Double Materiality Analysis at Dutch Flower Group
The new CSRD legislation is coming up. More than 50.000 companies in the EU have to comply with this new regulation. One of these organizations is Dutch Flower Group (DFG). A family of more than 30 specialised trading companies that are active in the floriculture sector. DFG weekly distributes 75 million flowers, 10 million bouquets and 15 million plants via their customers, to consumers around the world. Together they create a happier and greener world. Preparing for the CSRD takes a lot of effort and time, but is also a valuable process for the whole organization. The CSRD preparation leads towards a steep learning curve for the organization on different topics. Move to Impact helped Dutch Flower Group to get ready for the double materiality analysis. To help others on their journey, we will post a series of blogs explaining the different steps and sharing the lessons learned.
But first: What is CSRD?
CSRD stands for Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. It is a directive for organizations about how they should report on specific ESG – environmental, social & governance – aspects. Examples of these reporting requirements include diversity percentages, environmental impact on CO2 emissions and water, and human rights assessment information.
The objective of the CSRD reporting directive is to help achieve Green Deal targets and to create more transparency into future risks that organizations face. In addition, it provides information to investors and combines previous reporting requirements all under one report. The European Commission forces organizations to increase their attention to sustainability and the disclosure of information related to intangibles (social, human, intellectual capital).
Which companies need to comply to the CSRD?
Which companies need to comply to the CSRD?
In 2025 the first report over financial year 2024 for all large companies (Listed) with:
- > 250 employees and/or
- > 50-million-euro turnover and/or
- > 25 million total assets
(minimum of 2 out of 3 criteria)
In 2026 the first report over financial year 2025 for all large companies (non listed) with:
- > 250 employees and/or
- > 50-million-euro turnover and/or
- > 25 million total assets
(minimum of 2 out of 3 criteria)
Other listed smaller companies (SMEs) need to have the first report in 2027 over financial year 2026
Why did Dutch Flower Group start preparing for the CSRD?
As of 2024, more than 50.000 organizations within the EU must comply with the rules and regulations of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The CSRD report should cover the same scope as the annual financial statement.
Dutch Flower Group has a consolidated financial statement which covers all the activities of all the DFG-companies. This means that every company that is part of Dutch Flower Group should be included in the new non-financial CSRD report. Also the companies that are smaller than the companies that need to comply with the CSRD individually.
However, starting with the CSRD didn’t feel like a forced activity for the Dutch Flower Group. DFG already had a sustainability strategy, called IMPACT25, that covered several projects increasing the transparency of the impact of the group. The requirements for CSRD were perfectly fitting in with their strategy.
Why did Dutch Flower Group already start preparing for the CSRD years before the deadline?
Dutch Flower Group is frontrunner on sustainability in the floriculture sector and therefore far ahead on the regulations. With their sustainability strategy IMPACT25, DFG aims to make a positive environmental and social impact with their activities, so the DFG companies and the floriculture supply chains become even more sustainable. For example, that is why DFG is pro-active participant as founding father of the Floriculture Sustainability Initiative (FSI).
Dutch Flower Group started preparing for the CSRD in the beginning of 2022. Their main reason was that they could make sure the reporting processes are up to speed at the end of 2024, but also to be an innovative leader on sustainability in the sector.
Most organizations do not have their sustainability reporting in place, or according to specific standards. Setting up these reporting processes takes a lot of time.
Dutch Flower Group is one of the organizations that needs to report on the financial year 2025. However, the CSR manager (Raimon Loman) & Chief Sustainability Officer (Marcel Zandvliet) of DFG saw the urgency of starting as soon as possible. Many CSR managers or CFOs from large organizations that are obliged to report about FY 2025 know they should have their reporting structure ready by the end of 2024. For these organizations, this means that you should start setting up the reporting structure in 2023. Because DFG is a group of multiple companies, the CSR manager expected that it would take longer to prepare than for an individual company.
Why did Dutch Flower Group want to work with Move to Impact?
The preparation for the CSRD is hard to do without any consultancy or external advice. The CSR Manager of DFG noticed there was not a lot of expertise and knowledge on sustainability reporting available in the market. The CSRD is a new topic, so in the end of 2021 there was little to no experience with the requirements on the market.
Move to Impact was started with the mission to activate organizations to generate a positive impact with help of practical tools and programs. Next to the B Corp consultancy, Move to Impact was already helping companies in setting up automated impact reporting. This perfectly fitted the requirements of the CSRD.
After a few meetings, the CSR manager was convinced that Move to Impact would be a good fit for Dutch Flower Group. Not just because of their experience with automated dashboard on social, ecological & financial level. Especially because of the visual approach that would perfectly fit with the vision of the sustainability department of the group. The combination with digital tools eventually made Dutch Flower Group choose for Move to Impact in their CSRD journey.
Move to Impact’s way of working in the CSRD preparation is guiding the organization towards the double materiality analysis. In these first 3 steps of the 8-step program the company will be guided in such a way that all the ESRS requirements concerning the double materiality analysis are eventually met. You can think of setting up a project team, analysing the impact topics and creating an overview of the different indicators that need to be reported on. Want to know more about the 8-steps steps? Explore Move to Impact’s CSRD packages.
This blog series will describe the different steps that Dutch Flower Group took to start the CSRD journey until the materiality analysis. Want to know more?
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