Sustainability reporting in Saudi Arabia works differently from Europe. There is no CSRD-style law that forces most companies to publish a sustainability report. Instead, the pressure arrives through the exchange, through finance, and through customers and projects. This guide explains what applies today, what is voluntary, and what to prepare.
What the Saudi Exchange asks of listed companies
The Saudi Exchange (Tadawul) published its ESG Disclosure Guidelines in 2021. They encourage listed companies to publish annual ESG information covering areas such as emissions, energy use, workforce, and governance. Disclosure under the guidelines is voluntary, but it has become the reference point for what good reporting looks like on the Saudi market, and a growing share of listed companies now publish sustainability information.
Regulators have signalled alignment with the ISSB standards (IFRS S1 and S2) as the likely direction for future mandatory reporting. Companies that build their reporting around climate and financial materiality now will not have to start over when that step comes.
Where reporting is already required
Two situations already carry real obligations. First, issuers of green, social, sustainability, or sustainability-linked debt instruments must include ESG disclosures under the Capital Market Authority's 2025 framework, including how proceeds are used. Second, contracts can create duties of their own: giga-project procurement, enterprise buyers, and international customers increasingly write emissions data and sustainability evidence into supplier requirements.
The requests that arrive anyway
Most Saudi companies meet sustainability reporting through a request rather than a rule: a buyer questionnaire, a project prequalification, an investor due-diligence list, or a platform such as CDP or EcoVadis nominated by an international customer. These requests usually ask for the same core set: an emissions baseline, energy data, policies, and evidence you can stand behind.
What Saudi companies should prepare
- A Scope 1 and 2 emissions baseline, with the calculation method and source records kept together.
- Energy and fuel data per site, since both project owners and questionnaires ask for it.
- A short set of policies (environment, health and safety, workforce) in the form buyers expect to see.
- If you are listed or planning to issue sustainable debt: a reporting structure that follows the Tadawul guideline areas and can grow into ISSB-aligned disclosure.
Common mistakes
The first mistake is reading "voluntary" as "not yet relevant": by the time a tender or an investor asks, building a baseline from scratch takes longer than the deadline allows. The second is publishing ambitions without numbers; buyers and lenders now check for data behind the statements. The third is treating each request separately instead of maintaining one evidence base that answers all of them.
How Keslio can help
We help Saudi companies build the emissions baseline, prepare Tadawul-aligned disclosure, and answer buyer and project requests with numbers that hold up. Start with a free emissions estimate or see our reporting and communications support.