The EU Sustainability Reporting Mandate in Spain: Challenges and Opportunities for Practice and Academia

This commentary reflects on the implications of Spain’s regulatory sustainability reporting environment that originates from the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. It identifies four major shifts that the Directive’s transposition will induce in corporate reporting practices: (1) the expansion in the number of companies required to report sustainability information and its subsequent influence on non-mandated firms, (2) the compulsory adoption of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, (3) the requirement for the assurance of sustainability information, and (4) the digital tagging of sustainability disclosures. Each of these changes presents challenges for entities within the scope of the Spanish transposition. Viewed from a normativity perspective, the commentary examines how prior practices among Spanish companies and the historical context of sustainability reporting regulation might shape these challenges and the responses companies may adopt to address them, which are crucial for the emergence of norms. Additionally, the commentary identifies several areas for further academic research arising from these four changes. Beyond its implications for future research, the current sustainability regulatory landscape also highlights the need for academia to actively promote and engage in sustainability accounting and reporting education.