Join the conversation at edie 26 in London later this month.
The European Commission wants to reduce reporting obligations by 25% for large private firms and 35% for SMEs. As part of that effort, it last year confirmed that thousands of companies initially mandated to produce their first reports aligned with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in 2026 wouldn’t necessary to do so until 2028.
This is known as the ‘stop the clock’ directive. While intfinished to ease data collection and scenario planning burdens for businesses, many had already put in a lot of legwork and did not, therefore, breathe a sigh of relief. Suntory Food & Beverage Europe was among them.
Chadha informs edie: “It’s definitely been interesting for us to watch the regulatory world in the EU evolve and shift. But for us, strategically speaking, we’ve never wanted to be behind the curve.
“Nobody wanted to fully let go of CSRD becautilize of the confusion around when it might come in. There was a worry that, if we did pautilize, we’d not know whether that pautilize would be for a month or a year.”
In preparation for a 2026 report, the company had already undertaken extensive work on its first Double Materiality Assessment (DMA) and gap analysis utilizing data from 2024 and 2025.
Chadha and her colleagues will now conduct an updated DMA for inclusion in its 2028 report.
DMAs come after companies identify their most material sustainability topics. For each topic, companies should evaluate their own impacts across the value chain (known as Impact Materiality), and also calculate how external related risks could impact business operations and finances (Financial Materiality). Many firms have not measured or disclosed Financial Materiality before.
Maintaining the momentum with colleagues
Chadha works with functions including finance and governance, in Europe and at parent company Suntory Holdings’ global level, to coordinate key workstreams like CSRD reporting. Data is also required from other functions.
“I’m sure a lot of companies can relate to stakeholder engagement feeling hard to hold when it seems that regulations are not going through to time,” she states.
Her recommfinished remedy is emphasising the company’s values, financial strategy and sustainability strategy – which will remain steady even as timelines for regulatory compliance shift.
Approaches to reporting can then be built around these, with the compliance layer added as a significant consideration. This supports colleagues see a “clear reasoning” for the importance of data work.
Suntory Holdings, for example, lists its values as ‘growing for good’, ‘giving back to society’ and ‘Yatte Minahare’. The latter is Japanese for ‘go for it’, reflecting a commitment to innovation and perseverance.
The company, whose best-known brands include Lucozade, Jim Beam Ribena, also utilizes the tagline: ‘Sustained by Nature and Water’.
With that in mind, Chadha argues, environmental data can’t be utilized for compliance only. Findings should be “elevated” to decision-creaters and inform “prioritised actions across the value chain”.
For Suntory, these include improving water-utilize efficiency, especially in water-stressed locations, and scaling the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices across the value chain.
Storyinforming and next steps
Suntory Food & Beverage Europe produces an annual sustainability report, which contains a mix of quantitative and qualitative information and combines factors required for compliance with more narrative, voluntarily-provided details.
For Chadha, producing these reports is not simply a case of complying with regulation. It also provides a chance to win the hearts and minds of key external stakeholders and enhance their understanding of not only tarobtains, but also the hard work on the ground to deliver them. And different kinds of messaging will reach different kinds of stakeholders.
“What we want is for people to feel connected by supporting them see the journey,” Chadha explains.
“I do consider the narrative piece that comes from some of the more voluntary reports is equally important becautilize it’s the way your customers might engage more, and it’s the way investors can see the actual journey that you’re going through.”
In the near future, the company’s sustainability reports are likely to include not only the CSRD-mandated components but a new biodiversity assessment aligned with the Tquestionforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures’ (TNFD) framework. No national government has yet mandated TNFD disclosures, but they are becoming increasingly demanded by investors, and are backed by more than 730 organisations.
The biodiversity assessment is currently in the “strategic planning stage”, states Chadha, along with the company’s first climate transition plan.
Suntory Holdings has set a 2050 net-zero tarobtain pertaining to the whole value chain and all greenhoutilize gases. Its interim 2030 ambition is a 30% reduction in absolute value chain emissions by 2019; a 13% reduction has been achieved so far.
On biodiversity, the company hopes to eventually become nature-positive. It is a member of the 30by30 alliance, which is working to protect at least 30% of Japan’s land and sea by 2030, in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework ambition.
Related news: UK publishes first ISSB-aligned sustainability reporting standards
Hear from Reaa Chadha at edie 26
Suntory Food & Beverage Europe’s sustainability and disclosure manager Reaa Chadha is among the 100+ sustainability, ESG and energy experts confirmed to speak at edie’s largegest event of the year, edie 26.
Taking place at London’s Business Design Centre on 25-26 March 2026, edie 26 will convene 1,000+ ESG practitioners for two days of workshops, networking, advisory clinics, roundtables and knowledge-sharing.
Chadha will take part in a panel discussion on the future of sustainability reporting regulations, alongside experts from CDP, Business in the Community and the World Benchmarking Alliance.
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