Kickstarting Your UK SRS Journey: Key insights from our webinar
On 9 June, we hosted a 30-minute webinar to help organisations take their first steps on the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) journey. With mandatory reporting fast approaching for listed companies, the session brought together sustainability professionals, finance leaders and corporate reporters to explore what the new standards mean in practice – and where to focus first.
Here’s a summary of what we covered.
The biggest shift in financial reporting in 20 years
UK SRS represents the most significant development in financial reporting since the Companies Act was last updated in 2006. While the standards are currently voluntary, mandatory reporting for listed companies kicks in from 1 January 2027, with first reports published in 2028.
Key milestones to keep in mind:
2028: S2 (climate reporting) becomes mandatory for listed companies. Scope 3 is excluded initially but moves to ‘comply or explain’ in 2028.
2029: S1 (all other financially material sustainability topics) comes in on a ‘comply or explain’ basis, with full coverage expected from that point.
Important: S2 is not a like-for-like replacement for TCFD. It goes meaningfully further — with deeper quantification requirements and financial connectivity.
S1 and S2: think of them as one, not two
Resist the temptation of treating S1 and S2 as separate projects. The timeline can make it feel logical to focus on climate first and park S1 for later – but that’s a trap.
S1 covers sustainability topics beyond climate that are financially material, and critically, it is genuinely new territory. There is no existing TCFD equivalent to build on. S2 already draws on parts of S1 – such as materiality assessments and quantitative characteristics – so the two cannot be cleanly separated. Arriving at 2029 with a mature S2 and an underdeveloped S1 will create a very visible imbalance in your reporting.
What UK SRS actually requires your business to do
Two foundational concepts underpin everything:
Financial materiality: Not just what matters to the business generally, but what risks or opportunities could reasonably move your cash flows, access to finance, or cost of capital.
Value chain lens: You cannot limit your view to your own operations. Financially material risks and opportunities must be assessed both upstream and downstream.
Reporting is structured around four familiar pillars – governance, strategy, risk and metrics – but the bar has shifted significantly. The question is no longer “do you have a process?” but “is it embedded, and is it delivering outcomes?”
For example:
Governance requires named accountability at board level, not just a statement that the board owns sustainability.
Strategy means demonstrating how risks and opportunities are shaping capital allocation and how metrics tie to financial outcomes and pay.
Risk management must sit inside the enterprise risk framework — same thresholds, same escalation points — not in a separate sustainability register.
Financial materiality: a step forward, but not the full picture
Financial materiality is a genuinely important development – it cuts through noise, commands attention from those who control capital, and is long overdue as part of the conversation. But it is not a substitute for understanding your broader impacts.
Businesses still need to consider double materiality: the risks and opportunities that aren’t financially material today but may well be in the future, and what their stakeholders expect. Credibility rests on holding an integrated view of what matters – not shrinking the picture.
Why start now?
Done well, UK SRS is not a compliance exercise — it is a strategic assessment. Companies that approach it that way will see risks earlier, strengthen trust with investors, and build genuine resilience. Those that defer are likely to face a harder implementation challenge when assurance requirements bite.
The implementation challenges Hannah highlighted that take time to get right:
Data quality that will hold up to audit-level scrutiny
Scope 3 data, which is supplier-dependent and often patchy
Connectivity between sustainability and financial reporting narratives
Assurance-ready processes and internal controls
Getting boards, finance, and sustainability speaking one language
How we can help
Our Luminar Insights tool – Luminous’ proprietary AI platform — is designed to accelerate this work. It supports materiality reviews, gap analysis, financial connectivity mapping, peer benchmarking, and prioritised action planning, getting teams to a clear starting point significantly faster.
If you would like to explore how we can support your UK SRS programme, please get in touch with Hannah or Stephen.
Missed the webinar? Watch the recording or download the deck using the links provided.
