CSDDD compliance consulting for human rights and environmental due diligence that stands up to scrutiny.

What it is

What is the CSDDD and what is it used for?

The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is European Union law adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 13 June 2024 as Directive (EU) 2024/1760. It places a due diligence duty on the largest companies: to identify and address actual and potential adverse impacts on human rights and the environment arising in their own operations, in those of their subsidiaries and across their chains of activities, backed by a complaints procedure, monitoring and a public statement.

Because it is a directive, each Member State writes it into national law and designates the authority that supervises it. For a business the practical questions are which of your entities fall in scope, which business partners carry the severe risks, and whether you can show what you did about them.

Current text. The Directive entered into force on 25 July 2024. Directive (EU) 2025/794 of 14 April 2025 postponed its dates first. Directive (EU) 2026/470, the Omnibus I amendment adopted on 24 February 2026 and in force since 18 March 2026, then raised the scope thresholds and reset the timetable: Member States transpose by 26 July 2028, companies apply the rules from 26 July 2029, and the reporting provision applies for financial years starting on or after 1 January 2030. National transposition laws may add detail, so confirm the position in each country with your legal advisers. What Omnibus I changed in the CSDDD

Who it is for

Who needs CSDDD compliance?

After the 2026 amendments the Directive applies directly to EU companies with at least 5,000 employees and worldwide net turnover above the threshold set in the Directive, including ultimate parents measured on a consolidated basis, and to non-EU companies whose net turnover generated in the EU exceeds that threshold. Franchising and licensing arrangements can also bring a company in scope. Small and medium-sized enterprises are excluded, yet many feel it through their customers. Organisations come to Sterling for CSDDD work from four starting points:

• A major customer asks for due diligence information. In-scope companies must look into their chains of activities, so questionnaires, contract clauses and site assessments reach suppliers of every size.
• A tender or financing condition refers to the Directive. Bidders are asked to show how human rights and environmental risks are identified and handled.
• Your company meets the thresholds and a regulator will supervise it. The board needs a programme that the designated national authority can examine, operating well before 26 July 2029.
• You are a subsidiary within a large group. A parent may meet the obligations for the group, but each company still supplies information, runs controls locally and answers complaints about its own activities.

Requirements

What are the main CSDDD requirements?

The Directive sets out a sequence of due diligence obligations rather than a management system clause structure. The list below follows the obligations named in the official EU summary, reflecting the 2026 amendments where they narrowed them; your programme is checked against the Directive and the national law that transposes it.

• Integrating due diligence: due diligence measures built into company policies and risk management systems, in consultation with employees and their representatives.
• Identifying and assessing adverse impacts: a scoping exercise across own operations, subsidiaries and chains of activities, based on reasonably available information, with impacts prioritised by severity and likelihood.
• Preventing and bringing impacts to an end: prevention and mitigation of potential impacts, and bringing actual impacts to an end.
• Remediation: providing remediation for actual adverse impacts.
• Meaningful engagement with stakeholders: consulting those directly affected when identifying impacts, developing action plans and designing remediation.
• Notification mechanism and complaints procedure: accessible procedures through which individuals and organisations can raise concerns, with appropriate follow-up.
• Monitoring: periodic assessment of whether the due diligence measures are working.
• Communicating: a public statement on due diligence, under the reporting provision that applies from financial years starting on or after 1 January 2030.

Compliance route

How do you achieve CSDDD compliance?

There is no audit to pass and no certificate at the end. Compliance means a due diligence process that runs, is documented and is reviewed, open to examination by the national supervisory authority. Sterling works alongside your legal advisers, who interpret the national law.

1. 01
   Confirm whether, how and from when the Directive applies.With your legal advisers, test each entity against the employee, turnover and franchising criteria, decide whether the parent will act for the group and note the national laws involved.
2. 02
   Gap analysis: compare current practice with the obligations.Review supplier codes, audits, grievance channels, contracts and governance against each obligation, keep what works and agree actions, owners and dates.
3. 03
   Map the chain of activities and prioritise the severe risks.Run the scoping exercise on reasonably available information, then assess in depth the areas where adverse impacts are most likely and most severe.
4. 04
   Act on the risks and open the complaints channel.Put prevention plans, contractual assurances, partner support, stakeholder consultation and remediation into operation, with every step recorded.
5. 05
   Monitor, review and prepare the public statement.Test whether measures are working, close internal review findings with evidence and assemble the information the reporting provision will require.

Check the route before you sign. Nobody can certify CSDDD compliance, so treat any offer of a "CSDDD certificate" with caution. Where third-party social or environmental audits of suppliers form part of your plan, verify the audit firm's scheme approvals and accreditation directly with the scheme owner or accreditation body. The certification buyer's checklist

Cost

How much does CSDDD compliance cost?

The cost of a due diligence programme follows the shape of your value chain far more than your headcount. Every component of a Sterling proposal is visible and nothing is added later.

Timeline

How long does CSDDD compliance take?

The legal start date is fixed at 26 July 2029, but a credible programme needs at least one full cycle of identification, action and monitoring behind it by then. As an estimate, a first programme takes nine to eighteen months to reach steady operation, depending on how far the chain of activities reaches and how much already exists.

Your engagement

What your CSDDD engagement includes

Your engagement follows Sterling OS™. You choose the level of support: Design™, where we guide your team as it builds the programme, or Drive™, where we manage the work and your people own the decisions. After go-live, Sustain™ keeps the monitoring and review cycle running, and Automate™ is Effivity, where the evidence lives.

• Scope, gap analysis and programme plan

  Entities, obligations, owners and dates agreed with you and your legal advisers before work starts.

• Policy, procedures and contract clauses

  A due diligence policy, working procedures and supplier clauses drafted with procurement and legal, on Sterling's own template sets.

• Effivity ISO & GRC software

  The risk map, action plans and complaint records run in Effivity from day one, included with the engagement at no additional cost.

• Training for everyone

  Internal auditor training for your review team, as applicable to your standard, and preferential Sterling Academy access, including complimentary awareness training for your people as part of the engagement.

• Risk assessment and action plans

  Scoping, in-depth assessments and prevention plans prepared with the business units that manage the partners concerned.

• Internal review and statement preparation

  An independent-minded check of the programme, findings closed with evidence, and the content for your public statement.

Sterling does not certify, attest or validate CSDDD compliance; supervision and enforcement remain with the authorities each Member State designates, and legal interpretation remains with your legal advisers.

Often combined with

Standards organisations pair with CSDDD

• AA1000AA1000 implementation and requirements: apply the AccountAbility Principles and SES, then prepare for AA1000AS v3 assurance by a licensed provider.
• amfori BSCIamfori BSCI audit preparation for producers: gap assessment across the 13 performance areas, remediation, worker-facing evidence and support from Sterling.
• B Corp CertificationB Corp certification made clear: the new B Lab Standards, Foundation Requirements, seven Impact Topics, the audit route and how Sterling prepares you.
• CBAMCBAM compliance and requirements explained: authorised declarant status, the 50-tonne threshold, verified embedded emissions and how Sterling helps you prepare.
• CDPCDP disclosure consulting: a complete, evidenced response on climate, forests and water, prepared with your team.
• CSRD / ESRSCSRD and ESRS Sustainability reporting consulting: double materiality, ESRS disclosures and data prepared for limited assurance of your statement.