Possible Consequences of Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive on Polish Transport Companies

Abstract

Over the past 2 or 3 years, the European Commission has been gradually introducing further regulations with the ultimate goal of establishing European standards for Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) reporting. The aim of this paper is to discuss the regulations contained in the recently adopted Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which became effective in January 2023 and to provide a deeper understanding of the distinctive characteristics of Polish transport companies and their value chain relationships with other entities. As an introduction to the main provisions of the recently introduced CSRD, the authors will first outline its core principles. They will then present the fundamental issues related to the value and supply chain and the European Commission’s (EC) newly introduced notion of the chain of activities. The article concludes with recommendations for companies. In order to achieve the research objective, the article uses quantitative and qualitative research methods. Statistical methods point to the importance of Polish transport companies in the European Union. Qualitative methods were used to review legislative documents of the European Union related to this topic. Our findings contribute to growing, but still limited literature on European regulations in the area of ESG reporting and impact of these regulations on companies.