Sustainability Weekly — Week 15
Hi all! I feel like each week when I sit down to write this newsletter I tell the same story. The news is terrible. The world is unpredictable. We need to make our businesses and institutions sustainable in order for them to be resilient. Sometimes these efforts seem futile. Yet for some reason the world seems to be quietly and slowly realising the facts and moving in the right direction. The articles I chose to highlight this week show this realisation.
🏗️ I have seen a lot of articles and videos about green architecture projects this week.
Incorporating organic elements into buildings seems to be a trend in construction at the moment, and this trend is sure to only increase in popularity with news like this becoming more common.
This article in ESGtoday is about LaSalle investment management raising a $370 million fund for real estate decarbonisation. The fund will look to deliver measurable carbon reductions while also creating long-term value through enhanced operating income and asset appreciation.
This sounds very believable to me – I think the green architecture trend is lovely, and I would gladly pay a premium to live in a building like the one pictured. Long may this trend continue.
🇨🇭 The Swiss government has proposed a law aligning the Swiss sustainability rep...
🇨🇭 The Swiss government has proposed a law aligning the Swiss sustainability reporting legislation to the post Omnibus EU legislation in regard to the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) as well as the CSDDD (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive). The proposed law will bring the Swiss reporting framework in line with the EU framework, with the effect of narrowing the scope of mandatory reporting. So, in this case Switzerland is following closely in the footsteps of the EU.
⚡️ Now this is a very interesting topic.
The article here from Ember is discussing the potential for further electrification of our energy infrastructure. This topic is of course very timely due to the ongoing oil crisis caused by the United States attacking Iran.
This article discusses the constantly falling cost of electrotech. As for example in the past while generating electricity with solar was cheaper than generating it with fossil fuels the investment was so high that at least in the short to mid-term fossil fuels provided a better return on investment. Now however due to the falling cost of electrotech we have reached a point where solar infrastructure is so inexpensive that the situation is flipped. This is even more important now however, due to the destabilisation of global trade and the oil markets have shown that the price of fossil fuels can’t be relied upon. This in turn in increasing the pressure for electrification.
As per the article this is even more true in emerging economies where inexpensive energy is a necessity for economic growth, and the volatility of the fossil fuel markets might generate an unbearable risk to the growth and stability of these vulnerable economies. Give this article a read if you find this concept interesting!
📝 For all people interested in sustainability reporting specifically this story is one to keep your eye on.
GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) has released their exposure draft on pollution disclosure standards. The GRI standards are probably the second most globally adopted standards after the ISSB standards, and the GRI is especially popular among voluntary reporters who have been reporting for a longer time.
The GRI sites the lacking corporate reporting regarding pollution as the reason for the new standard setting exercise. They reason that pollution is one of the most impactful ways companies are negatively affecting the environment.
More information on the exposure draft can be found here: https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/standards-development/topic-standard-project-for-pollution/
🇪🇺 Last thing I will discuss in this edition is this blog article from the ECB (...
🇪🇺 Last thing I will discuss in this edition is this blog article from the ECB (European Central Bank), where the ECB states that Europe’s fossil fuel dependency poses a risk to price stability. This is something that sustainability experts have been saying for years, and it looks like the financial institutions are getting the message. I hope that this translates to greater efforts to move towards sustainable energy generation.
Just like the blog post says the last decade has been really difficult for fossil-based economies price stability, especially in Europe. With COVID, Russo-Ukrainian war and now the current oil crises economies in Europe have been hit particularly hard.
The sentiment in the article is correct – transition now or pay more later. One would just hope that the lawmakers all over Europe hear this message and heed its warning.
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