Europe and sustainability
4 January 2024
European Green Deal
You may already be familiar with the European Green Deal. This is a kind of roadmap from the European Commission full of initiatives to tackle climate and environmental problems. The end point of this roadmap is a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. The European Green Deal covers many different legislations and strategies. For example, there will be a European Climate Law, a Biodiversity Strategy, and a Farm to Fork Strategy for sustainable food systems. These initiatives touch many different areas. For example, agriculture, transport, energy generation, innovation, tourism and research. All initiatives will contribute to human and environmental health.
To measure is to know
The EU recognises that business also plays a crucial role in promoting sustainability. Therefore, companies are encouraged to take responsibility for their impact on the environment, society and the economy. Measuring is knowing. It is therefore necessary to track how sustainable an activity, service or company actually is. Only then can targeted improvements be made on sustainability performance. A directive has therefore been designed to promote sustainability and transparency in the corporate world: the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This directive prescribes rules on sustainability reporting for companies and financial institutions. Many companies will be affected (directly or indirectly) by the CSRD. This is because the directive requires a lot of preparation and extensive data collection to comply with this legislation.
Money flows into sustainable practices
By making sustainability reports compulsorily public, this legislation promotes the adoption of sustainable practices. This is because investors, consumers and other stakeholders have insight into companies' sustainability practices and act as social controls by encouraging more sustainable actions. This reduces the environmental footprint and promotes social justice.
Everyone's responsibility
The Green Deal shows well that everyone needs to work together in the sustainability transition: all different sectors from agriculture to energy, from healthcare to education, in private and business, in the fields of people, nature, environment and economy. Will you help too?