ESRS S1-S4: The Topical Social Standards

The four Social Standards involve the topics of the own workforce, workers in the value chain, affected communities and consumers and end-users. ESRS S1 to S4 provide the disclosures for companies to report on human-centric topics linked to a company’s internal and external operations.

The official Information on the Social ESRS can be found on pages 155 - 236 of Annex I from the European Commission's first set of standards publication. Similar to the disclosure requirements for the Environmental Standards, all four Social Standard disclosure requirements can be broken down and described by the four reporting areas from ESRS 2: (1) governance, (2) strategy, (3) impact, (4) risk and opportunity management, and metrics and targets. Your initial double materiality analysis provides the basis for the range of topics from ESRS S1 to S4 to be reported on.

Further details on each ESRS S1-S4 can be found in the next part. It describes each Sub-topic and Sub-sub-topics, as well as the Objectives.

ESRS S1: Own Workforce 

Sub-topics of S1

• Working conditions
• Equal treatments and opportunities for all 
• Other work-related rights

Sub-sub-topics of S1 - Working conditions

• Secure employment
• Working time
• Adequate wages 
• Social dialogue  
• Freedom of association, the existence of works councils and the information, consultation and participation rights of workers  
• Collective bargaining, including rate of workers covered by collective agreements  
• Work-life balance  
• Health and safety

Sub-sub-topics of S1 - Equal treatments and opportunities for all

• Gender equality and equal pay for work of equal value  
• Training and skills development  
• Employment and inclusion of persons with disabilities  
• Measures against violence and harassment in the workplace  
• Diversity

Sub-sub-topics of S1 - Other work-related rights

• Child labour  
• Forced labor  
• Adequate housing  
• Privacy

Objectives of S1

The objectives of ESRS S1 are to understand:

• How your company is affecting your own workforce, considering material positive and negative impacts as well as potential impacts
• Which actions can be taken to prevent or mitigate negative impacts 
• Your company’s material risks and opportunities related to its impacts and dependencies on its own workforce, and how your company manages risks and opportunities
• The risks and opportunities arising from the impact and financial materiality related to your company’s own workforce over the short-, medium-, and long-term

ESRS S2: Workers in the Value Chain 

Sub-topics of S2

• Working conditions
• Equal treatment and opportunities for all
• Other work-related rights

Sub-sub-topics of S2 - Working conditions

• Secure employment
• Working time
• Adequate wages 
• Social dialogue  
• Freedom of association, the existence of works councils
• Collective bargaining
• Work-life balance  
• Health and safety

Sub-sub-topics S2 - Equal treatments and opportunities for all

• Gender equality and equal pay for work of equal value  
• Training and skills development  
• Employment and inclusion of persons with disabilities  
• Measures against violence and harassment in the workplace  
• Diversity

Sub-sub-topics of S2 - Other work-related rights

• Child labour  
• Forced labor  
• Adequate housing  
• Water and sanitation
• Privacy

Objectives of S2

The objectives of ESRS S2 are to understand:

• Your company’s material impacts (positive and negative, actual or potential) on workers in your value chain
• How your company’s actions can prevent, mitigate, or remediate negative impacts
• How your company manages the type and extent of risks and opportunities related to the impacts and dependencies on workers in the value chain
• The risks and opportunities from impact and financial materiality related to your company’s value chain workers over the short-, medium-, and long-term

ESRS S2 aims at developing an understanding of the material impacts, risks and opportunities with regard to workers that are connected with a company’s operations and value chain, for example, through products or services or business relationships.

ESRS S3: Affected Communities

Sub-topics S3

• Communities’ economic, social and cultural rights
• Communities’ civil and political rights
• Rights of indigenous peoples

Sub-sub-topics of S3 - Communities’ economic, social and cultural rights

• Adequate housing  
• Adequate food  
• Water and sanitation  
• Land-related impacts  
• Security-related impacts

Sub-sub-topics of S3 - Communities’ civil and political rights 

• Freedom of expression  
• Freedom of assembly  
• Impacts on human rights defenders

Sub-sub-topics of S3 - Rights of indigenous peoples

• Free, prior and informed consent  
• Self-determination  
• Cultural rights

Objectives of S3

The objectives of ESRS S3 are to understand:

• How your company is affecting communities where the impacts are most likely and severe, considering material positive and negative impacts as well as potential impacts
• The actions and their results to prevent or mitigate negative impacts 
• How your company manages the risks and opportunities arising from the impacts on affected communities
• The impact and financial materiality related to affected communities with respect to the short-, medium-, and long-term view

ESRS S3 refers to affected communities that are associated with a company’s own operations or its value chain, also through products or services and business relationships.

ESRS S4: Consumers and End-Users

Sub-topics of S4

• Information-related impacts for consumers and/or end-users
• Personal safety of consumers and/or end-users
• Social inclusion of consumers and/or end-users

Sub-sub-topics of S4 - Information-related impacts for consumers and/or end-user

• Privacy  
• Freedom of expression 
• Access to (quality) information

Sub-sub-topics of S4 - Personal safety of consumers and/or end-users

• Health and safety  
• Security of a person  
• Protection of children

Sub-sub-topics of S4 - Social inclusion of consumers and/or end-users

• Non-discrimination  
• Access to products and services  
• Responsible marketing practices

Objectives of S4

The objectives of ESRS S4 are to understand:

• The material impacts (positive and negative, actual or potential) of your company’s products and/or services on consumers and end-users
• Your company’s actions to prevent and mitigate negative impacts
• How your company manages the type and extent of risks and opportunities related to the impacts and dependencies on consumers and end-users
• The impact and financial materiality related to consumers and end-users of your company’s services and end-users 

The perspective of ESRS S4 includes consumers and end-users connected with a company’s own operations as well as its value chain, including through products or services or business relationships.

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Check out the following articles for more details on the other ESRS:

• ESRS 1 and ESRS 2: The Cross-Cutting Standards
• ESRS E1-E5: The Topical Environmental Standards
• ESRS G1: The Topical Governance Standard
• Guide on ESRS Datapoints