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 (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 (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 — we'll come back with a scoped corporate brief.