Complying with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires companies to truly overhaul their ESG disclosure. For most companies, complying with the CSRD’s ESRS standards will mean combing through every part of their business—strategy, operations, governance, and supply chains—to surface data that is often buried in different systems and teams. That means weeks of manual reviews, version control headaches, and endless back-and-forth between sustainability, finance, and legal.
The cost of that time is high. Recent research shows that 83% of businesses aren’t confident their ESG data is audit-ready for CSRD, underscoring how high the stakes are when time is lost to compliance prep.
While teams are stuck reconciling spreadsheets, they lose capacity to focus on what really matters: managing climate risks, identifying opportunities, and building resilience. Delays in compliance also expose companies to regulatory fines, reputational damage, and missed chances to communicate a credible sustainability strategy to investors and stakeholders.
The challenge of CSRD compliance
CSRD reporting requirements are complex and wide-reaching. As a new regulatory gold standard in ESG reporting, they cover a wide range of topics and are very specific in their requirements.
Given the rapidly evolving (and historically voluntary) nature of corporate reporting on sustainability matters, most companies now subject to CSRD are likely to have some aspects already addressed—but almost certainly not all. The major problem is that these areas have been covered in previous disclosures, which may exist in various formats. Even within an individual company’s public disclosures, the fragmentation of sustainability information presents a significant challenge.
It’s not that the data doesn’t exist; for the most part, it does. Rather, the challenge is finding the right data, in the right place, as quickly as possible, and then keeping it all straight. At the same time, regulations like the CSRD are constantly in flux.
Given the complexity of the situation, how can sustainability professionals, consultants, and auditors verify and then ensure CRSD compliance, all without losing their minds (or at least their lunch breaks)?
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The importance of finding the right tools
When it comes to CSRD, “the right tools” are the difference between weeks of manual effort and a streamlined, repeatable process. Reporting tools help companies gather, structure, and analyze the data needed for compliance. Instead of chasing spreadsheets across departments, teams can rely on purpose-built platforms that centralize information, flag disclosure gaps, and keep reporting aligned with regulatory requirements.
Good tools reduce administrative burden while also freeing up sustainability, risk, and finance teams to focus on strategy. They also provide confidence that disclosures are complete and defensible, minimizing the risk of errors that could lead to regulatory fines or reputational damage.
Manifest Climate: AI-powered CSRD compliance
Manifest Climate is built to make CSRD compliance faster and easier. Our AI-powered platform scans reports, assesses disclosures against regulatory requirements, and identifies gaps in minutes. What typically takes weeks of manual reviews can now be completed in a fraction of the time, producing a high-quality CSRD gap assessment that your team can hit the ground running with.
By automating the assessment process, Manifest Climate helps organizations stay ahead of evolving rules while reducing the strain on overstretched teams. The platform surfaces insights that help companies strengthen their sustainability strategy and communicate it clearly to investors, regulators, and other stakeholders.
Small teams, big asks
Most sustainability and reporting teams are small, yet they’re expected to deliver on increasingly complex requirements. CSRD asks for granular data across governance, climate strategy, risk management, and value chain impacts. For lean teams, meeting those expectations with manual processes quickly proves unsustainable.
While 63% of companies say they feel confident they’re ready to comply with CSRD, only 39% have confirmed their reporting scope and just 20% have validated their data availability. That makes automated checks even more valuable.
With the right tools in place, even small teams can deliver high-quality disclosures that meet regulatory standards. Automating repetitive tasks allows them to spend less time buried in data collection and more time driving climate action across the business.Take one of Manifest Climate’s clients as an example: High Liner Foods, a leading frozen seafood supplier in North America. The company’s complex sustainability disclosure requirements meant their small team would most definitely need to leverage software to get the job done. Luckily, they found Manifest Climate.
“Manifest Climate offered that blend of the human side and the tech side,” says Josh Austin, the company’s Senior Sustainability Manager. “It allowed us to understand what we needed to do to be compliant with any relevant climate disclosure framework, understand our compliance gaps, and helped us build an action plan in order to be self-reliant.”
Manifest Climate really allows you to see your climate disclosure from an unbiased third-party perspective and ask, “am I meeting the benchmark or not? Am I meeting the intent of the disclosure, or not?”
– Josh Austin, Senior Manager, Sustainability at High Liner Foods
Streamline the ‘first pass’ with artificial intelligence
The “first pass” of a CSRD assessment is often the most time-consuming step. It involves reviewing hundreds of disclosure requirements and comparing them to existing company reports to spot gaps. When humans handle this process, it can take weeks. Manual reviews are prone to missed details, inconsistent interpretations, and fatigue, especially for small teams under pressure to deliver.
Artificial intelligence changes that equation. AI tools can review large volumes of data in minutes, flagging disclosures that are missing, incomplete, or misaligned with CSRD requirements. Instead of spending valuable time on repetitive checks, sustainability and compliance teams can focus on what matters most: interpreting results, closing gaps, and building stronger reporting strategies.
Identify and address CSRD requirement gaps with ease
Manifest Climate automates the “first pass” of a CSRD compliance gap analysis, giving teams a clear view of where their disclosures stand against CSRD rules. Our AI scans reports, highlights specific requirements that need more detail, and maps out where the gaps are. What once took weeks of line-by-line manual review can now be done in a single afternoon.
Take the example of a leading global technology company. Before using Manifest Climate, their sustainability team relied on manual reviews of reports scattered across regions and business units. Aligning disclosures with emerging ESG regulations meant chasing down spreadsheets, reconciling inconsistencies, and repeating the same checks for multiple frameworks. Preparing for CSRD on top of existing requirements risked overwhelming their small team.
By automating their initial compliance assessment with Manifest Climate, the company cut review time from weeks to days. The platform highlighted exactly where disclosures fell short, linked gaps to the relevant CSRD requirements, and provided clear guidance on what to improve. This not only saved the team hundreds of hours of manual work, but also gave them confidence that their reporting would stand up to assurance providers and regulators. The time saved was redirected to higher-value work—strengthening climate strategy, engaging investors, and coordinating with leadership on long-term sustainability goals.
Can I really trust an AI tool with the first pass?
Skepticism is natural—compliance is too important to leave to chance. But AI serves as an enhancement (not a replacement) to human judgment. Manifest Climate’s AI is trained on the same regulations that auditors and compliance professionals use. It delivers consistent, transparent results and flags exactly where disclosures fall short.
Instead of wasting time on manual reviews that can vary from person to person, organizations get a reliable baseline they can trust. Human experts then use that foundation to make informed decisions, refine strategies, and communicate results with confidence. The outcome is faster, more accurate compliance, without the compromises of a fully manual process.
Improve data management to support long-term CSRD compliance
Strong CSRD reporting requires a system that can stand up to scrutiny year after year. Data management is at the heart of this challenge. Companies must track disclosures across multiple teams, ensure updates are version-controlled, and keep all relevant evidence easily accessible for auditors and regulators.
When data is handled manually, it often lives in scattered spreadsheets, email threads, or siloed platforms. That creates unnecessary risk: lost files, inconsistent information, and time wasted trying to reconcile versions. Without a clear structure, even strong disclosures can be undermined by poor organization.
With the right tools in place, data management becomes a strength rather than a liability. Purpose-built platforms provide a single source of truth, allowing companies to manage information consistently and with confidence that it will stand up to future regulatory reviews.
Strengthen audit trail organization and transparency
An organized audit trail is essential for demonstrating compliance. Auditors and regulators want to see not just the final disclosure, but how companies arrived there—the evidence, decisions, and changes along the way. Keeping that record manually means teams need to track every update across documents and emails, store supporting materials in shared drives, and maintain version histories by hand. That level of oversight can take weeks of effort and is highly prone to error.
The risks of a weak audit trail are serious. If evidence is missing or inconsistent, companies can struggle to prove compliance during assurance. That can lead to failed audits, regulatory penalties, or reputational damage if disclosures don’t hold up under scrutiny. CSRD in particular sets a high bar: organizations must not only disclose their sustainability data, but also be able to show a transparent record of how that information was compiled and validated.
Manifest Climate simplifies this process by maintaining a clear, searchable data trail within the platform. Every disclosure is linked to the underlying evidence, every update is logged, and every gap is flagged. Instead of reconstructing the story from scattered files, teams can instantly demonstrate how their disclosures align with CSRD requirements.
For small teams with big asks, this is especially valuable. Automating the audit trail means lean sustainability or compliance teams don’t have to spend their limited resources on manual coordination. They can meet complex regulatory expectations with confidence, while keeping their focus on building strategy, resilience, and impact.
Instantly assess CSRD compliance and improve ESG reporting with Manifest Climate
Meeting CSRD requirements is only one piece of the puzzle. Many organizations must also align with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), Europe’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), or California’s SB 261. Each of these frameworks comes with unique disclosure requirements, overlapping expectations, and evolving timelines. Trying to manage them separately can lead to duplication of work, inconsistent messaging, and wasted time.
Manifest Climate helps organizations stay ahead. Our AI-powered platform instantly assesses disclosures against CSRD rules while also supporting compliance across a wide range of sustainability standards. By mapping requirements across frameworks, the platform highlights where disclosures already align and where additional work is needed. This reduces duplication and ensures companies maintain a consistent, defensible story for all of their stakeholders.
The benefits extend beyond compliance. Automating the assessment process frees teams to focus on strategy and impact. Instead of spending months preparing disclosures, organizations can demonstrate progress, respond quickly to new rules, and build the trust of investors, regulators, and employees. Manifest Climate also supports double materiality assessments and audit readiness, giving companies confidence that their disclosures will stand up to assurance and regulatory review.
With Manifest Climate, sustainability, risk, and compliance teams can cut through the noise and deliver disclosures that are fast, accurate, and credible, across every framework that applies to them.Ready to see how it works?
Book a demo today and learn how Manifest Climate can help your organization simplify compliance, strengthen ESG reporting, and get back valuable time.
