While the extra-financial transparency requirements for companies introduced by the European Green Deal are being redefined via the Omnibus law, audit and consulting firms maintain their professional commitment, convinced of the strategic and promising nature of CSR for their clients. In this approach, auditing can be a valuable tool for gaining relevance, reliability and confidence in its reporting. Three experts from the Sustainability team — Nathalie Gilet, Director, Ariane Pecqueur, Supervisor, and Lénaïc Baron, Senior — present the organization and the specifics of CSR auditing within Nexia S&A.

The CSRD directive, which should extend sustainability reporting obligations to many SMEs and SMEs as early as 2025, is on hold. Faced with concerns about the complexity of standards, the European Union has suspended its application as it stands to redefine application thresholds and simplify reporting standards. Large companies, already committed, are continuing to comply and are measuring the benefits of this structuring exercise. They have taken advantage of this requirement to better articulate strategy, finance and CSR, and many are now campaigning for the maintenance of a coherent framework. While SMEs and SMEs see regulatory obligations recede, many remain willing to pursue a path of progress. Investment funds, which have already integrated ESG criteria into their own analysis frameworks, as well as large groups now committed to responsible purchasing policies, continue to demand reliable and comparable ESG data, and employees, customers and citizens are asking for commitments. The fundamental movement towards greater transparency is therefore well and truly under way.

“What businesses have been through in recent months is a real learning phase. The compliance exercise led them to ask themselves the right questions, to correct their indicators and to bring financial and CSR departments closer together in a sustainable way.” Nathalie Gilet, Sustainability Director

Who is concerned?

The initial text provided for the application to any enterprise exceeding 2 of the following 3 only:

• Workforce: 250 employees
• Net turnover: €50 million
• Balance sheet total: €25 million

However, the Omnibus Directive has drastically raised these thresholds. On December 16, they reported to

• ‍1,000 employees AND €450 million in turnover.

CSR audit according to Nexia S&A

“Our role is to bring confidence to the market and to the companies we audit. We intervene throughout the construction of the sustainability report to ensure its reliability, readability and compliance with standards. This support also makes it possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of internal processes and to reinforce the relevance of the published indicators. In short, we are a bit of an anti-greenwashing agent.” Lénaïc Baron, Senior Sustainability

How to be impartial when working on audit and consulting?

“Independence is a regulatory requirement: a firm cannot audit what it has advised. We rigorously frame our interventions through procedures guaranteeing this independence, and do not accept an audit mission if our firm is already carrying out expertise missions for a company, or vice versa. Impartiality is also mandatory, and we are supervised by the H2A (Haute Autorité de l'Audit), which verifies that we strictly apply the same procedures to all audited companies. However, to a certain extent, we can allow our clients to benefit from the strong complementarity between sustainability auditing, advising companies on their CSR issues and SRI support for investment funds. For example, we can point out to our audited customers particularly inspiring examples among the information available publicly, or guide our advised clients more precisely thanks to our detailed knowledge of audit requirements and practices.” Ariane Pecqueur, Sustainability Supervisor

CSRD audit approach

Step 1: Getting started

Contact and planning

“The audit can only start after the sustainability auditor is appointed by the company's general meeting. The first step is to meet with the company to define contacts, meetings and schedule. Most often on site to get to know the teams and better understand how the company works before work begins.”

Step 2: The preliminary study

Understanding the company and its challenges

“During this phase, we seek to understand the company, its sector, to identify major sustainability issues, those that will have a significant impact on the company's strategy or performance. Our role is to question the coherence between the sustainability strategy and the company's overall strategy, and to verify that the commitments made do not contradict the economic objectives.”

Step 3: Process review

Analysis of internal processes

“The aim is to ensure that the dual materiality analysis has been carried out and that the company has reliable procedures for collecting its ESG data. We assess what we call the inherent risk: some information, such as the workforce, is simple to verify, while others, such as the carbon footprint, require complex calculations. We also look at the robustness of internal control procedures: well thought out and executed, they can reduce
there is a high risk of error. Our risk-based approach is to target our controls where there is the greatest probability of error.”

Step 4: Data review

Targeted tests according to the level of risk

“This is the phase where we are implementing the tests on the indicators. Once our risk analysis is complete, we define an audit plan to determine what data to go into more detail on. The higher the risk, the more thorough the checks are. The sustainability audit now aims at so-called limited insurance: we certify that we did not identify any significant anomalies in the information published.”

Step 5: Reviewing the report

Verification of the conformity and the sincerity of the report

“The review of the report consists in ensuring that the final text respects the very precise regulatory obligations of the ESRS standards and reflects the genuine reality of the group's actions. We check that the information published is present, accurate and in accordance with the data validated during the previous steps. It is also a check of consistency between the financial part and the sustainability part.”

Step 6: Finalization

Issuance of the certification report

“This regulatory phase includes presenting a summary of the work to the CSR team and presenting the findings to the sustainability committee of the board of directors. These exchanges make it possible to explain our findings and to answer questions before the certification report is issued. It formalizes our conclusions: it reflects the quality of the company's work and the sincerity of the information published.”

Step 7: The fence

Formulation of areas for improvement

“The closing meeting with the CSR team allows us to discuss the findings of the mission in more detail. It is a constructive moment where we can formulate ways for improvement, without going as far as advice: we indicate the points to be strengthened
for the next few years, without saying how to do it.”

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Case study

CSRD audit for Sopra Steria

A major tech player in Europe, Sopra Steria has nearly 50,000 employees in nearly 30 countries. A service, consulting and digital solutions group, it is recognized for the quality of its ESG reporting and its long-standing commitment to CSR. Its main challenges concern personnel management, inclusiveness, well-being at work, diversity, as well as the reduction of the carbon footprint and responsible digital governance.

3 listeners, 3 questions

What is Sopra Steria's level of maturity in terms of CSRD?

“Sopra Steria is one of the most advanced companies in implementing CSRD. His report, which is particularly comprehensive, was even awarded (Grand Prize in all categories of the Transparency Awards 2025). The group was able to collect and publish a large volume of information, sometimes on partial perimeters, while remaining transparent about the limits of data availability. This maturity is the result of work that has been ongoing for several years on ESG issues.” Ariane Pecqueur

How did the audit take place?

“The Sopra Steria audit was a real challenge: it was the first year of applying the CSRD, with a new, heavy and complex standard, and a very broad international scope. Thanks to the maturity of the group and the robustness of its processes, we were able to move forward as time went by. Regular meetings were planned with the CSR teams to monitor the work and remove difficulties as they went along.” Lénaïc Baron

How can we do better tomorrow?

“After a very dense first year, the second year promises to be simpler, for the company as well as for the auditors. The content is in place, the work will be able to focus on developments and on the strategic dimension of the approaches. The experience gained will also allow us to support future entrants into the CSRD more effectively, with more added value.” Nathalie Gilet