Nossa Data's ESG Breakfast Series 2025

This year, Nossa Data launched a new ESG Breakfast Series, bringing together sustainability professionals on a quarterly basis to discuss the reporting developments and best practices in ESG. Hosted in London and Amsterdam - two leading hubs for sustainability reporting standards including the GRI (headquartered in Amsterdam), these events were a great success for facilitating face to face conversations. Hosting these breakfasts was a great opportunity to meet many of you responsible for sustainability reporting for listed companies and connect over shared preparation challenges.

Reflecting on this year's breakfasts, some of the main topics included:

• The CSRD and EU Omnibus.
• How the ESG reporting teams and Finance teams are working together.
• Need for increased interoperability between standards such as the ESRS and the ISSB sustainability standards.
• The UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (drafts announced in June 2025).
• The recent EU ESG ratings regulation and its objectives.

Q1 Breakfast (London)

We hosted our first ever breakfast roundtable with some of the UK's highest ESG rated corporates. This event took place in February, the same month as the announcement of the EU Omnibus to revise the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and reduce the CSRD scope.

It was a fantastic event and a ton of insight was shared from the group including the following topics:

• Which ESG Ratings should a company focus on? (MSCI ESG Ratings, Sustainalytics, ISS, Bloomberg)
• How to prepare for CSRD disclosure in light of the Omnibus announcement?
• How to understand the true value of ESG ratings and benchmark work?
• Any other ratings / frameworks prioritised (EcoVadis, CDP, WDI)?

Q2 Breakfast (Amsterdam)

In Amsterdam, we brought together companies, mainly headquartered in the Netherlands, to discuss how regulation is reshaping priorities for the financial year.

Some key discussions covered:

• How both internal strategy and external pressures are shaping ESG decisions
• How to view ESG ratings/scores that are passive and active ratings

This Breakfast also coincided with UNGC CoP questionnaire opening window. Participation in the CoP requires a CEO Statement of Continued Support and completion of the CoP digital questionnaire.

Q3 Breakfast (London)

Our third breakfast of the year focused on AI in ESG reporting. We had a great discussion on how sustainability reporting teams incorporate AI into their workflows. We also discussed the increased use of AI for scraping websites and reports for key sustainability indicators.

Some of the key questions:

• How are companies using AI today?
• What risks are there to incorporating AI within your workflows?
• Where is AI helpful versus other types of technology?
• How do Rating Agencies / Investors use AI?
• What is Agentic AI and how could it be used for ESG disclosure?
• Where do good training data sets exist within ESG?
• What do you need to be aware of when leveraging AI in your organisation?

A significant UK announcement prior to this breakfast fed the conversation around the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS). The UK SRS drafts were released during London Climate Week in June 2025; they are based on the ISSB sustainability standards and will require large UK companies to disclose their risk management on financially material sustainability issues.

Q4 Breakfast (London)

Our last ESG Breakfast of 2025 included a guided discussion with a rotation of groups so that attendees shared insights with everyone in the room. That same day, there was a vote in the European Parliament on the scope of the CSRD as part of the EU Omnibus. The result of the vote approved a significant reduction in the number of companies under CSRD requirements.

We also discussed:

• The expected UK ISSB endorsement announcement (including endorsement of the UK SRS S2 for managing climate related risks).
• MSCI ESG Ratings and the update to the 2026 methodology
• The EU Ratings Regulation and its objectives for improved transparency on ratings ESG methodologies.
• Sustainability Reporting requirements in the UK and EU
• Reporting sustainability risks and opportunities in line with GRI vs IFRS
• Removal of voluntary disclosures in the simplified ESRS