With the implementation in 2024, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) has introduced a shift in Sweden and throughout the European Union by making sustainability reporting mandatory. The directive is aiming to enhance transparency and improve sustainability practices. However, the complexity of the directive has posed significant challenges for organisations and employees, who must deal with increased responsibility.

This thesis explores how employees in Swedish organisations experience and learn to adapt to CSRD during its initial stages. The study investigates how knowledge is generally experienced, acquired, developed, shared, and applied in practice, and what challenges occur during this process. A Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) perspective is used to understand how learning happens in and through work, where practical engagement, collaboration, and hands-on problem-solving shape how employees adapt. Experiential Learning Theory is used to examine how employees engage in learning through individual experience, while the SECI model is applied to analyse how knowledge sharing occurs through organisational processes.

The thesis was approached using a qualitative research approach, utilising semi-structured interviews. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with sustainability experts from various organisations in Sweden to gather the empirical data. Thematic analysis was applied to identify patterns, barriers, and effective learning approaches.

The findings indicated that learning mainly occurs through a “learning by doing” approach by practically performing work tasks and through non-formal knowledge acquisition and collaboration. The overarching argument emerging from this research is that in Swedish organisations, learning happens through the work practice rather than being driven by structured instructions. Complexity, limited time, lack of expertise, and weak support systems were the key challenges. The study concludes that for CSRD to support meaningful learning and improvement, organisations must strengthen internal routines that enable employees to reflect, adapt, and share knowledge across teams as part of an ongoing Work-Integrated Learning process.