Latest update on March 5, 2025
In this interview series, we talk to sustainability heroes about the sustainability transformation in companies and the exchange of sustainability information. We find out everything about what drives them in their role, how they deal with ESG data and what factors they consider to be an efficient exchange of sustainability data.
Maximilian Müller is Professor of Financial Accounting at the University of Cologne. Previously, he was a faculty member at WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management and ESMT Berlin and a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago.
In 2022, he founded the Sustainability Reporting Navigator, an open science platform that makes reporting practices, requirements and stakeholder preferences transparent and comparable. The platform is jointly operated and developed by Goethe University, the University of Cologne and LMU Munich.
He has been an advisor for Sunhat since February 2024, providing support with his knowledge of sustainability requirements and ESG reporting.
With the publication of the first reports prepared in accordance with the new CSRD standards, companies are facing the challenge of adapting to the new reporting system. We have invited Professor Dr. Maximilian Müller for an interview to provide helpful insights for companies that will have to report in the future. His critical view of the currently published CSRD reports is intended to provide guidance and support.
What is your general impression of the first impact of the reports?
We currently have around 100 CSRD reports, i.e. reports from companies in the first wave of mandatory application of the CSRD and ESRS. We have analyzed the first 50 in more detail.
Compared to last year's voluntary reports, these official CSRD reports are on average around 24% longer. Although the number of pages does not automatically say anything about the quality of transparency, it confirms the assumption that reporting under the new standards is more extensive overall than when companies were much freer in their reporting under the NFRD.
In terms of structure, the new reports are much more comparable, which makes it easier to find the required information quickly. Previously, almost every company followed its own structural approach, often with individually developed KPIs.
What features have particularly caught your eye so far?
Despite the average lengthening of the reports by around 24%, significant differences between the companies can be seen.
Around two thirds of companies have actually increased the number of pages, while one third have shortened the length of their reports or left them unchanged. Although it is still too early to draw definitive conclusions from this small group, it is noticeable that companies that still published separate sustainability reports in 2023 in particular tended to reduce the length of their reports.
This development suggests that the obligation to integrate the sustainability report into the management report is resulting in a stronger focus.
In other words, whereas previously there was more room for narrative elements and visual representations, facts and figures are now in the foreground.
Sustainability reporting, which is now also subject to a review, is thus becoming increasingly similar to financial reporting in terms of structure and content.
What reports should companies look at that are subject to reporting in the future?
As the reportable topics are highly industry-dependent, I recommend that companies take a look at reports from competitors within their own industry that are already CSRD-compliant.
We have created a list of the first reports that is accessible to everyone (see here). This database is growing daily and contains useful additional information such as the country of origin, the sector, the length of the report and the auditing firm commissioned in each case. For an effective search, it would make sense to concentrate on reports from companies in the same sector and possibly with the same auditing firm. You can also find a topic heatmap here to find companies that write more on a specific topic such as biodiversity at first glance.
We are currently developing this into a benchmarking solution in which we also want to use Sunhat's technology to allow users to “intelligently” search for and find information in the reports. For example, companies can get a direct overview of the information provided in transition plans within a specific industry and jump directly to the relevant reporting points if required.
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