CSRD may not ring a bell: this abbreviation refers to a new European Union directive on corporate sustainability reporting. Coming into force in 2023, this directive requires large companies to publish information on their environmental and sustainable development strategies, for greater transparency.
The CSRD requires the publication of information relating to three main areas, corresponding to specific standards and types of indicators: environmental, social, and governance. Regarding climate vulnerability, the ESRS E1 standard requires the quantification and publication of a company's impacts on the climate and the environment, as well as the effects of climate change on infrastructure and corporate strategy.
And this is where things get interesting. With this standard, the CSRD requires and systematizes the consideration of climate and its physical risks for companies, as well as strategies to reduce their future vulnerability. This directive requires the use of precise indicators to understand this vulnerability at the regional, as well as local and microclimatic, scales.
All of this has very concrete implications. With my design agency Freio – Climatic Design, I worked on the solar analysis of France's largest data center, the Paris Digital Park, currently under construction in La Courneuve and operated by Digital Realty. The video above presents a simulation of the cumulative hourly sunshine on July 21 for the building and the surrounding microclimate.
This gigantic building with its unique architecture has a total server area of 40,000 m² and a diameter of 500 meters, nearly twice the size of the Stade de France. This type of microclimatic study helps us understand the sensitivity of this colossal infrastructure, with an electrical power of 130 MW and absolutely gigantic cooling requirements.
This work is just one example. The CSRD should systematize the study of climate vulnerability at the local and microclimatic scale. We hope that this directive will enable the profound transformation of certain infrastructures, and even the reorientation of strategic choices in this area with a view to adapting to climate change. In any case, the CSRD will contribute to the systematic consideration of climate and its impacts within companies, as part of CSR initiatives, and that's excellent news!
Please feel free to contact my design office, Freio – Climatic Design, if you are interested in this topic: contact@freio.fr
Video: Freio – Climatic Design