March 27, 2025

Terms and Legal SourcesCSRD, ESRS, EU Taxonomy, TCFD, XBRL, laws, directives, regulations, etc.

This post is designed to help you get started with the complex topic of ESG reporting. EU regulations are often a maze of abbreviations and legal texts – confusing and challenging. But don’t worry: we have compiled the most important terms and guidelines for you in a concise and understandable format.

In our glossary, you will find everything you need at a glance: from CSRD and ESRS to the EU Taxonomy and XBRL tagging. Additionally, we provide an overview of key legal texts, organized by legal frameworks, that are relevant to sustainability reporting. No more time-consuming research and disorganized sources – all essential information is available to you in one place.

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Commonly used English abbreviations and technical terms are not translated. For authorities, organizations, and standards, the German translation is only provided if an official translation exists or if the term has become established in German-speaking regions.

To help you navigate more easily, we have compiled the most important terms for you:

A - E

  • API Application Programming Interface
  • BI Business Intelligence
  • CBAM Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism A mechanism introducing a carbon levy on certain imports to prevent carbon leakage and promote cleaner industrial production
  • CDSB Climate Disclosure Standards Board
  • CERES Coalition of Environmentally Responsible Economies
  • CFO Chief Financial Officer
  • CMS Content Management System
  • CPM Corporate Performance Management
  • CSDDD Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive An EU directive that requires companies to identify, prevent, and mitigate negative impacts on human rights and the environment in their business operations and supply chains
  • CSO Chief Sustainability Officer
  • CSRD Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive An EU directive requiring companies to identify, prevent, and mitigate negative impacts on human rights and the environment within their operations and supply chains
  • DACHLI Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein
  • DM Disclosure Management
  • EBA European Banking Authority
  • EEAP European Electronic Access Point
  • EFRAG European Financial Reporting Advisory Group
  • EIOPA European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority
  • EPM Enterprise Performance Management
  • ESAP European Single Access Point
  • ESEF European Single Electronic Format
  • ESG Environmental, Social and Governance
  • ESMA European Securities and Markets Authority
  • ESRS European Sustainability Reporting Standards Standards developed under the CSRD to define more detailed sustainability reporting requirements
  • EU European Union
  • EU Taxonomy A classification system that categorizes economic activities based on their environmental sustainability, aiming to promote investments in sustainable projects

F - N

  • FER Swiss Accounting Standard
  • FINMA Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority
  • FSB Financial Stability Board
  • GAAP Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
  • GRI Global Reporting Initiative
  • HTML Hypertext Markup Language
  • IAS International Accounting Standards; bis 2001
  • IASB International Accounting Standards Board
  • IESBA International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants
  • IFRS International Financial Reporting Standards; ab 2001
  • IIRC International Integrated Reporting Council
  • ISSB International Sustainability Standards Board
  • iXBRL Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language
  • NGO Non-Governmental Organization
  • NSRS ESRS for Non-EU Groups

O - Z

  • OAM Officially Appointed Mechanism
  • Omnibus An EU regulation that consolidates several existing directives, including CSRD, CSDDD, and the EU Taxonomy, to simplify sustainability reporting.
  • OR Swiss Code of Obligations
  • PDF Portable Document Format
  • PIE Public Interest Entity
  • SaaS Software as a Service
  • SASB Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
  • SEC United States Securities and Exchange Commission
  • SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation): Requires financial market participants to disclose how they integrate sustainability risks into their investment decisions
  • SME Small and medium-sized enterprises
  • SDG UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • SME Small and medium-sized enterprises
  • Tagging The process of tagging data points in reports to define their structure and content and to enable machine readability.
  • TCFD Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures
  • UN United Nations
  • UNGP United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
  • UNICEF United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund
  • UVEK Swiss Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy, and Communications
  • VRF Value Reporting Foundation
  • VSME Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for SMEs A voluntary standard specifically developed for non-listed small and medium-sized enterprises to simplify and standardize sustainability reporting
  • WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get
  • XBRL eXtensible Business Reporting Language

Laws, Directives, and Regulations

Laws are binding regulations. Directives specify objectives that must be implemented in national laws. Regulations are directly applicable.

Below the regulations are classified by jurisdiction. Swiss regulations are preceded by the number from the systematic collection of laws (SR = Systematische Rechtssammlung); EU regulations are preceded by the number of the legal act. Common abbreviations are added in brackets.

Switzerland

European Union

  • 1606/2002 Ordinance on the Application of International Accounting Standards (IAS Ordinance)
  • 2004/109 Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of transparency requirements in relation to information about issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market and amending Directive 2001/34/EC (Transparancy Directive) Richtlinie - 2004/109 - EN - EUR-Lex
  • 2013/34 Directive on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements, and related reports of certain types of undertakings, amending Directive 2006/43/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Council Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC (Text with EEA relevance), L 182/19 (2013). (Accounting Directive) Directive - 2013/34 - EN - ifrs - EUR-Lex
  • 2014/56 Directive on Statutory Audits (Statutory Audit Directive
  • 2014/95 Directive amending Directive 2013/34/EU as regards the disclosure of non-financial information (Non-Financial Reporting Directive, NFRD or CSR Directive)
  • 2017/1132 Directive on Certain Aspects of Company Law (Company Law Directive)
  • 2018/815 Delegated Regulation supplementing the Transparency Directive with regard to regulatory technical standards for the specification of a single electronic reporting format (ESEF Regulation)
  • 2019/2088 Regulation on sustainability-related disclosure obligations in the financial services sector (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, SFDR or Disclosure Regulation)
  • 2020/852 Regulation on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investments (EU Taxonomy Regulation) Directive - 2022/2464 - EN - CSRD Directive - EUR-Lex
  • 2021/2178 Delegated Regulation supplementing Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council by specifying the content and presentation of the information (EU Taxonomy templates)
  • 2022/2464 Directive amending the guidelines on corporate sustainability reporting (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSRD)
    Directive - 2022/2464 - EN - CSRD Directive - EUR-Lex
  • 2023/2772 Delegated Regulation laying down the sustainability reporting standards applicable under the CSRD (ESRS Regulation) Delegated regulation - EU - 2023/2772 - EN - EUR-Lex
  • 2023/2859 Regulation on the European Single Access Point (ESAP Regulation)
  • 2023/2864 Directive amending certain directives as regards the establishment and functioning of the European single access point
  • 2024/1760 Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, CSDDD oder CS3D) 
    Richtlinie - EU - 2024/1760 - EN - EUR-Lex

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