For ESG, sustainability & disclosure teams · EU
Ecosystem evidence that stands up under CSRD and ESRS E4
Satellite-derived, field-level ecosystem-condition and carbon data, across your owned estates and thousands of supplier farms, structured to line up with ESRS E4 and the TNFD LEAP approach. The evidence E4 asks for, kept as a standing evidence base instead of reconstructed every reporting cycle.
Framework-aligned to TNFD LEAP, CSRD/ESRS E4 & E1, the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-2.
Reviewed June 2026
What CSRD requires now (2026)
Following the 2025 Omnibus simplification, CSRD applies to companies with more than 1,000 employees and over €450m turnover, with first reporting for financial years from 1 January 2027. If your business is in scope (or your customers, lenders or investors are), the nature-data expectation reaches you, and the hardest part of it is ESRS E4.
Status: the scope change is law (Directive (EU) 2026/470, in force 18 March 2026). A simplified set of ESRS is expected around summer 2026.
ESRS E4: the hard part is real ecosystem-condition data
Where biodiversity and ecosystems are material to your business, ESRS E4 asks you to report the condition and extent of the ecosystems you affect, across your own operations and your value chain. That is the wall most companies hit: they have self-reported practices and scattered one-off surveys, not consistent, independent, comparable ecosystem-condition data at scale.
EcoIntel supplies exactly that, directly:
- Field-level condition metrics over time (water, vegetation, soil, and a full carbon assessment covering flux and stocks) across owned estates or thousands of supplier farms.
- Independent of self-report: satellite-measured, not a questionnaire.
- Structured to line up with LEAP and E4, with history back to 2018 so every figure carries a dated baseline and a direction of travel.
The throughline on every parcel: condition versus what is realistically achievable in its own ecoregion, the limiting factor, and the trajectory against a dated baseline, the difference between claimed improvement and measured improvement.
Carbon you can put in front of an auditor
EcoIntel produces a full carbon assessment for every parcel, both flux and stocks:
- Flux: net biome production, carbon captured by photosynthesis versus respired, giving a net annual balance (sink or source) per field.
- Stocks: soil organic carbon (via the Rothamsted RothC model) and above-ground biomass.
- A 30-year forward projection per parcel, each with a permanence-risk label.
And the part that makes it defensible: every carbon figure is independently cross-checked, at every parcel, against 14 authoritative public reference datasets (satellite products such as ESA CCI Biomass, NASA GEDI, Copernicus; national inventories; peer-reviewed lookup tables; and the RothC soil model), each returning a green / amber / red verdict with full citations. No reference is hidden if it disagrees; every disagreement is explained.
That is the Authoritative Carbon Corroboration that holds up to an ESRS E1 reviewer: internal corroboration, not a self-reported estimate. It is the climate evidence E1 asks for, and the backbone any insetting project is built on.
The value-chain cap works in your favour
A crucial, under-appreciated change: the Omnibus added a value-chain cap. A CSRD-reporting company cannot require sustainability information from a supplier with fewer than 1,000 employees beyond what the voluntary VSME standard specifies. In plain terms: you cannot, and should not, drown your supplier farms in bespoke questionnaires.
That makes the winning move obvious: a single, standardised, proportionate data layer every supplier can meet at low cost and low effort. EcoIntel is precisely that: the same independent, continuous, field-level evidence for every farm in your supply base, aligned to VSME-style and E4 expectations. Easier for them, comparable for you, defensible for your auditor.
Status: the cap is in the new directive; the VSME-based standard that sets its exact ceiling is expected via a delegated act around summer 2026.
Insetting: the Scope 3 lever, evidenced
Most of an agri-food company's nature impact and Scope 3 emissions sit on supplier land. Insetting (funding regenerative practices, agroforestry or woodland inside your own supply chain) is the dominant lever, because (unlike offsetting) genuine reductions and removals can count toward Scope 3 and science-based targets.
These projects are happening now, and EcoIntel gives them their evidentiary backbone: the carbon flux-and-stocks baseline, the 30-year trajectory, and the 14-dataset corroboration that show where to act and whether it is working, field by field.
What you get
- Weekly-resolution, weather-corrected scoring across the record back to 2018: a measured time series, not a year-old snapshot
- Independent of self-report, across owned estates and supplier farms at portfolio scale
- Framework-aligned to TNFD LEAP, ESRS E4 & E1, the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-2
- Auditor-defensible: every carbon figure cross-checked against 14 authoritative public datasets, with per-parcel verdicts and citations
- History back to 2018: a dated baseline that proves direction of travel
For the farmer-facing side of the same engine, answering your data requests with VSME-aligned evidence, see EcoIntel for farmers.
Frequently asked
Are we in CSRD scope?
CSRD applies to companies with more than 1,000 employees and over €450m turnover, with first reporting from financial year 2027. Even if your own business is below that, customers, lenders and investors in scope will expect value-chain nature data from you.
What does ESRS E4 need that we do not already have?
Consistent, independent ecosystem-condition data across your value chain, not self-reported practices or scattered one-off surveys. That is the gap EcoIntel fills: satellite-derived, field-level condition metrics over time, structured to line up with the LEAP and E4 approach.
Can we ask our supplier farms for this data?
Yes, but the CSRD value-chain cap limits what you can require from suppliers with fewer than 1,000 employees to no more than the VSME standard. A single, standardised evidence layer, the same for every farm, is the proportionate, compliant way to do it.
Does EcoIntel do MRV or issue carbon credits?
No, and that is a deliberate distinction, not a limitation. EcoIntel produces a full, auditor-defensible carbon assessment (flux and stocks, cross-checked against 14 authoritative datasets, with a 30-year projection). What it does not do is issue the verified, saleable credits an MRV platform certifies under a standard. EcoIntel is the diagnostic evidence layer beneath MRV.
How current is the data?
The record is modelled at weekly resolution, weather-corrected, with history back to 2018, so disclosure rests on a measured time series rather than a year-old snapshot.
Regulatory position, reviewed June 2026
- CSRD scope & timeline. law Directive (EU) 2026/470 (in force 18 Mar 2026); "stop-the-clock" Directive (EU) 2025/794.
- ESRS E4 & E1. law (current) Delegated Reg (EU) 2023/2772; simplification proposed (delegated act expected summer 2026).
- VSME & value-chain cap. voluntary standard becoming the legal request ceiling (delegated act expected summer 2026).
- Insetting · SBTi FLAG · GHG Protocol Land Sector. voluntary frameworks.
Scope it for your portfolio
Tell us your estates, your supplier base and the frameworks you report and disclose against, and we'll come back with a scoped corporate brief.