Sustainability Weekly — Week 12
This has been a busy week for me. Some of you might know that I’m taking part in the Maria 01 northern light accelerator program. This is the first week of the program and it has been both tiring and inspiring. My focus is also more than ever on delivering on our work towards a more sustainable future. Sustainability weekly is one of the ways I do this.
📝 Some positive news came from esgtoday about a survey asking companies that wer...
📝 Some positive news came from esgtoday about a survey asking companies that were excluded from CSRD scope by the Omnibus about their companies future plans regarding sustainability reporting. The findings show, that 90 % of said companies plan to keep their reporting at the same level or even expand it in the future, and even that 86 % of the companies surveyd are able to keep their reporting to CSRD compliant levels.
This is great, and it shows that companies see actual value in sustainability reporting. This valides the opinions of many in our industry, who have been trying to communicate that corporate sustainability reportin is far more than just a compliance exercise.
The study found that the intention to continue reporting comes as sustainability reporting has moved beyond compliance, with companies already integrating sustainability data into the broader corporate reporting infrastructure, and embedding the data into their assessments of business risk and decision making processes.
The reasons cited by the respondents range from the value of sustainability data in decision making, innovation and process design, financial planning and risk assessment to increased investon confidence, meeting customer and partner needs and better integration between financial and sustainability decision making.
Automation is sustainability reporting was cited as a clear target for future investment by these companies. This makes sense. I believe that there is much room for more efficiency in the industry.
🇪🇺 A great post from Anna Trojak discussing the importance of understanding conn...
🇪🇺 A great post from Anna Trojak discussing the importance of understanding connection between the VSME (voluntary small and medium enterprises sustainability reporting standard) and the ESRS (the susitainability reporting standard of large companies).
This is a great tool for SME’s who report on sustainability and work in the value chains of large companies.
🌿 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗦𝗠𝗘 𝗺𝗮𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗘𝗦𝗥𝗦 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗼𝗯𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀. The VSME is the Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for SMEs, published by EFRAG in December 2024. It is designed for non-listed companies and micro-enterprises. Most are not required to report under CSRD, but many receive data requests from large customers and investors who are. Understanding how VSME disclosure points connect to the full ESRS set is relevant for two groups. For SMEs, it shows how their reporting responds to value chain data requests. For large companies subject to CSRD, it clarifies what they can realistically expect from suppliers reporting under VSME. The 𝗺𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝟮𝟬 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 across the 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗲 (𝗕𝟭–𝗕𝟭𝟭) and 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗲 (𝗖𝟭–𝗖𝟵), aligned to their corresponding ESRS topics across E1–E5, S1–S3, and G1. 📎 𝗣𝗗𝗙 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: attached 📎𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗦𝗠𝗘 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱_𝗘𝗙𝗥𝗔𝗚 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲: https://lnkd.in/ehTiytdd 📎𝗘𝗙𝗥𝗔𝗚 𝗦𝗠𝗘𝘀 𝗵𝘂𝗯: https://lnkd.in/eP4nEc4U 📎𝗘𝗙𝗥𝗔𝗚 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗫𝗕𝗥𝗟 𝗧𝗮𝘅𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆: https://lnkd.in/ejZvJb3E 📎𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱): https://lnkd.in/emi2zSRz
If you are an accounting person, sustainability person, quality assurance or compliance person then heads up! EFRAG is asking for feedback on the connectivity of financial and sustainability reporting.
If you have thoughts or experiences on the topic click the link here, and help EFRAG develop the framework.
🇺🇸 In slightly more depressing news (but not too surprising) The Trump administr...
🇺🇸 In slightly more depressing news (but not too surprising) The Trump administration is now suing california over regulations requiring automakers to reduce fleetwide vehicle CO2 emissions and increase the proportion of zero emission vehicle (ZEV) sales over time.
The california government and the federal government have been butting heads increasingly over sustainability regulation, and this is just one example. California has been a small bright spot within the US when it comes to sustainability regulation being the firs state in the union to mandate large companies to report sustainability information.
It will be interesting to see how the situation develops with the current federal administration being increasingly hostile towards sustainability regulation. This is another rift in a divided america, but at least it is encouraging seeing the biggest state economically and population wise trying to align with the rest of the world.
📈 Back to encouraging news:
Nest, the largest workplace pension scheme in the UK by membership, announced that it has strengthened its voting policy in order to address backtracking on corporate climate commitments, stating that it may now vote against board chairs at companies that have materially scaled back their climate strategies.
I have been talking about this trend for weeks now but this is another data point that backs up my general hypothesis. Investors don’t want to see companies scaling back on sustainability, the risks related to sustainability topics are simply too big.
For pension funds especially taking sustainability into account is incredibly meaningful, because these organisations are involved in very long term investing. This means that in order to be successful they must take a long term apporach, thus making sustainability unavoidable.
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