How is ESG reporting different from CSR?

People often mix up BRSR (ESG reporting) with CSR. They are different laws with different purposes.

	BRSR / ESG reporting	CSR
Law	SEBI LODR Regulations, Regulation 34(2)(f), and SEBI circulars	Companies Act, 2013, Section 135, and the CSR Rules, 2014
Who	Top 1,000 listed entities by market capitalisation	Any company with net worth of Rs 500 crore or more, turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or more, or net profit of Rs 5 crore or more in the immediately preceding financial year
What	Disclose performance on environment, social and governance indicators	Spend at least 2% of average net profits of the three immediately preceding financial years on activities listed in Schedule VII
Regulator	SEBI and stock exchanges	Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA)

Schedule VII includes environmental sustainability and ecological balance, so a company may fund tree planting as CSR. But CSR spending does not by itself reduce the company's reported Scope 1 or Scope 2 emissions. Under the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, any offsets or removals bought from outside are reported separately from the company's own emissions inventory, not subtracted from it.