OVS: a complete CSRD journey, from set-up to autonomy

In 2024, the introduction of the European CSRD directive, later revised by the Omnibus Package, marked a turning point for sustainability reporting in Europe. For OVS, Italy’s leading apparel retailer, a company long used to reporting and to earning major recognition (three consecutive years at the top of the Fashion Transparency Index among major fashion brands, and the Corriere della Sera and Bologna Business School Sustainability Report Award), the directive brought an evolution in its reporting process, stakeholder engagement and transparency.

To meet this challenge, OVS chose to work with NATIVA. Our collaboration had already begun in 2015 with setting up the sustainability strategy, and evolved over the years through vertical projects on reporting, product, circularity and materials, co-evolution of the supply chain, training and inclusion of people, and store efficiency.

Until 2023, OVS had reported according to the GRI standard, with a materiality analysis centered on impacts. With the CSRD, the challenge was not just about using new standards. Under the ESRS, the Sustainability Statement requires companies to explicitly link policies, actions and targets for each material topic, creating a connection between reporting and corporate strategy.

OVS had almost ten years of initiatives behind it aimed at integrating sustainability principles into its operations and materials, but not yet organized according to this framework. Aligning with the CSRD was the opportunity to restructure the Group's sustainability management system, ensuring oversight of every material impact, risk and opportunity. From the outset, the objective was threefold: meet the requirements of the standard, make sure the work generated value beyond mere compliance, and build a reporting infrastructure that OVS's Corporate Sustainability team could manage independently in the years that followed.

The project began in 2024 and led to OVS's first compliant report, on 2024 data, published in June 2025.

Our support for OVS covered every phase of the journey: from the double materiality assessment to updating the sustainability strategy and aligning it with the ESRS standards, through to drafting new policies and preparing and writing the report. One of the most strategically significant parts was the double materiality assessment carried out according to the ESRS, which, alongside the company's impacts on the environment and people, also considered the financial risks and opportunities tied to sustainability. These risks and opportunities were assessed and integrated for the first time into the Group’s Risk Management system and business strategy.

The exercise was extended across the entire value chain in six production countries, and it unfolded in successive phases:

• context and sector research, with competitor benchmarking;
• a broad survey involving 1,446 customers, 284 employees, 19 investors and 30 international suppliers;
• the impact assessment (the "inside-out" dimension), led by the Corporate Sustainability function and informed by the survey results;
• the assessment workshop with top management, focused mainly on risks and opportunities (the "outside-in" dimension): here, directors with strategic responsibility assessed and prioritized sustainability topics according to their potential financial effects on the business, measured in millions of euros on EBITDA, integrating them for the first time into the company's internal Enterprise Risk Management model;
• final validation by the Board of Directors.

It is precisely through the involvement of the company's key people and functions that, in our view, double materiality delivers its full value: it broadens perspectives and brings sustainability into strategic decisions, alongside financial assessments. At OVS, this had already begun in 2023, when sustainability was integrated into the business plan; with the CSRD, it became a structured method.

"NATIVA's contribution was fundamental, especially in the early stage of the materiality analysis: an in-depth, expert analysis that allowed us to conduct a double materiality assessment at a level few companies reach. It was, without question, the greatest source of added value." — Simone Colombo, Head of Corporate Sustainability, OVS

This phase laid the groundwork for updating the sustainability strategy and aligning it with the ESRS, creating the new policies, designing data governance and drafting the CSRD report, through to the "Report for Humans" version, designed to be more readable for clients, people and investors.

It's no coincidence that, looking back on the journey, for Simone Colombo the most valuable legacy isn't the report itself, but precisely the phase that preceded it:

"We're used to constantly coming up with new initiatives, and defining some of them more clearly and connecting them meaningfully is perhaps the most valuable legacy we take away from the 2025 report." — Simone Colombo, Head of Corporate Sustainability, OVS

The entire CSRD reporting set-up process was designed from the outset with a long-term vision: the goal was to build expertise in the new standards, create processes and adopt new working tools. Together with OVS, we worked to build data governance: identifying responsibilities (with a dedicated RACI matrix), training data owners and structuring the reporting infrastructure on the platform chosen by the company. After the first full cycle of support, the OVS team managed reporting independently and much more efficiently, and could focus on the most important sustainability challenges.

Double materiality and the Sustainability Statement also helped bring order to strategic priorities. It emerged clearly that the challenge, and at the same time the biggest opportunity, lies in Resource Use and Circular Economy (E5), through services that extend product life, the choice of recycled and certified raw materials, and the recovery value of end-of-life garments. This topic has been central to OVS's strategy since 2016, closely tied also to the impacts, risks and opportunities related to Climate Change (E1), and it is confirmed as the main focus for research and investment in the new strategic plan.

Taking into account the areas of focus identified in this work, the following year OVS chose to directly engage its supply chain with a dedicated program in the production contexts of China, Bangladesh and India, with the goal of reducing Scope 3 emissions and improving working conditions (topics confirmed as material).

• OVS's first CSRD-compliant report published in June 2025.
• Double materiality assessment extended across the entire value chain and validated up to the Board of Directors.
• New policies and a sustainability strategy aligned with the ESRS.
• A roughly 30-page "Report for Humans", designed to be more accessible to clients, people and investors.
• Autonomy from 2026: solid data governance and reporting infrastructure.
• A clear hierarchy of sustainability priorities for action in the coming years.

OVS did something that isn't a given: it prepared in advance to turn a regulatory obligation into a lever for generating value for the business. At the end of the journey, the Group was left with far more than the report: a method, a process and a strategic perspective that keep working, inside the company and along its supply chain.

Does your company want to align its reporting with the ESRS by building a solid infrastructure that involves key people, is integrated into the business, helps guide the company’s evolution, and enables long-term autonomy? Discover how a CSRD journey with NATIVA works!