026, the European Commission adopted the revised European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and a new Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard (VSRS) for smaller companies. Mandatory datapoints are cut by around 60%, with reporting costs expected to fall by more than 30% per company. The detailed breakdown of what changed is already well covered elsewhere. What matters more for anyone running a reporting process is what comes next: for the next couple of reporting cycles, companies will be dealing with more than one version of the rules at once, and that is where the practical challenge sits.
Companies already in CSRD scope have a live choice for financial year 2026: report under the existing ESRS as amended by the Quick Fix Delegated Act, adopt the revised ESRS in full, or apply the existing ESRS with select new reliefs. From FY2027, the revised ESRS become mandatory, and the VSRS becomes available for voluntary use, with its value chain cap applying from the same date. For a supplier sitting underneath a larger CSRD reporter, understanding the VSRS is quickly becoming as relevant as understanding the ESRS itself.
What actually changed
A few of the changes are worth naming, since they shape how the transition plays out in practice. All voluntary datapoints have been removed, and what remains is governed more strictly by materiality: the revised ESRS 1 now states that companies shall not disclose information that isn’t material, rather than the softer earlier wording that they were simply not required to. Double materiality itself hasn’t changed, but how a company gets there has: a top-down approach is now explicitly endorsed, letting companies reach materiality conclusions at topic level instead of assessing every individual impact, risk, and opportunity one by one.
On emissions, companies can now choose between the financial control, operational control, or equity share approaches when defining their greenhouse gas reporting boundary, bringing ESRS closer to global standards like the GHG Protocol and IFRS S2. Companies reporting a climate transition plan with targets that aren’t compatible with a 1.5°C pathway now have to be explicit about that. And phase-in reliefs for topics like biodiversity, value chain workers, affected communities, and consumers have been extended, giving smaller and newer reporters more runway before those disclosures become mandatory in full.
Built for the switch, not just the standard
This is the kind of transition Salacia is built to handle. On the VSME side, the module is already aligned with the new VSRS and supports both, so clients using it do not need to wait for a separate update. On the ESRS side, the current module runs on the original standard, and we are actively integrating the newly revised datapoints.
The reason the switch is manageable comes down to how the platform separates data collection from reporting output. Clients submit activity data once, through the E1 Data Collection templates or survey, and that raw data is matched against the relevant emission factor database through the Match Tool rather than being pre-calculated by the client. Because the Calculation Engine sits between the raw activity data and the final disclosure, a change in which datapoints a standard requires is a change in what gets pulled through to the output, not a change in what a client needs to go back and collect. Data can also be carried forward from one reporting year to the next regardless of which version of the standard applies, so switching standards does not mean starting a company’s data collection over again.
The Double Materiality Assessment tool reflects the same principle. The revised ESRS formally endorse a top-down approach to materiality, reaching conclusions at topic level rather than assessing every impact, risk, and opportunity individually. Salacia’s DMA tool supports both the established bottom-up method and the new top-down approach, and it is the client’s choice which one to apply. Neither approach requires switching tools or re-running the assessment from scratch.
A closer seat at the table
Salacia is an approved Friend of EFRAG, a formal status granted by EFRAG’s General Assembly. It gives us direct access to EFRAG’s Engage & Exchange sessions and its high-level representatives, which feeds directly into how quickly the platform can adapt to what is coming.
What clients should do now
Three things are worth doing before FY2027 reporting begins, regardless of which module a company uses:
- Decide the FY2026 approach; full early adoption, partial reliefs, or staying on the existing standard, depending on how far data collection already is.
- Map value chain exposure to the VSRS, since larger reporters and smaller suppliers both now operate under an enforceable cap on what can be requested.
- Revisit the materiality assessment structure, since a top-down approach is now available where it wasn’t before.
Want to talk through what this means for your specific reporting setup, or see how the platform handles the transition in practice? Get in touch with the Salacia team, we’re happy to walk through it with you, or book a demo directly.
