The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is an EU regulation that broadens and deepens sustainability reporting requirements for businesses. It focuses on improving transparency around environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, requiring detailed disclosures on companies’ impacts, risks, and contributions to sustainable development. CSRD also includes specific provisions for reporting on political conduct and lobbying activities, emphasizing greater accountability in corporate influence on public policy.

Disclosure Requirement ESRS G1-5 is designed to provide a clear framework for organisations to report their lobbying activities and political commitments in a structured and accountable way.

What is Disclosure Requirement G1-5?

This requirement ensures organisations report comprehensively on their political influence, including lobbying activities, during the reporting period. The aim is to give stakeholders insight into how a company engages with political systems and aligns its activities with its sustainability impacts. Key aspects organisations must disclose:

Governance of lobbying activities:

• Identification of representatives in administrative, management, or supervisory roles overseeing these activities.

Political contributions:

• Total monetary value of both financial and in-kind contributions, broken down by country or region and type of beneficiary.
• Explanation of how in-kind contributions are valued, where relevant.

Lobbying topics and positions:

• Overview of the main lobbying topics and the company’s stances.
• How these align with the material impacts, risks, and opportunities outlined in the company’s materiality assessment.

Transparency register participation:

• Details of registration in the EU Transparency Register or equivalent national registers, including identification numbers.

Revolving doors policy:

• Disclosure of any board or supervisory body members who held positions in public administration (e.g., regulators) within two years prior to their current appointment.

Companies must disclose sustainability information alongside financial reports in a standardized digital format for easier verification and comparison in the EU database. This data will also undergo limited third-party assurance by an auditor.

Preparing for G1-5 Reporting with Lobster

For companies subject to CSRD, meeting the G1-5 requirement involves more than just gathering data. It requires a robust tools to track  and store the information on political contributions, lobbying activities, and governance structures, as well as aligning these with broader sustainability strategies.

Tools like Lobster Public Affairs CRM can simplify this process.  Lobster enables  you to:

• Collect and document your organisation’s advocacy activities in simple and user friendly form.
• Automatically comply with the reporting requirements of CSRD on political conduct and lobbying activities and in some cases relevant national transparency registers.
• Benefit from other Lobster features, such as EU-stakeholder data, GDPR tools, and political monitoring capabilities.

Future-proofing your organisation’s  public affairs can be  more than just meeting compliance—it’s an opportunity to develop your team’s working methods and improve the effectiveness of your operations. Lobster helps you manage this process efficiently and effortlessly.

Interested? Schedule an online demo by sending us an email to info@lobster.ist. We will be happy to tell you more.