ABSTRACT As social and environmental challenges intensify, the EU has introduced the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), mandating sustainability reporting through the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The standards mandate a double materiality assessment but leave uncertainty about the structure and contents of the reporting process and whether its implementation will ultimately improve sustainability performance. This study adopts a design science research methodology, combining a thematic analysis of the ESRS with a qualitative survey of 20 sustainability reporting practitioners from across Europe. Based on this approach, the study develops a flowchart that conceptualizes the ESRS reporting process and its potential links to performance measurement and management (PMM). Grounded in institutional theory, the study argues that such a linkage creates a feedback loop that institutionalizes sustainability within companies' continuous improvement efforts. The flowchart offers practitioners a prescriptive tool for reporting and connecting the activity to PMM, while contributing theoretically by showing how institutional pressures are operationalized in practice. For researchers, the flowchart provides a foundation for examining the connections between double materiality assessments, PMM and strategy, clarifying how reporting can go from a compliance exercise to a driver of sustainability performance.