CSRD & ESRS

Impacts, risks and opportunities (IROs)

Also known as: IROs · Impacts risks and opportunities

The impacts, risks and opportunities an undertaking identifies through its double-materiality assessment, which determine what it discloses under the ESRS.

What it means

Impacts, risks and opportunities (IROs) are the actual and potential impacts (on people and the environment) and the sustainability-related risks and opportunities (to the undertaking) identified through the double-materiality assessment. They are the output of that assessment and the input to the report.

Under ESRS 2, the undertaking discloses how it identifies and assesses its IROs (IRO-1, IRO-2) and how the material ones interact with its strategy and business model (SBM-3). Material IROs decide which topical standards and datapoints are reported.

How it relates to nearby concepts

“Impacts” correspond to impact materiality; “risks and opportunities” correspond to financial materiality. IROs are the thread connecting double materiality to the specific disclosures in the sustainability statement.

Common misunderstandings

  • IROs are only about financial risk to the company: They explicitly include the company's impacts on people and the environment, not just risks and opportunities to the business.

Sources

Last reviewed: 19 June 2026

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