For years, sustainability reports in India were long on narrative and short on numbers anyone could check. The Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR), introduced by SEBI in 2021 and mandatory for the top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation from FY 2022–23, changed that. Its follow-up, BRSR Core, goes a step further. It picks out a focused set of key performance indicators that companies must be able to have independently verified.
Why a "core"?
The full BRSR covers a lot of ground across the nine principles of the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct. BRSR Core pulls out the metrics that matter most and are most measurable, and pairs them with assurance or assessment by a third party. SEBI phased it in by market capitalisation and has since adjusted the timelines and the form of assurance. Check the latest circular for where your company stands.
The point is the same either way: if a number is in BRSR Core, you need to be able to prove it.
The nine attributes
BRSR Core is organised around nine attributes:
- Greenhouse gas footprint: Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, and their intensity.
- Water footprint: total water consumption, intensity and discharge.
- Energy footprint: total energy consumed, the share from renewables, and intensity.
- Embracing circularity: waste generated and how it was recovered, recycled or disposed of.
- Employee wellbeing and safety: spending on wellbeing, and safety incidents.
- Gender diversity: including wages paid to women and complaints under the POSH Act.
- Inclusive development: input material sourced locally and from smaller producers.
- Fairness in engaging with customers and suppliers: such as data-breach incidents and payment days to suppliers.
- Openness of business: concentration of purchases and sales, and related-party transactions.
The first four are environmental, and they are where most companies find their data is weakest.
Where the data usually breaks
Most companies don't lack effort. They lack a trail:
- Waste is weighed by a vendor, recorded on a paper slip and never reconciled with what the recycler actually processed.
- Energy and water data sits in utility bills across dozens of sites, in different units and on different billing cycles.
- Emissions are calculated once a year in a spreadsheet, using emission factors nobody documented.
An assurance provider will ask: where did this number come from, and can you show me? If the answer is a spreadsheet with no source, the number is at risk.
Getting ready: a practical checklist
- Map each KPI to an owner and a source system. Every metric needs one person responsible and one place the raw data lives.
- Capture data at the point of activity. Record waste when it leaves the site, energy from meters and bills monthly, not at year-end.
- Keep the evidence. Weighbridge slips, recycler certificates, invoices and meter readings are what assurance runs on.
- Use consistent methods. Follow the GHG Protocol for emissions, document your emission factors, and don't change methods quietly between years.
- Do a dry run. Run an internal review against the BRSR Core format before the assurer arrives.
The opportunity
Treated only as compliance, BRSR Core is a cost. Treated as a management system, it is a quarterly view of how efficiently your business uses energy, water and materials, and where the savings are.
That is the gap 3R ZeroWaste works in: turning everyday sustainable actions, from waste segregation to employee participation, into measured, evidenced data that stands up in a BRSR Core disclosure.
This article is a general overview, not legal or assurance advice. Refer to SEBI's current circulars for applicability and timelines.
