Resources
A jargon-free ESG & BRSR glossary
Every acronym you'll run into while reporting ESG in India, defined in plain English. Click through to the full explainer when you want more than a definition.
See the full regulatory timeline instead- Assessment
- An internal or advisory review of your ESG data and readiness. Useful preparation, but it has no formal standing under BRSR — it's not the same as assurance.Learn more →
- Assurance
- A formal, independent third-party check of your ESG data, ending in a signed opinion. BRSR Core requires the higher "reasonable assurance" level for its mandatory KPIs.Learn more →
- BRSR (Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report)
- India's mandatory annual ESG disclosure, required by SEBI for the top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation.Learn more →
- BRSR Core
- A smaller, ~49-KPI subset of full BRSR — the quantitative, comparable metrics (emissions, energy, water, waste, and key social indicators) that require independent assurance.Learn more →
- CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project)
- A paid annual questionnaire and scoring system for climate, water, and forests disclosure. Unlike GRI or BRSR, CDP charges a recurring admin fee.Learn more →
- CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
- A legal spending mandate under Section 135 of India's Companies Act — certain companies must spend a fixed percentage of profit on approved social causes. Not the same thing as ESG.Learn more →
- CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)
- The EU's mandatory sustainability reporting law. Rarely applies to Indian companies directly, but often cascades down through EU customers' value-chain data requests.Learn more →
- Double materiality
- Assessing an ESG issue from two angles at once: whether it could affect your company's finances, and whether your company's activities meaningfully affect the world outside it.Learn more →
- EcoVadis
- A paid third-party sustainability rating, usually required by a large customer rather than chosen voluntarily.Learn more →
- Emission factor
- A published number that converts an activity (litres of fuel, kWh of electricity) into greenhouse gas emissions. India's grid emission factor is published annually by the CEA.Learn more →
- ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance)
- A way of measuring how a company's operations affect the planet, its people, and how honestly it's run — reported with data, not just spent on like CSR.Learn more →
- GHG Protocol
- The global standard that defines Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and how to calculate them.Learn more →
- Greenwashing
- Making a company or product look more environmentally responsible than the underlying data supports — the core reason cited emission factors and audited data matter.
- GRI (Global Reporting Initiative)
- The most widely used voluntary global sustainability reporting standard. Free to read and report against.Learn more →
- Intensity
- An emissions or resource-use figure expressed per unit of output or revenue, rather than as a total — lets you compare companies of different sizes fairly.
- ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board)
- The body behind IFRS S1 and S2, the emerging global baseline for financially material sustainability disclosure. BRSR is estimated to be roughly 40% aligned with it today.Learn more →
- Materiality
- The process of identifying which ESG issues actually matter for your specific business, instead of trying to track everything equally.Learn more →
- NGRBC (National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct)
- The 9 principles, issued by India's Ministry of Corporate Affairs in 2019, that organize every question in BRSR Section C.Learn more →
- Net-zero
- A commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as far as possible and balance any remainder through verified removals — a target, not a reporting framework.
- SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board)
- Industry-specific, financially material ESG metrics, now under the IFRS Foundation alongside ISSB.Learn more →
- SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative)
- A paid third-party validation service for a company's formal emissions-reduction targets.Learn more →
- Scope 1 emissions
- Direct emissions from sources you own or control — fuel burned in your own generators, boilers, or vehicles.Learn more →
- Scope 2 emissions
- Indirect emissions from the electricity, steam, or heat you purchase — you didn't burn the fuel yourself, but generating it created emissions.Learn more →
- Scope 3 emissions
- All other indirect emissions in your value chain — your suppliers, your customers, business travel, and waste. Usually the largest and hardest-to-measure category.Learn more →
- SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)
- The UN's 17 global goals, often used as a storytelling layer in sustainability reports rather than a disclosure standard.
- Sedex / SMETA
- A paid ethical-trade audit and membership scheme, very common for Indian textile, apparel, and consumer-goods exporters.Learn more →
- TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures)
- Free, publicly published recommendations for climate-risk disclosure, now folded into ISSB governance.Learn more →
- TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures)
- Free, voluntary nature and biodiversity disclosure recommendations, modeled on TCFD's structure.
- UNGC (UN Global Compact)
- A corporate sustainability coalition with an annual signatory contribution — a membership commitment, not strictly a disclosure framework.Learn more →
- Value chain
- The suppliers (upstream) and customers (downstream) connected to your business — the mechanism by which a listed company's BRSR obligations can reach an unlisted supplier.Learn more →
- XBRL
- The structured, machine-readable digital format BRSR must be filed in, alongside the annual report.