Green jobs for a bright future

CSR Europe is the leading European business network for Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility. Through its network of around 39 corporate members and 41 National CSR organizations, it gathers over 10,000 companies and acts as a platform for those businesses looking to enhance sustainable growth and positively contribute to society.

We interviewed Marco Matrisciano, Sustainability Manager for CSR Europe, in order to see how is he focusing on supporting companies across different industries in integrating ESG elements in strategy and investment decision. Marco is a sustainability professional and a foresight trainer with experience in business collaboration and design thinking. During the years, he successfully developed multi-stakeholder framework within business and academia linked to system change and sustainable development.

The interview was initially published in November 2021, in the bilingual yearbook Community Index Magazine no. 3, printed edition. It can be ordered here: https://communityindex.ro/community-index-magazine-2021/

1. Your goal at CSR Europe is mainstreaming sustainability. How do you scale up the impact of individual efforts made by companies, industry federations and EU leaders?

Mainstreaming sustainability starts with the projection of trends into different scenarios around diverse alternative futures where companies and sectors can have a better impact on society. EU leaders have the responsibility to enhance the convergence of the society towards a most plausible and sustainable scenario. I believe that supporting companies in their journey in integrating sustainability does not just mean working to minimize their impact on the planet as a business, but growing their ambition to play a leadership role in society by inspiring and implementing solutions to societal and environmental challenges.

To engage these stakeholders in practical, impact-oriented projects, I am responsible for corporate engagement in the CSR Europe’s Pact for Sustainable Industry, building partnerships with representatives from 40 different industry sectors and more than 200 European business associations. Securing the engagement of companies and associations begins with the assessment of their level of maturity and readiness of the sustainability strategy. The objective is to identify common pathways and priorities to explore inter or cross-sectorial collaboration.

2. If we particularly talk about sustainable practices in sports, would mainstreaming them increase the awareness of the broader public towards these issues?

Despite the growing awareness of the population, still a lot needs to be done to reach those who have zero or low knowledge of the principles of sustainability. Professional athletes and sporting organizations must lead by example, given the role they have in our society. We become fans of their gesture as children, and it cannot be ignored how important these role models are in influencing future generations. Last year, we have seen sports pitches becoming a global stage to deliver messages against racism and address social justice issues. Keeping the focus that much on the social component has grown also in ESG investing. Also, sport brands can finally benefit from more awareness in the society and support athletes ready to step up in order to move the conversation forward.

3. You are a target-oriented project manager, working in the sustainability field. While setting sustainability performance targets can be difficult, what are the best ways to be successful?

For measuring the impact on the environment, we can benefit from the work done by leading organization supporting companies and industry sector to design their strategy to achieve science-based targets. Meaning preventing climate change by limiting global warming to well-below 2°C.

For tackling social issues, the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals are providing targets and indicators to leave no one behind. We have all the tools to design potential pathways towards a more sustainable economy. Building sustainable scenarios is a good approach to start. It gives the opportunity to people and organizations to explore alternative futures by integrating concrete targets in their strategy. Especially, when exploring these scenarios help to identify with which group of stakeholders a company must engage in order to achieve its targets.

4. How can companies encourage their employees and business partners to show more genuine commitment to CSR?

By showing positive impact. If a company is committed, it should always seek innovative strategy and tactics to foster impactful change. But translating those strategies into actions require the collaboration of employees and business partners.

Engaging employees helps companies to create shared commitments. While regarding other stakeholders, implementing sustainable business models requires building partnership only with those partners who can contribute to strategy.

5. In what ways does sustainability mean new growth and job opportunities in Europe?

The debate around the impact on job creation of a transition towards a low carbon society started in Europe already across the years 2000’ with the transformation of the European energy sector. Since the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, there has been an increasing quantification of the employment effects of these policies. The launch of the European Green Deal with its ambitious targets and roadmap for Europe towards 2050 has been particularly supported by the potential number of jobs creation. Not just for the direct impact on a country or region, but for the spillover effect amplified by an increasingly globalized world.

The estimation around the industrial transformation of the next 20-25 years turns around the capacity of the Union to develop new technology and upskill or reskill the workforce. The economic transformation towards low carbon society that we are experiencing at a faster pace has an impact not only on the creation of jobs, but also on the development of a globally competitive industry based on technology shift and not labor costs. But as described also in a study of the European Commission on the “Paths towards a sustainable industry in 2035”, the development of “Green Industries” can create a large number of green jobs but also job loss and shift in those sectors, particularly carbon intensive.

The Community of Place becomes The Community of Purpose

The pandemic has given us an opportunity we would never have allowed ourselves to radically shake up the way that we see ourselves. Fundamental to this is the way that we identify ourselves in relation to each other. It has allowed us to look at our sense of community in a new way. For a long time, our communities have been defined by geography. Is now the time to revisit this definition and see whether we need be so constrained?

As we leave the current pandemic crisis, we can look back at what Jonathan Stubbs calls “the trial we never would have given ourselves” and a glimpse into the future of work. One of those is the change in our idea of community, and how we define those groups to which we identify. Ever since Martin Buber stated that “the place is community”, the concept of community (in terms of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft) has been strongly tied to geography.

The concept of Community of Place likely dates back to the creation of the nation state, where a sense of identity was forged based on a shared geographical location. Before, community was defined by Relationship, the people with whom you aligned yourself, your identity tied to family or allegiance. Now, identity was aligned with geography. For before a Roman citizen could be an inhabitant of any country in the Empire, a speaker of any of various languages, with one of many cultural identities. Now, to be English meant to identify home as England, to be Romanian meant Romania. This quickly translated into other aspects of life too. Work became somewhere that activity took place – a factory, an office – with others who went to the same place. School became a venue for education. Our definition of our community, and by extension, our identity, became tied to the place we were born, the place that we live, the place that we work.

However, over time, this definition has been challenged. Community of Relationship never truly went away, although much weakened, but other models have risen. Increasing globalisation and pervasive communication have broken down the solidarity of Place. Instead, during the 1980s, we began to realise that Communities of Time were as important, and the rise of shared spaces continues to challenge the Communities of Place. What the pandemic has done is accelerate this change. No longer do people throng to the office. Instead, we meet at the same time online, what Ryan Anderson calls distributed working. The transition has been difficult for many, not least because many organisations and teams have attempted to recreate the sense of Community of Place virtually at the same time as trying to hold onto a Community of Time. We have also realised that Communities of Time are in themselves insufficient. We need something more.

The solution, I suggest, is not to go back to relying on Time or Place for our sense of Community. Rather, it is to look beyond these constraints to what the purpose of the community is. Over the last few decades, we have seen to rise of business with a purpose. A way to look at organisations as more than the sum of parts, with objectives that go beyond the pragmatic, Community of Purpose provides a powerful alternative to Place, and, with increasing globalisation, forms an antidote to the greater risk that we would lose community altogether.

Business now has an opportunity to look at their communities and redefine them, and there are external factors that mean that Communities of Purpose are likely to come to dominate. Fundamental to this is the inexorable rise of responsible business. Whether it be the response of businesses like AstraZeneca and Diageo whose alignment with social value was critical to the quashing of the pandemic, or the environmental and social values evident in the AGMs of companies held in 2021 like Unilever, where 99.6% of shareholders backed a radical climate transition plan, it is clear that Purpose beyond Profit is now firmly at the driving seat of many businesses. As the awareness that this also has very positive financial, HR and other business benefits grows, it is likely that this will spread even wider.

However, the rate of change is also likely to increase as there are a lot of positive feedbacks that push the growth of a broader Community of Purpose. Some of this will be driven by technology. For example, the greater availability of VR and MR (virtual and mixed reality) is likely to remove even more geographical constraints in more sectors, including enabling greater collaboration in design, more immersive education and training and more inclusive access to roles. Some of it will come from employees, who, as Edelman reports, are requiring increasingly high levels of social responsibility from their companies. Some will also come from the rise of a Community of Purpose amongst customers, who respond to what Smith and Alcorn called cause marketing, who exhibit high levels of brand loyalty and are often very vocal on social media. This often overlaps with the growing Community of Purpose amongst investors, as ESG requirements become the minimum standard and the rise of more active investors looking to hold companies increasingly accountable.

One effect of this is that responsible business leadership will become even more important. Responsible business is fundamentally about the creation of purpose that transcends short term financial gains, and sustainable business leadership is essentially aligning corporate values with purpose. Right now, there is a clear competitive opportunity for companies to embed themselves as Communities of Purpose to their customers, employees and wider society. Those who succeed, I suggest will be the leading businesses of tomorrow.

Simon Graham is Head of Innovation of De Courcy Alexander, the London-based sustainable innovation consultancy. Recipient of over 20 awards for his business change programmes built around zero carbon, zero waste and zero human trafficking, he has seen how companies can be transformed by focusing on their purpose. He is now involved in transformational programmes which combine cutting edge technologies, new business models and focus on community cohesion, working with public and private sector partners in areas like blockchain and IoT.

Simon also advises businesses and government bodies on how to simultaneously achieve net zero and improve customer satisfaction. Widely quoted, from The Economist to New Scientist, his latest contribution, published by Palgrave Macmillan, was titled “Sustainability, Management Education, and Professions: A Practitioner Perspective”, looking at how universities can nurture a new generation of sustainable leaders.

Must-Have CRS skills for a bright future

From being a good influencer to efficient networking, the modern-day CRS professional needs a wide range of skills to be able to deliver a long-term vision and impactful change.

We discussed this topic with Anita Longley, a board level sustainability professional with over 25 years’ experience in the private and public sectors. She is currently Chair of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (ICRS), a go-to platform for anyone who wants to fine tune their CRS knowledge, learn from other members and stay up to date with the latest sustainable thinking.

A passionate advocate for collaboration and transparency, she has delivered impactful sustainability strategies and community partnerships, and is a trustee of the ScottishPower Foundation.

1. You have delivered impactful sustainability programmes over time. What are the main elements of a successful programme?

A successful sustainability programme should be central to the purpose and strategy of an organization and it must be authentic. It should focus on what’s significant to the business and encompass environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

In order to create long lasting change, companies need to understand their purpose and the impact of their activities – they have to strive towards ‘net positive’. It’s no longer enough just to use a risk-based approach, because opportunities will be missed. Corporate Responsibility is about helping companies positively engage in the process of shaping our shared future.

Leading companies set bold targets and report their progress regularly. The strategy is led by the Board, informed by effective stakeholder engagement and delivered through collaborative action. The increasing focus on ESG from the financial sector is helping to drive this change and support business resilience, as we have seen during the global pandemic.

Investors are now aiming to double their sustainable investments over the next five years.

2. The modern-day CRS professionals intend to create visible change in the company, but to do so they must gain the support of multiple decision-makers in order to make it happen. What approach would you recommend in this regard?

The first step is to set a vision that reflects the purpose of the organization and secure ‘buy in’ to that vision. Ultimately, businesses can only make progress in their ESG strategies if they convince the financial markets that they are worth the investment. This means that ESG must be a core part of board discussions.

Building capacity and understanding of the sustainability within the company will ensure effective decision making. This can be supported by integrating ESG into existing business processes, such as risk management or financial approval mechanisms.

We’ve seen a sea change in attitudes towards sustainability and the role of business. Employees can be the best advocates for change, and their interest and enthusiasm should be embraced. Employee volunteering, for example, provides opportunities to develop understanding and ensure practical support. Engaging senior managers with stakeholders, such as vulnerable customers, really helps them understand the challenges that those customers face, and how they can best be supported.

In order to influence, we need to understand what motivates people, how the business operates and when and how decisions are made. It will be different for everyone and each organization, and there’s a balance to be had between challenging and supporting. Professionals must be clear about the business benefits and offer solutions, not problems.

3. Which do you consider to be the must-have skills for a CRS professional? Which ones can be taught in time?

Now, we have an extraordinary opportunity to embed sustainability in business, and professionals have a key role to play. The Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability has developed a comprehensive framework of core competencies and guiding principles for corporate responsibility professionals. We use this framework to appoint our fellows and support individual personal development.

These include knowledge-based skills – ranging, for example, from environment to ethics and a range of ‘soft skills’, such as influencing. Professionals must develop and deliver impactful and measurable strategy, engage stakeholders effectively, work collaboratively and have strong communication skills. Corporate responsibility practitioners are in a position of trust and need to act with integrity to uphold that trust.

The sustainability profession is evolving very quickly and specialists need to understand a wide range of issues, so networking is extremely important. CRS professionals are good at sharing the best and the constantly evolving practices, we found this was particularly important during the early phase of the pandemic. Mentoring also provides an opportunity to test and develop new skills.

4. What courses, certifications or learning platforms would you recommend to any CSR aficionado?

My ‘go to’ learning platform is, of course, the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (www.icrs.info), which was established to support CRS professionals to be brilliant at what they do. We provide networking, practitioner led webinars, resources, mentoring and a competency framework. I would also recommend the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, which offers a range of courses.

Sustainable Creativity: a pillar for self-growth

Rod Judkins is an artist and writer who lectures on creative methods and processes at one of the world’s foremost art colleges – Central Saint Martins College of Art. It is one of the world’s pre-eminent art schools whose alumni – ranging from artists like Lucian Freud, Stella McCartney, Sarah Burton and Alexander McQueen – have helped shape our culture. Rod is also a figurative artist who trained at the Royal College of Art in London and has had numerous one-man exhibitions at Tate Britain, The National Portrait Gallery, and Royal Academy.

As an artist, he encountered many creative thinkers in London’s art world. In his books, “The Art of Creative Thinking” and “Make Brilliant Work” he sets down some of the lessons that can be learned from the creative methods of famous artists and thinkers.

1.Your book, “The Art of Creative Thinking”, offers a profound understanding of human creativity through inspirational stories about famous artists, entrepreneurs, and other creative thinkers. How can those stories provoke readers to embark in their own creative journey?

The motivation to write “The Art of Creative Thinking” was to help my students at Central Saint Martins discover their creative journey. Every chapter explains a method that allows people to be more creative. For instance, in the chapter “Feel Inadequate”, I address how we all feel that we are not talented enough. I used the example of when I was a student at the Royal College of Art, and David Bowie visited to look at our work. We were all struck by his lack of confidence in himself, but his self-doubt was part of his driving force to prove himself.

I also told the story of Todd McFarlane who worked for Marvel Comics. They asked him to make his drawings less shocking, so he quit and, despite his self-doubt, started his own company and became a huge success. We all suffer from self-doubt, but we have to find a way to overcome it.

2.You consider creativity “a way of relating to your life: it is about creating yourself, creating a better future, and taking the opportunities that you are currently missing”. Should we be talking about sustainable creativity or creative sustainability? Or both? ”

I come at it from the angle of sustainable creativity. I think the creatives are sensitive people, and sustainability is about being sensitive to our environment. To achieve long-term sustainability, we must push towards a green economy and find creative solutions. Creativity and sustainability are inseparable.

In my new book, “Make Brilliant Work: How to Unlock Your Creativity and Succeed”, I use the example of how a firm of Italian architects responded to a competition to design a bridge. They created a power station – with a bridge attached. The “Solar Wind” bridge had twenty-six wind turbines added to the structure and solar cells embedded in the roadway and could generate enough renewable energy to power thousands of homes. They went the extra mile and solved more than the problem of crossing from one side to the other. My point was: don’t see your goal as fulfilling the client’s brief; see your goal as producing something extraordinary.

If your work is ordinary, there’s a solution: add “extra” to ordinary. Maybe you feel you are an ordinary person doing an ordinary job in an ordinary way. Decide to do something “extra”, and you’re on your way to becoming “extra” ordinary. “Extra” is from the Latin, meaning “beyond, better than the ordinary”. It’s not enough to fulfil the brief. Be generous. Go above and beyond what’s expected of you.

3.“Make freedom a career” is one of your most powerful urges. Creativity requires dedication as well as mental liberation, but sometimes one can feel stuck. What is your advice for those who feel lost and are not able to see their inner creative spark?

Let me tell you the story of Hergé, the creator of the Tintin books, and his creative block. He didn’t produce anything for months and had nightmares due to the blank page syndrome. He went to see a psychiatrist who advised him to kill off Tintin and retire because work was destroying his mental health.

Hergé ignored the psychiatrist’s advice. He decided creativity was the solution, not the problem. He wrote about his creative block. Tintin in Tibet is about Tintin lost in the snowy white Himalayas looking for a friend. It’s a metaphor for Hergé being lost and searching for a solution. I tried to show that overcoming creative block is about asking yourself what you care about most and using that as your subject matter.

4.In another book you wrote, you consider ideas “our only currency”. It is interesting to see ourselves as ideas juke boxes, but, actually, implementing those ideas should be the bold response to this volatile world we currently live in. How can we make sure our ideas do not go to die?

The point of my book “Ideas Are Your Only Currency” is to help every reader become an “ideas person”. At Central Saint Martins, we don’t try to produce a graphic designer, sculptor, or fashion designer. We try to create an “ideas person” who is comfortable thinking up lots of ideas and then chooses the best one. If it isn’t successful, we help them rapidly to think of another one.

5.Creativity should be seen as a pillar of sustainable development, as it is vital for our lives and our planet. What is the future that this combination unlocks? How do you think the world is going to heal and recover?

I agree that creativity is the pillar of sustainable development. In “Make Brilliant Work”, I use the example of a beautiful building called “The Egg” in Mumbai. Architect James Law created a planet – a significant, inspiring construction. It’s a building with a self-contained, sustainable, natural ecosystem like a planet, where high levels of natural light create low-energy demand. At the same time, solar-energy panels and wind turbines generate electricity.

It’s a self-contained, mini-world delivering an enjoyable environment in which to live and work. The latest technology enables “The Egg” to be aware of the heating and lighting and adapt it as necessary: it’s a “smart” building, a conscious entity. It’s a building you can fall in love with, feel a deep emotional attachment to, because it’s more than just a structure: it’s an idea.

I use it as an example of how a great idea holds your project together and keeps it driving forwards. It’s an engine to power your way through the inevitable problems you’ll encounter.

6.In what striking ways do you think the pandemic changed the business of ideas? Which top three lessons did you learn in 2020?

The first lesson would be to get people to help you. I wrote the last chapters of “Make Brilliant Work” when the pandemic struck, and some of the chapters reflect on the changing business environment. In the chapter, “Help People to Help You”, I use Robert Altman, one of the greatest and most influential film directors of his generation, as an example of how you need to get people to help you. As a director, he was the team leader and inspired loyalty. He gave his crew freedom and urged them to fulfil their potential. He was the cement that held a team together, and he became the director everyone wanted to work with. You can’t produce brilliant work without help from others. It’s counterintuitive, but the more generous you are, the more people give you. The second lesson would be from the chapter, ‚Disrupt or be Disrupted.’ The speed of change makes nonsense of strategic planning. Sudden developments in technology create uncertainty, causing anxiety. Unexpected events disrupt your routines, and confusing new ideas appear almost daily. But there’s a way of dealing with and prospering from the chaos. Embrace it and use it to your advantage.

The third lesson would be from the chapter “Which Class of Person Are You?”. Leonardo da Vinci said: “There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see”. Our task is to become “those who see” and notice the possibilities around us. We are all born into the “those who do not see” group but can elevate ourselves to the “see when they are shown” group with education. We have our eyes open, but our minds shut, and we never “see” what is around us. We must join “those who see” and be alert and aware of the value (and I don’t mean monetary value) of our surroundings.

The interview was initially published in November 2021, in the bilingual yearbook Community Index Magazine no. 3, printed edition. It can be ordered here: https://communityindex.ro/community-index-magazine-2021/

2021 EUROPE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT REPORT

New report by SDSN and IEEP shows significant international environmental and social spillovers generated by consumption of goods and service in the EU that must be addressed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals


Paris, 14 December 2021 – The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), SDSN Europe and the Institute for
European Environmental Policy (IEEP) publish today the third edition of the Europe Sustainable Development Report 2021, an independent quantitative report on the progress of the European Union (EU), its member states, and other European countries towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed by all UN member states in 2015.


The Europe Sustainable Development Report 2021 is part of the broader Sustainable Development Report (SDR) series which tracks the performance of countries and municipalities around the world on the SDGs since 2015. It builds on a peer-reviewed and statistically audited methodology, and includes country profiles for the EU, its member states and European partner countries, including for the first time this year EU candidate countries (Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey) as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. This year’s edition includes chapters on “The European Green Deal, EU Recovery and the SDGs” and on “Transforming Food and Land systems to achieve the SDGs”.


The report comes out at a time when cases of COVID-19 are soaring again in Europe and the emergence of new variants make the health situation and economic recovery uncertain. Ending the COVID-19 pandemic everywhere is a prerequisite for restoring and accelerating SDG progress in Europe and globally. As emphasized under SDG17 (Partnerships for the Goals), Europe should continue to work with the United Nations, G20, G7 and other key partners to accelerate the roll out of vaccines everywhere, mobilize financial resources and address the lack of fiscal space to finance emergency expenditures and recovery plans in low and middle-income countries.


Guillaume Lafortune, Vice President of the SDSN and lead author of the report, states that:


“The COVID-19 pandemic is a setback for sustainable development in the EU and in the rest of the world. Yet strong
automatic stabilizers and deliberate policies to protect the economy and people helped mitigate SDG impacts from
COVID-19 in the EU compared with most other world regions. Ending the COVID-19 pandemic everywhere is the
number one priority to restore SDG progress in the EU and globally. The SDGs and the Paris Agreement reflect Europe’s
values and should remain the guidepost for domestic EU policies and international action.”


Ahead of the 2023 United-Nations SDG Summit, the EU must advance long-term development objectives and play a leadership role internationally in restoring SDG progress. Adolf Kloke-Lesch, Co-Chair of SDSN Europe and a co-author of the report, underlines:


“The EU has legislative and policy tools in place, or in preparation, to address most SDG challenges but still lacks clarity
on how it plans to achieve the SDGs. An integrated approach to the SDGs must focus on three broad areas: internal
priorities (including the implementation of the European Green Deal), diplomacy and development cooperation and
lastly international spillovers which can undermine other countries’ ability to achieve the SDGs. The EU must lead
multilateral Green Deal and SDG Diplomacy, including with China and Africa.”


Citation details: Lafortune, G., Cortés Puch, M., Mosnier, A., Fuller, G., Diaz, M., Riccaboni, A., Kloke-Lesch, A., Zachariadis, T., Carli, E. Oger, A., (2021). Europe Sustainable Development Report 2021: Transforming the European Union to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. SDSN, SDSN Europe and IEEP. France: Paris.
Download the report and access the data (online from 14 December 2021):
Website: https://www.sdgindex.org/esdr2021
Data visualization: https://eu-dashboards.sdgindex.org/


The COVID-19 pandemic – a setback for the Sustainable Development Goals but the SDGs should remain the guidepost in the EU and internationally


For the first time since the adoption of the SDGs in 2015, the average SDG Index score of the EU did not increase in 2020 — in fact it slightly declined in the EU27 on average mainly because of its negative impact on life expectancy, poverty and unemployment. Despite calls to scale-back SDG ambitions and geopolitical tensions, the SDGs remain the only integrated framework for economic, social and environmental development adopted by all UN Member States.


The SDG Index across the EU27 countries has declined slightly in 2020 for the first time since the adoption of the SDGs in 2015 due to COVID-19


Note: SDG Index scores from 0 “worst” to 100 “best”. See detailed methodology and figure notes in the report. Source: Lafortune et al, 2021.


Europe faces its greatest SDG challenges in the areas of sustainable diets and agriculture, climate and biodiversity (SDG2, 12-15), in strengthening the convergence of living standards across its countries and regions and needs to accelerate progress on many goals. Finland tops the 2021 SDG Index for European countries (and worldwide) as it was less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than most other EU countries. It is followed by two countries also from Northern Europe – Sweden and Denmark.


EU Candidate Countries perform well below the EU average but were making progress before the pandemic hit. The SDGs provide a useful framework for constructive dialogue and exchanges between the EU and Candidate Countries in the Western Balkans.


To ensure international legitimacy, the EU must address negative international spillovers


The consumption of goods and services in the EU leads to deforestation and environmental impacts abroad. Tolerance for poor labor standards in international supply chains can harm the poor, particularly women, in many developing countries. We estimate, for instance, that imports of textile products into the EU are related to 375 fatal workplace accidents (and 21,000 non-fatal accidents) every year in the world.
Through imports, for instance of cement and steel – Europe generates CO2 emissions in other parts of the world, including Africa, the Asia-Pacific and Latin America. While domestic CO2 emissions have been decreasing in the EU for many years, CO2 emissions emitted abroad to satisfy EU consumption (so called imported CO2 emissions) have increased in 2018, at a faster rate than GDP.


The proposal for a carbon-border-adjustment mechanism (CBAM), and other adjustment mechanisms and mirror clauses, and the new Due Diligence Regulation may help address and monitor carbon leakages and other adverse impacts embodied into unsustainable supply chains. Yet, they should be accompanied by increased technical cooperation and financial support to accelerate SDG progress in producing countries, including developing countries, to avoid the “protectionist” trap. The EU also needs to systematically track such spillovers at the Union, Member States and industry level and assess the impact of European policies on other countries and the Global Commons.


CO2 emissions generated abroad to satisfy EU’s consumption of goods and services grow faster than GDP


Note: Imported CO2 emissions refer to CO2 emissions emitted abroad (e.g. to produce cement or steel) to satisfy EU27 consumption of goods and services. Three-years moving averages. Source: Authors. Based on Eurostat (2021), IE-LAB and World Bank.


Four actions to strengthen the EU’s leadership ahead of the 2023 UN SDG Summit


The report makes practical recommendations to the EU leadership in order to strengthen SDG implementation and reporting and send a strong message to the international community on EU’s commitment to achieve the SDGs in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic:

  1. Publish a joint political statement issued by the three pillars of EU governance – European Council, the European
    Parliament, and the European Commission – reaffirming their strong commitment to the 2030 Agenda in response to the COVID 19 pandemic and its aftermath, and commitment to renewed momentum towards achieving the SDGs.
  2. Prepare a Communication issued by the European Commission clarifying how the EU aims to achieve the SDGs
    including targets, timelines and roadmaps. This Communication could be updated regularly. It could also show where existing policies need to become more ambitious and where additional policies are required.
  3. Set up a new mechanism or renew the mandate of the Multi-Stakeholder Platform for a structured engagement with civil society and scientists on SDG policies and monitoring.
  4. Prepare an EU-wide Voluntary National Review ahead of the SDG Summit in September 2023 at the United Nations covering internal priorities as well as diplomacy, and international actions to restore and protect the Global Commons and address international spillovers.
    Other findings:
    ● The updated Leave No One Behind Index for European countries tracks inequalities within countries – in income, access to services and opportunities. Countries that top the SDG Index also top the Leave No One Behind Index, indicating that sustainable development and the reduction of inequalities are mutually reinforcing goals.
    ● Further efforts are needed to strengthen the convergence of living standards across European countries. SDG9
    (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) is the goal with the largest spread in performance in Europe, with many
    European countries performing very well (“green” dashboard) but also many performing very poorly (“red”
    dashboard).
    ● The Multiannual Financial Framework, NextGenEU and Recovery and Resilience Facility provide financial firepower to accelerate the transformation of the EU over the period 2021-2027. Yet the guidelines provided to Member States to prepare their National Recovery and Resilience Plans did not include any references to the SDGs. An important challenge will be to ensure that the sum of national recovery plans adds up to coherent and ambitious EU-wide SDG transformations, including transformation of energy and food/land systems.
    ● In a context where Member States will have higher autonomy to decide on eligible activities under the new Common Agricultural Policy without mandatory targets and clear performance evaluation criteria, there is a high risk that national efforts will not be ambitious enough to jointly deliver the EU climate and biodiversity objectives. While Farm-to-Fork is the first holistic strategy of the food system, clear quantitative targets are missing to track progress from the processing and consumption side.

About SDSN
The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) mobilizes scientific and technical expertise from academia, civil society, and the private sector to support practical problem solving for sustainable development at local, national, and global scales. The SDSN has been operating since 2012 under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General. The SDSN is building national and regional networks of knowledge institutions, solution-focused thematic networks, and the SDG Academy, an online university for sustainable development.

About SDSN Europe
Set up in 2020, SDSN Europe mobilizes and coordinates the knowledge and science across SDSN networks in support of a sustainable and resilient European Recovery. With ten national and regional networks of universities and knowledge institutions in the EU, and over 360 member organizations across the entire continent, SDSN is ideally placed to provide evidence-based policy development in Europe.

About IEEP
The Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) is a sustainability think tank with main offices in Brussels. Working with stakeholders across EU institutions, international bodies, academia, civil society and industry, our team of policy professionals composed of economists, scientists and lawyers produce evidence-based research and policy insight. Our work spans nine research areas and covers both short term policy issues and long-term strategic studies. As a not-for-profit organization with over 40-years of experience, we are committed to advancing impact-driven sustainability policy across the EU and the world.

Contact
For further information or to organize an interview please contact:
Maëlle Voil
Communication Manager Paris, SDSN
maelle.voil@unsdsn.org
+33 6 99 41 70 11

ROMANIA CST INDEX: The corporate sustainability ranking in Romania is announcing the 2021 results

  • The Azores Sustainability & CSR Services agency has launched the sixth edition of ROMANIA Corporate Sustainability & Transparency INDEX (CST INDEX), formerly Romania CSR Index, the most important assessment of the sustainability and corporate responsibility field in Romania.
  • The results of the ranking have been announced during the sixth edition of the Best Practices in Corporate Sustainability hybrid event, livestreamed on Facebook and Youtube on December 9th, 2021, under the motto Sustainability is Unstoppable. So are you!

What is ROMANIA CST INDEX?

Romania Corporate Sustainability & Transparency Index (ROMANIA CST INDEX) is a complex analysis, unique in Romania, by which the sustainability indicators of companies are assessed from the perspective of performance and transparency in areas such as climate change, policies concerning diversity and anti-corruption, responsibility for the employees, responsible marketing or value chain.

For developing this index, over 750 companies have been analysed, more specifically the companies in Romania that have over 500 employees, but also other smaller companies that have published sustainability reports.

What is the methodology that underlies ROMANIA CST INDEX?

The assessment behind ROMANIA CST INDEX 2021 starts from a scorecard with 10 categories and 70 sustainability indicators that refer both to sustainability strategy and targets and also to the economic, environmental and social impact of companies. The final score of each company is calculated according to weightings specific to the industry of the evaluated company.

Publicly available information is taken into account, found in sustainability reports, non-financial statements or on corporate websites, reported in Romanian language for the 2020 financial year.

The scorecard is an assessment tool aligned to the most important standards or international references from the corporate sustainability and social responsibility fields:

  • Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
  • 2014/95/UE & The Proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD);
  • GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards (GRI Standards);
  • CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project);
  • Business for Societal Impact (formerly known as LBG).

Which are the most important changes in the methodology of ROMANIA CST INDEX 2021?

2021 has brought some important changes regarding Romania CST Index indicators. A new category has been introduced, labelled Climate Change, in which more indicators have been introduced, such as reducing the greenhouse gas emissions Scope 1, 2 and 3, and the objectives set out in this area, or the production and consumption of renewable energy.

What are the objectives of the index?

The index aims to be a useful tool for both the private sector and the authorities, NGOs or various communities. The results of the index can be used for developing a roadmap that would help to increase the corporate sustainability performance, for benchmarking at industry level or top performers, or for ensuring the alignment of the corporate strategy to the Sustainable Development Goals.

“There is growing evidence that the private sector can have a significant impact on reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Thus, we have focused on assessing the sustainability reports of Romanian companies in order to outline an overall perspective regarding their involvement and how they perform from year to year. The number of companies that report is still low, we are talking about 4.4% of over 750 companies that have more than 500 employees. However, we have noticed that the number of reports show an increasing trend and we hope that the EU Proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will progressively animate this field.”, explains Alina Liciu, The Azores Managing Partner.

The companies that have received distinctions in ROMANIA CST INDEX 2021:

Gold Level Recognition: Kaufland Romania, Coca-Cola HBC Romania, HeidelbergCement Romania, Antibiotice, Raiffeisen Bank, CEZ Romania, Telekom Romania, Banca Transilvania, Lidl Romania.

Silver Level Recognition: Romgaz, GreenPoint Management, Romstal.

Bronze Level Recognition: Grupul Digi | RCS-RDS, Transelectrica.

Best Practices in Corporate Sustainability: the launch event for ROMANIA CST INDEX 2021 results

The Azores Sustainability & CSR Services annually organizes a launch event for the index results and for highlighting best practices in sustainability and community investments as well as outlining new trends in sustainable development.

Top professionals at international level and important players in the field of sustainability in Romania have revealed insights into the way a company can achieve the best results in the aftermath of investing in sustainability and in communities:

  • Guillaume Lafortune, Director of the Paris Office of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)
  • Elaine Cohen, Author & Top 100 Global Thought Leader of Trustworthy Business and Sustainability, Managing Partner Beyond Business
  • Eileen Chen, Sustainability Communication Consultant, Radley Yeldar

The speakers from Romania, representatives of some companies with great results in corporate sustainability:

  • Adina Tudor – Customer Sustainability Partnerships Manager, Coca-Cola HBC Romania;
  • Claudia Oprescu – CSR Expert – BCR Architect, Marketing and Communication Department, Banca Comercială Română;
  • Valer Hancaș, Corporate Affairs & Communication Director, Kaufland Romania & Moldova;
  • Irina Ionescu – General Manager, GreenPoint Management;
  • Andreea Ghiocel – Operational Manager Reporting Division, The CSR Agency;
  • Martha Rusoiu – CSR Specialist, The PR, Internal Communication & CSR Department, People & Brand Division, CEZ Romania;
  • Alina Liciu, Managing Partner, The Azores Sustainability & CSR Services.

The moderator of the event was Victor Georgescu – Founder, LifeHax Solutions.

The motto of the event, “Sustainability is Unstoppable. So are you!” highlights the fact that, nowadays, sustainability and responsibility have become the norm, they are unstoppable and only companies that successfully integrate this kind of business into their DNA will be on the upswing.

The event partners for Best Practices in Corporate Sustainability 2021 were:  Coca-Cola HBC Romania, Banca Comercială Română, Ariston Thermo Romania, Transelectrica, Romgaz, GreenPoint Management and CEZ Romania.

The strategic partners of the event were: Sustainable Development Solutions Network (United Nations) and LifeHax Solutions.

More details are available on the agency’s website:

Romania CST Index 2021
Despre eveniment

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About The Azores Sustainability & CSR Services

Consulting agency, established in 2013, aimed at supporting the companies in Romania in integrating corporate sustainability in the business strategy, The Azores Sustainability & CSR Services has an approach focused on long-term results, on using IT technology for a high level of accuracy of sustainability indicators and research projects that would support the decision-makers in companies to define the corporate sustainability strategy.

The most important and complex project of the agency is Romania CST Index, a ranking that was launched in 2016 under the name Romania CSR Index, and the only one in Romania that evaluates sustainability indicators: information on sustainability management, economic, environmental and social impact. The index is released annually within the Best Practices in Corporate Sustainability event.

In 2019, the agency launched Community Index, the most comprehensive ranking of corporate investments in communities and a summary of the best CSR campaigns carried out each year by companies in Romania. The results of the ranking, alongside case studies and interviews with national and international experts, are presented each year in Community Index Magazine, the only bilingual yearbook dedicated to investments in communities carried out by companies in Romania.

Media contact:

Alina Liciu

+40 723 952 065;

alina.liciu@theazores.ro