ESG vs CSR · two terms, two owners
ESG vs CSR: who defines each, and what the law asks
The difference between ESG and CSR starts with who wrote the definitions: CSR is defined by the European Commission as a company’s responsibility for its impacts on society, while ESG was set out by investors in Who Cares Wins in 2004.
Neither is a UK legal term.
UK law asks for specific statements, and companies attach one label or the other to them.
Definitions at source
Two terms, two different owners
CSR, corporate social responsibility, has a public definition, and it changed in 2011.
The European Commission’s earlier definition made it voluntary by construction: companies integrating social and environmental concerns into their operations “on a voluntary basis”.
Its 2011 strategy replaced that with “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society”, and added that respect for applicable legislation and collective agreements is a prerequisite for meeting it.
The same strategy asks enterprises to integrate “social, environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concerns” into their operations and core strategy, aiming to maximise shared value and to identify, prevent and mitigate adverse impacts.
The leading international guidance is ISO 26000:2010, which ISO describes as guidance rather than requirements, and which therefore cannot be certified to.
ESG has no regulator’s definition; it was set out in 2004 by twenty financial institutions, convened by the UN Global Compact, as a way of bringing environmental, social and governance issues into investment analysis.
The pillars themselves, and the UK duties under each, are on the ESG pillars; the term’s wider history is on what ESG means.
CSR, 2001: “a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis”.
CSR, 2011: “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society”.
ESG, 2004: recommendations “to better integrate environmental, social and governance issues in analysis, asset management and securities brokerage”.
Sources: European Commission, COM(2011) 681 · Who Cares Wins
The real difference
Outward from the company, or looking in
The most useful way to tell them apart is the direction of the question.
CSR asks what the company does to and for society — its impacts, and the commitments and programmes it takes on in response.
ESG, as investors use it, asks how environmental, social and governance factors bear on the company — its risks, its resilience and its prospects.
The UK’s new standards sit firmly on the ESG side: UK SRS S1 asks about sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could reasonably be expected to affect cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital, judged by what could influence investors, lenders and creditors.
It sets no materiality thresholds (¶B19), and it reaches a company’s impacts on society only where they could affect its prospects.
Impact reporting in its own right is the territory of GRI and of the EU’s ESRS, whose double materiality test asks about impacts and financial effects together.
So the same fact — a supplier’s labour practices, say — can be a CSR commitment, an ESG risk and a statutory statement at once, read three different ways.
Side by side
ESG vs CSR, dimension by dimension
| Dimension | CSR | ESG |
|---|---|---|
| Who defines it | European Commission (2001, 2011); ISO 26000 guidance (2010) | Investors (Who Cares Wins, 2004); no regulator’s definition |
| Primary reader | Employees, customers, communities, civil society | Investors, lenders, rating agencies |
| Direction of the question | The company’s impacts on society | Factors that bear on the company’s prospects |
| Typical output | Programmes, commitments, a CSR or impact report | Metrics, risk disclosures, ratings |
| Typical framework | ISO 26000 (guidance), GRI | UK SRS, IFRS S1 and S2, TCFD, SASB, CDP |
| Status in UK law | No CSR duty | No ESG duty as such; specific statements are statutory |
| Where it sits | Website or standalone report | Annual report: strategic report, directors’ report, listing-rule statements |
| Third-party scores | Sector awards and indices | ESG ratings, regulated in the UK from 29 June 2028 |
What UK law asks
Neither label is a legal duty; these statements are
There is no CSR report in UK law, and no ESG report either.
What exists is a set of specific statements, each with its own scope test, and companies tend to file them under one label or the other.
The oldest is the directors’ duty in section 172: to promote the success of the company having regard to six matters, including employees, relationships with suppliers and customers, and the impact of operations on the community and the environment.
That reads like CSR, and it is a statutory duty owed by every director; most companies that prepare a strategic report describe how they met it.
Section 414CB asks traded, banking and insurance companies with more than 500 employees for environmental, employee, social, human rights and anti-bribery information, with their policies and outcomes — CSR subject matter, in a statutory statement.
The same section carries the eight climate disclosures, inserted by SI 2022/31, which are ESG in the investor sense.
SECR’s energy and carbon disclosure has applied since 2019 to quoted companies and to large unquoted companies outside the exemption in paragraph 20B, with the government’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines beside it.
The modern slavery statement is the clearest overlap: a statutory duty that most organisations write in the language of commitment.
For listed companies the FCA’s final rules (PS26/19), which finalised CP26/5, add reporting against UK SRS on a comply-or-explain basis for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027; the climate rules they replace are on TCFD in the UK.
| Statement | Provision |
|---|---|
| How directors had regard to employees, suppliers, the community and the environment | CA 2006 s.172(1); s.414CZA |
| Environmental, employee, social, human rights and anti-bribery matters | CA 2006 s.414CB(1)–(2) |
| Eight climate-related financial disclosures | CA 2006 s.414CB(2A) |
| Energy use and emissions | SI 2008/410 Sch 7 Parts 7 and 7A |
| Slavery and human trafficking statement | MSA 2015 s.54 |
| UK SRS disclosures, or an explanation | UKLR 6.6.6R(7A)–(7B), from 2027 |
Sort an activity
CSR programme, ESG disclosure, or both?
Filter or search.
Each row says which label usually fits and which UK provision, if any, requires anything.
Label
Showing 11 of 11
| Activity | Usually | UK provision |
|---|---|---|
| Employee volunteering days | A CSR programme | No UK reporting duty names it |
| Charitable giving and matched donations | A CSR programme | No UK reporting duty names it |
| A community partnership with a local school | A CSR programme | No UK reporting duty names it |
| Scope 1 and 2 emissions and energy use in kWh | An ESG disclosure | SECR, SI 2008/410 Sch 7 Parts 7 and 7A |
| Climate risks, scenario resilience and targets | An ESG disclosure | CA 2006 s.414CB(2A); UK SRS S2 for listed companies from 2027, comply or explain |
| Board oversight of sustainability risks | An ESG disclosure | UK SRS S1 ¶27 and S2 ¶6; CA 2006 s.414CB(2A)(a) |
| Gender pay gap figures | A statutory disclosure often presented as a commitment | SI 2017/172 |
| Modern slavery statement | A statutory statement often written as a CSR commitment | Modern Slavery Act 2015 s.54 |
| Policies on employees, social matters and human rights | A statutory statement for some companies; a CSR commitment for the rest | CA 2006 s.414CB(1)–(2), traded, banking and insurance companies over 500 employees |
| How directors weighed the community and the environment | Both: a legal duty and a CSR narrative | CA 2006 s.172(1); the s.414CZA statement |
| A standalone CSR or impact report | Voluntary | None; often prepared with GRI |
“No UK reporting duty names it” describes reporting law, not whether the activity is worthwhile.
Running both
Where CSR and ESG meet in one company
Most large UK companies run both: an ESG function that handles financially material, investor-facing disclosure, and CSR programmes that handle community engagement, volunteering and giving.
The two complement each other when they share data: the emissions figure in a CSR report should be the SECR figure, and a human rights commitment should match what the section 414CB statement says about policies and outcomes.
The risk runs one way: a CSR claim the ESG data does not support.
The criteria that raters and investors actually measure are on ESG criteria, and the standards landscape on ESG standards.
For a listed company preparing for UK SRS, the ESG framing is the starting point, and the paragraph-level detail is on UK SRS S1 and S2.
The consistency test
Every CSR claim about the environment or people should be traceable to a figure the company would be content to see in its annual report.
Where a CSR report and an ESG disclosure describe the same thing differently, a reader will ask which is right.
Test yourself
Six ESG and CSR claims, true or false
Each statement is one we see repeated about the two terms.
The false ones mostly turn a voluntary idea into a legal duty, or a consultation into law.
The true ones show where the line actually runs: a definition owned by the Commission, and a director’s duty owned by statute.
ESG vs CSR: true or false?
UK law requires large companies to publish a CSR report.
The European Commission defines CSR as the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society.
A company can be certified to ISO 26000.
The term ESG was set out by the United Nations itself.
Directors of every UK company must have regard to the impact of operations on the community and the environment.
From 2027 UK SRS S2 is mandatory for listed companies, which makes ESG reporting compulsory.
0 of 6 answered.
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Frequently asked
ESG vs CSR, answered
What is the difference between ESG and CSR?
CSR is a company’s responsibility for its impacts on society, as the European Commission defined it in 2011, and the programmes and commitments that follow from it.
ESG is a set of environmental, social and governance issues that investors assess, set out in a 2004 investor report.
CSR looks outward from the company; ESG is usually read by someone looking in, measuring risk and performance.
Neither is a UK legal term.
Is ESG replacing CSR?
In investor and regulatory reporting, largely yes: the disclosures UK law and the FCA ask for are framed as sustainability and climate information for investors.
CSR remains the usual name for community programmes, volunteering, giving and ethical commitments.
Many companies run both, and the same activity can appear in each.
Is CSR mandatory in the UK?
No. There is no UK duty to have a CSR programme or publish a CSR report.
What UK law requires are specific statements — SECR energy and carbon figures, the section 172(1) statement, the section 414CB statement for the largest traded and financial companies, modern slavery and gender pay gap reporting — whatever label a company gives them.
Which came first, ESG or CSR?
CSR.
The European Commission had defined it by 2001 as a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns into their operations “on a voluntary basis”, and the idea is older still.
ESG was set out in Who Cares Wins in December 2004.
Can a company have both ESG and CSR?
Yes, and most large UK companies do.
The ESG side handles investor-facing, financially material disclosure; the CSR side handles community engagement, volunteering, giving and stakeholder commitments.
The risk is inconsistency: a CSR claim that the ESG figures do not support.
What is the EU definition of CSR?
Since 2011 the European Commission has defined CSR as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society”.
It says respect for applicable legislation and collective agreements is a prerequisite, and that enterprises should integrate social, environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concerns into their operations and strategy.
Can a company be certified to ISO 26000?
No. ISO says ISO 26000:2010 provides guidance rather than requirements, so it cannot be certified to.
It helps an organisation work out what social responsibility means for it.
Does UK SRS cover CSR?
Only indirectly.
UK SRS S1 asks about sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could reasonably be expected to affect a company’s cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital.
A company’s impacts on society enter only where they could affect its prospects in that way.
Impact reporting in its own right is the territory of GRI and the EU’s ESRS.
What is a CSR rating or an ESG rating?
A score a third party gives a company on its environmental, social and governance performance or risk.
In the UK, providing an ESG rating that is likely to influence an investment decision becomes a regulated activity on 29 June 2028, under SI 2025/1349.
What is the difference between ESG, CSR and sustainability?
Sustainability is the broadest word: the long-term effects of a business on the environment and society, and theirs on it.
CSR is the company’s responsibility for its impacts and the programmes it runs; ESG is the investor’s way of grouping the issues.
UK SRS uses “sustainability-related financial information” for the investor-facing slice.
Sources
Primary sources
Every figure, date and status on this page traces to the instrument’s owner.
Secondary commentary is never the source for a number.
- European Commission (EUR-Lex)COM(2011) 681 — A renewed EU strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility, §3.1
CSR as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society”, and the 2001 “voluntary basis” definition it replaced.
- ISOISO 26000:2010 — Guidance on social responsibility
Guidance rather than requirements, which cannot be certified to.
- UN Global Compact (World Bank repository copy)Who Cares Wins (December 2004)
The investor report that set out environmental, social and governance issues.
- legislation.gov.ukCompanies Act 2006, section 172
Directors’ regard for employees, suppliers, the community and the environment.
- legislation.gov.ukCompanies Act 2006, section 414CB
The statutory statement on environmental, employee, social, human rights and anti-bribery matters, and the climate disclosures.
- legislation.gov.ukThe Companies (Strategic Report) (Climate-related Financial Disclosure) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/31)
The instrument that inserted the climate disclosures, for financial years from 6 April 2022.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2008/410, Schedule 7 paragraph 20B (SECR)
Which unquoted companies are inside SECR.
- GOV.UKEnvironmental Reporting Guidelines, including SECR guidance
The government’s guidance on SECR.
- legislation.gov.ukModern Slavery Act 2015, section 54
A statutory statement that is often written in CSR language.
- Department for Business and TradeUK SRS S1 and S2
Published 25 February 2026 for voluntary use.
- Department for Business and TradeUK SRS S1 (PDF), ¶¶3, 18 and B19
The financial test UK SRS applies, and no materiality thresholds.
- Financial Conduct AuthorityPS26/19: Aligning listed issuers’ sustainability disclosures with international standards
Comply or explain against UK SRS from 2027 for five listing categories.
- Financial Conduct AuthorityCP26/5: Sustainability disclosures — consultation
The consultation PS26/19 finalised.
- legislation.gov.ukThe FSMA 2000 (Regulated Activities) (ESG Ratings) Order 2025 (SI 2025/1349)
Providing an ESG rating becomes a regulated activity on 29 June 2028.
- GRIGRI 1: Foundation 2021 (PDF)
The impact-focused standard most CSR and sustainability reports use.