CSRD and Procurement: What You Must Report — and How Vieri Helps
CSRD — the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive — is Europe's most comprehensive sustainability framework ever. From 2026, more than 50,000 European organisations must report on emissions, social risk and governance throughout the value chain. Most of this data sits in your procurement system — if you know how to extract it.
In this article we explain what CSRD requires of procurement data, why most organisations are poorly prepared, and how Vieri makes you ready — without extra work.
Key takeaways
- • CSRD requires reporting on Scope 3 emissions — where procurement makes up 70–90% of the total
- • Most of the data you need lies in the procurement and invoice system
- • Vieri gives you categorised transactions, supplier status and traceability — ready for ESG tools
- • Sustainability starts with control over procurement — not with a new reporting module
What is CSRD — and who does it apply to?
CSRD is the EU's new directive for sustainability reporting, adopted in 2022 and rolled out in stages from 2024. The directive replaces the much simpler NFRD and mandates detailed reporting under the ESRS standards (European Sustainability Reporting Standards).
CSRD gradually applies to ever more organisations:
- 2025 reporting (FY 2024): Large listed companies
- 2026 reporting: All large EU/EEA organisations (over 250 employees / €50M revenue / €25M balance)
- 2027 reporting: Listed SMEs
- 2029 reporting: Global groups with EU operations
Even if you aren't directly required to report, large customers will demand the data they need from you — so CSRD cascades down the entire value chain.
Why procurement is at the core of CSRD reporting
CSRD requires reporting under ESRS E1 (climate), E2 (pollution), E3 (water), E4 (biodiversity), E5 (resource use), S1-S4 (social) and G1 (governance). What most of these have in common is that the source data lies in your procurement and supplier records.
💡 Did you know?
For most organisations, Scope 3 emissions (value-chain emissions) make up 70–90% of the total climate footprint. Of these, purchased goods and services is by far the largest category. Without good procurement data, you simply cannot report Scope 3 credibly.
Concrete CSRD requirements that need procurement data
- ESRS E1 (climate): Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and services — requires transaction data per supplier and category
- ESRS E5 (resources): Circular economy, reuse and waste — requires insight into what is actually purchased
- ESRS S2 (value chain): Working conditions at suppliers — requires supplier list and risk assessment
- ESRS G1 (governance): Corruption and bribery — requires traceability of procurement decisions
How most organisations fail on CSRD data
CSRD was introduced because the old sustainability reporting was unreliable. Estimates built on generic industry numbers were used because organisations didn't have proper source data. This is exactly what CSRD now puts an end to.
Here are the typical problems:
- Off-system procurement (maverick buying): When 30–40% of procurement happens outside contracts, you're missing data on a large share of Scope 3 emissions
- Scattered supplier data: Supplier information sits in ERP, Excel sheets, emails — not in one system
- Missing categorisation: Procurement isn't linked to emission classes, so no one can compute CO2 footprint per category
- No traceability: You can't show the auditor why a specific supplier was chosen
- Manual reports: The sustainability team spends weeks gathering data from various systems
How Vieri makes you CSRD-ready
Vieri is built for control over the entire procurement process. That means you already have 80% of the CSRD data foundation — you just need to know how to use it.
1. Complete transaction data
Vieri collects all procurement transactions in one system, linked to contracts, projects and cost centres. When 90% of procurement flows through the system, the data foundation is in place.
2. Categorisation for emissions calculation
Each transaction is categorised by UNSPSC or your organisation's own taxonomy. This makes it easy to link procurement to emission factors for Scope 3 calculation.
3. Supplier status and certifications
Vieri stores supplier certifications (EcoVadis, ISO 14001, B Corp), risk indicators and ESG data. When a certification expires, the procurement team is notified automatically.
4. Export to ESG tools
Vieri has an open API and prebuilt integrations to leading ESG tools like Ignite. Procurement data flows directly into the ESG system, where it is combined with emission factors and reported under ESRS.
5. Full traceability
Every procurement decision is logged with timestamp, approver and rationale. When the auditor asks "why did you choose this supplier?", you have the answer in seconds.
How to get started
CSRD doesn't require you to have a perfect report from day one. It requires you to have a system for collecting the data. Vieri provides the system — Ignite or a similar ESG tool provides the reporting. Together, you're ready.
Three reasons not to wait
- Data quality takes time to build. You need at least 12 months of history to do meaningful trend analysis. If you start in January, your data is ready in January the year after — not before.
- Customers already require it. Large Nordic organisations are asking their suppliers for CSRD data now. If you can't deliver, you lose tenders.
- Fines are coming. The EU has signalled fines of up to 5% of revenue for missing or misleading reporting. That's a significant risk to ignore.
Sustainability begins with control
It's tempting to view CSRD as "yet another bureaucratic reporting task". But organisations that take it seriously discover something surprising: better procurement data leads to better business decisions.
When you know exactly how much you buy from each supplier, you can negotiate better deals. When you see which categories cause the highest emissions, you can find alternatives. When you have traceability, you can document that you're actually buying in line with your policy.
In other words: sustainability reporting is not a cost — it is a consequence of having control over procurement. And control over procurement is what Vieri delivers.
Ready for CSRD — without starting from zero?
Book a demo and see how Vieri gives you the data foundation for CSRD reporting. We'll show you concretely how your procurement data flows into an ESG tool like Ignite.
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