# CSRD reporting with satellite data Data points tied to a location can be enriched automatically: the land cover at and around each site and its change over time, with atmospheric gas data as regional context. Satellite data adds this evidence to metered and supplier data; it does not replace them. Which data points apply follows from your materiality assessment under the ESRS. ## The task The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires companies in its scope to report on sustainability according to the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The amending Directive (EU) 2026/470 limits the reporting obligation to undertakings with a net turnover above 450 million euros and an average of more than 1,000 employees during the financial year. This scope applies to financial years starting on or after 1 January 2027 [1]. The Commission adopted revised ESRS on 3 July 2026 as Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1563, with over 60% fewer mandatory data points [2] [3]. The environmental topics of the revised standards cover climate change, pollution, water, biodiversity and ecosystems, and resource use and circular economy [3]. The data for them comes from many places: meters, energy bills, supplier questionnaires and site records. Collecting it by hand every year ties up the reporting team and makes the figures hard to trace. Automation moves the collection to where the data arises and documents the origin of every value. This page describes data and methods. It does not assess which obligations apply to your company. ## Which data satellites can add EUSPA names the CSRD as an important example of European climate, nature, water and ESG policies that increasingly require measurable and repeatable data. Companies in agriculture, mining, energy, finance and consumer goods increasingly use Earth observation to measure environmental impacts and comply with stricter reporting requirements: habitat monitoring supports deforestation-free sourcing, and satellites provide data on greenhouse gas emissions [4]. | Reporting area | Typical source today | What satellite data can add | | ---------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Climate change | Meters, energy bills, emission factors | Data on greenhouse gas emissions [4] | | Biodiversity and ecosystems | Site records, expert surveys | Land cover at and around each site, and its change over time [6] | | Land and vegetation at sites | Site plans, photos | Vegetation and change detection from imagery at up to 10 m resolution, revisited every five days at the equator [7] | | Supply chain | Supplier questionnaires | Checks of supplier operations against environmental standards [5] | Monitoring supplier sites from space is a topic of its own, covered in [analysing global outdoor storage sites](https://leto.space/use-cases/outdoor-storage-analysis/). How Earth observation works is explained in [what Earth observation is](https://leto.space/knowledge/earth-observation/). ## How the automation works 1. **List the sites.** Every plant, warehouse and owned or leased plot, with its coordinates and boundary. 2. **Select the data points.** Your materiality assessment decides which data points matter. Only quantitative, location-based ones are candidates for satellite data. 3. **Produce the indicators.** Automated processing derives indicators per site from satellite products, for example the land cover within a radius or the change in vegetation since the last period. 4. **Document the origin.** Each value carries its source, date and method, so the auditor can follow it. The Commission is required to adopt standards for the limited assurance of sustainability reports by 1 July 2027 [1]. 5. **Repeat.** The same processing runs every period, so changes become visible and comparable. **Figure:** One record per site and period. Atmospheric gas data stays regional context. Schematic site, illustrative values. ## What you get - A table of indicators per site, each with source, date and method. - Changes in land cover and vegetation at your sites between two reporting periods. - An outside view of land cover and vegetation at your sites, next to the figures from internal records. - Indicators produced the same way in every reporting cycle, so they stay comparable. ## Limits **Limits** - **Atmospheric data is coarse:** Sentinel-5P observes trace gases daily \[8], with a spatial resolution of 5.5 by 3.5 km since August 2019 \[9]. That shows regional patterns, not the emissions of one plant. Your own emissions figures still come from your own data. - **Reference data ages:** The CORINE land cover inventory has a minimum mapping unit of 25 hectares and is updated every six years \[6]. For changes at a single site, more frequent and finer imagery is needed. - **The rules change from 2027:** The revised ESRS apply to financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2027. For financial years beginning in 2026, companies may still choose which version they apply \[3]. Build the automation so that a data point can be added or dropped without rebuilding it. ## Our client project in this sector One of our four anonymised client projects covers this topic, at an industrial company. It used Earth observation and AI. ### Client project in industrial manufacturing - **Topic:** Automatic enrichment of an industrial company's CSRD reporting. ## How we help In [strategy and use cases](https://leto.space/consulting/strategy/) we check which of your data points can be enriched with satellite data and what that saves per reporting cycle. In [implementation](https://leto.space/consulting/implementation/) we take the processing into your reporting routine and document it for the audit. To find providers, [Spacegraph](https://leto.space/spacegraph/), our discovery platform, has a use-case category "Carbon & ESG verification". ## Related use cases - [Monitoring the ESG impact of investment portfolios](https://leto.space/use-cases/esg-portfolio-monitoring/): The same indicators, seen from the investor's side. - [Monitoring emissions and climate indicators of cities](https://leto.space/use-cases/city-emissions-monitoring/): What satellites can measure for a city's climate indicators. - [Analysing global outdoor storage sites](https://leto.space/use-cases/outdoor-storage-analysis/): Activity at supplier sites, seen from space. - [Satellite data in industrial manufacturing](https://leto.space/industries/industrial-manufacturing/): All use cases for industrial companies. ## Frequently asked questions ### Can satellite data replace our own emissions data in the CSRD report? No. Satellites provide data on greenhouse gas emissions, and EUSPA notes that companies in agriculture, mining, energy, finance and consumer goods increasingly use Earth observation to measure environmental impacts and comply with stricter reporting requirements [4]. But the resolution of atmospheric missions such as Sentinel-5P is several kilometres [8], far coarser than a single plant. Satellite data adds evidence on land and vegetation at your sites and regional context on the atmosphere, next to your metered data. ### Do the revised ESRS change what we can automate? They change which data points are mandatory. The Commission adopted revised ESRS on 3 July 2026 that cut mandatory data points by over 60% [2], and the amending directive asks for quantitative data points to take priority over narrative text [1]. Quantitative, location-based data points are the ones that automation handles best. Which ones apply to you is a question for your materiality assessment and your auditor, not for this page. ### How do we start? Start with the list of your sites with their coordinates and the data points your materiality assessment marks as relevant. Then test for a few sites whether satellite-based indicators can be produced, documented and repeated for the next reporting period. Our [consulting overview](https://leto.space/consulting/) shows the path from the problem to operation. ## Sources 1. [Directive (EU) 2026/470 of 24 February 2026 (Omnibus I), amending the sustainability reporting and due diligence directives, European Union, EUR-Lex, 2026-02-24](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2026/470/oj/eng) 2. [Commission adopts revised sustainability reporting standards to reduce administrative burdens for EU businesses while maintaining high-quality disclosures, European Commission, DG FISMA, 2026-07-03](https://finance.ec.europa.eu/news/commission-adopts-revised-sustainability-reporting-standards-reduce-administrative-burdens-eu-2026-07-03_en) 3. [Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1563 of 3 July 2026 amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772 as regards the simplification of certain sustainability reporting standards, European Union, EUR-Lex, 2026-07-03](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2026/1563/oj/eng) 4. [EU Space Market Report 2026, Issue 1, EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), 2026-05-26](https://www.euspa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/EU_Space_Market_Report_2026.pdf) 5. [ESA Space Solutions: Space for land mobility, European Space Agency (ESA), ESA Space Solutions, accessed 2026-10-06](https://business.esa.int/mobility-land) 6. [CORINE Land Cover, Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, accessed 2026-10-06](https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/corine-land-cover) 7. [Sentinel-2: Facts and figures, European Space Agency (ESA), accessed 2026-10-06](https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-2/Facts_and_figures) 8. [Sentinel-5P: Facts and figures, European Space Agency (ESA), accessed 2026-10-06](https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-5P/Facts_and_figures) 9. [Sentinel-5P TROPOMI Tropospheric NO2 1-Orbit L2 5.5km x 3.5km V2 (S5P_L2__NO2____HiR), NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC), accessed 2026-10-08](https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets/S5P_L2__NO2____HiR_2/summary) Page: