The European Green Deal is the policy roadmap for making the EU’s economy sustainable, setting into legislation the political ambition of being the world’s first climate neutral continent by 2050. Meeting the objective will require setting measures in different policies and actions, such as Climate Change, Clean Energy Transition, Environment Protection or Investing in the Green Future and significant effort of all sectors to put them in place. For organizations, the endeavor focuses on the need to transit to sustainable business models and redirection of investments towards sustainable projects and activities.
In the conference, SustainPro focused on presenting the regulatory instruments that play an important role in implementing the European Green Deal, specifically EU Taxonomy Regulation as well as the proposals of Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. All the instruments apply to all sectors with certain criteria, where the energy sector and many ash businesses are not the exception, falling under the scope of these regulation and proposals. Being aware about the regulations’ requirements and understanding how to incorporate them into business strategies of the companies is crucial to fulfil the EU sustainability goals and become competitive in the market.
During the presentation, the essence of the above-mentioned regulation and proposals and the obligations coming out of them were discussed. The following important requirements of the legislations were highlighted:
- Large companies (over 500 employees) should include in their 2023 year Sustainability report the EU Taxonomy Regulation requirements.
- It is expected that starting from the year 2024, all large companies (over 250 employees) should present their Sustainability report in line with the new sets of standards coming out of Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (including EU Taxonomy Regulation requirements).
- It is expected that starting from the year 2027, additionally to all large companies, SMEs on the regulated markets should present their Sustainability report.
- Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive rules will ensure that businesses address adverse impacts of their actions (human rights and environmental considerations) in their entire value chains inside and outside Europe. The earliest obligations of the Directive are expected in the years 2024-2025.
- A company can choose to disclose on voluntary basis:
b. Companies and project promoters can choose to meet the criteria of the EU Taxonomy with the aim of attracting investors interested in green opportunities.
SustainPro experts support clients by providing clarity in the new challenges of the present and coming regulations, the EU sustainability criteria and its integration into business strategy and internal policies. SustainPro assists in the development of the sustainable management system and the compilation of the sustainability report. Sustainable business model has a greater potential to attract investors, clients and create common language between market participants.
SustainPro is a team of experts that can help your company in completion of the Sustainability strategy in accordance with the legislations’ requirements and in particular to make:
- Sustainability strategy.
- Corporate Sustainability Report.
- Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence.
- EU Taxonomy alignment:
- Technical criteria screening.
- Carbon Footprint calculations (incl. LCA if needed).
- Do No Significant Harm assessment.
- Minimum safeguards description/suggestions.
- Taxonomy related report compilation, including suggestion for further improvements.
- Taxonomy & Sustainability related consultations and workshops.
- Carbon Footprint calculations (based on GHG Protocol, ISO 14064).
- Life Cycle assessment (LCA).
- Project funding.