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“None of the various stakeholder groups involved will be able to achieve the transformation towards sustainability alone.” In her keynote speech at the Athens Sustainability Outlook, Yvonne Zwick, Deputy Secretary-General of the RNE, highlighted this key philosophy as the foundation for the European conference. This was particularly true, she noted, in times where pressure is being felt from two sides: on the one hand from the younger generation, which is demanding effective action against climate change, and on the other from groups that do not see or want to see the advantages a globalised world provides.
It was against this backdrop that some 120 experts came together in Athens in early April to continue specifically the pan-European stakeholder dialogue on the topic of sustainable development and corporate responsibility and to identify important evolving trends. The results of the conference will be presented to the European Commission with the aim of bolstering it in its drive to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out by the United Nations. The two-part event comprised a stakeholder dialogue format with a smaller group of participants as well as a public conference the following day. It was organised by QualityNet Foundation (QNF), a non-profit organisation promoting sustainable development in Greece, and the RNE. Guests in attendance hailed in particular from Greece but also came from Belgium, the Netherlands, France and the Balkan countries
The Sustainability Code as a blueprint for other countries?
As one of the 31 speakers at the conference, Greek Deputy Minister for the Environment, Socratis Famellos, criticised the fact that prosperity is still not measured adequately. He would like to see an increase in indices that also reflect social and ecological aspects. Moreover, approaches of this kind are not yet widespread in the business sector, as was illustrated by the statement from Spyros Lioukas, professor of science & technology management at Athens University of Economics and Business, who gives business schools in general an “F” – the worst possible grade – in the area of ethics.
Thematically the discussions in Athens focused in particular on sustainable finance and the reporting of companies’ non-financial performance. “We talked about other countries’ interest in establishing an instrument similar to the Sustainability Code in Germany,” comments Zwick, who also leads the Code’s office. Some three years ago, following a two-year development process, Greece became the first country in Europe to introduce its own Sustainability Code based on the German example. At the conference, Hellenic Petroleum, Lidl Hellas and the Deutsche Telekom subsidiary OTE-COSMOTE all reported on their practical experiences of using the Greek Code. Most recently, Turkey joined the ranks and is now inviting companies to use the Turkish Sustainability Code as an instrument to support their entry into sustainability reporting and the development of a sustainability strategy.
A sustainable “New Deal” for Europe
Again and again, the participants came back to the question of whether, and how, a sustainable “New Deal” could work for Europe. They put forward that Europe would need to take a leadership role in the areas of circular economy and an inclusive fair market economy. Concretely, they discussed the suggestion that a “sustainability passport” be introduced for enterprises. Further stakeholder dialogue events will be dealing with this topic over the months to come, possibly resulting in the presentation of an initial draft proposal for the European Commission.
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string(349) "The German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) is continuing the European dialogue on sustainability: a conference in Athens focuses on the topic of sustainable finance and the reporting of companies’ non-financial performance as well as examining how the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations can be integrated into education."
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string(4638) "The German Federal Government intends to make Germany a leading financial hub for Sustainable Finance and will develop a strategy to this end. This was agreed in Berlin at the end of February by the State Secretaries’ Committee for Sustainable Development under the auspices of the Head of the Federal Chancellery, Helge Braun. The committee also resolved to establish a Sustainable Finance Advisory Council in order to expand dialogue between the Federal Government and the finance sector, the real economy, civil society and the scientific community. The committee members further ordered that the efficiency of green and sustainable German Federal Bonds be reviewed.
With its Sustainable Finance resolution (PDF), the Federal Government is emphasising the importance of financial market stakeholders to take sustainability aspects into account in their decisions. The committee did not adopt a schedule for the development of a Sustainable Finance strategy. The Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) are currently working on a detailed concept to implement the resolution to create an advisory council.
The German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) has been advocating the incorporation of sustainability into the world of finance for years. As early as in 2006, it spoke of the potential leverage effect that the financial market could have on sustainable development. The Council highlighted the need for ambitious goals to be set with a recommendation statement issued before the committee meeting. In addition, the Council founded the Hub for Sustainable Finance (H4SF) as an open stakeholder platform and will continue organising the established H4SF round table formats until further notice. “The Federal Government’s resolution on Sustainable Finance deserves to be acknowledged as a positive commitment from the government,” says RNE Chairwoman Marlehn Thieme, commenting on the plans. Awareness of this topic within the government has evidently increased considerably, she believes, with the Ministry of Finance having played a crucial part in this development.
RNE Chairwoman calls for “clear signals to the market”
“I firmly believe that Sustainable Finance is already having an impact on industry and the economy, but it needs to become more standard on the market,” says Thieme. She argues that, in the light of Sustainable Development, the future viability of business models needs to be assessed differently than with the conventional evaluation frameworks. The RNE Chairwoman called for clear signals to be sent to the market in asset investment as well as in borrowing: “The review of sustainable German Federal Bonds and the establishment of the new advisory council should lead to a decision this year that gives the market the stimulus it needs.”
The State Secretaries’ Committee for Sustainable Development is the central steering body of Germany’s National Sustainable Development Strategy. All federal ministries are represented in the committee by their state secretaries. In addition to the ministries’ state secretaries, the committee meeting was attended by the following external experts: RNE Chairwoman Marlehn Thieme, Vice-President of the Deutsche Bundesbank Sabine Mauderer, KfW CEO Günther Bräunig, Michael Schmidt, member of the management board at Deka Investment GmbH and member of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance, and Kai Whittaker, member of the German Bundestag and member of the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development."
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string(298) "This is the decision reached by the State Secretaries’ Committee for Sustainable Development at the end of February. It also announced the creation of a Sustainable Finance Advisory Council. Moreover, green and sustainable German Federal Bonds are to be reviewed with respect to their efficiency."
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string(10771) "Conferences on the topic of sustainable finance always have one thing in common – they begin with the observation that this is a niche industry and that globally only a tiny fraction of finance flows are based on more than just short-term returns. So, too, began the second German Sustainable Finance Summit, kicked off in Frankfurt with a critical analysis by Joachim Faber, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Börse AG.
“We continue to do a great deal of talking, but little is actually achieved. The discussions are not very impact-oriented,” said Faber as a criticism both of the policymakers and his own industry, which he argues is not showing much movement. According to Faber, many papers on the topic, including those from business circles, are planned simply as soapbox speeches and lack actual goals for achieving greater sustainability.
However, the tide appears to slowly be turning. For the second time, the Hub for Sustainable Finance, which was founded by Deutsche Börse AG and the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE), hosted a German Sustainable Finance Summit – with twice as many delegates from the field of politics, the finance sector, science and civil society as last year. There appears to be a reason for this high degree of interest: Alexander Bassen, Professor of Capital Markets and Management at the University of Hamburg and Council member, spoke of a “regulatory sword of Damocles”.
EU action plan results in action
Bassen spoke about the European Commission’s March 2018 action plan on financing sustainable growth, the aim of which is to see to it that the EU implements the Paris Agreement and the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. This was followed in May by the introduction of a set of measures for implementation of the action plan. Two aspects of the Brussels proposals were discussed in depth at the conference in Frankfurt:
Taxonomy: One of these is that all EU member states are to agree on a common definition of sustainable economic activity in the interests of the environment – the technical term for this is taxonomy. This can subsequently serve as the basis for a common EU-wide label for sustainable investments, possibly along the lines of the organic food certification mark. According to the Commission’s current proposal, this classification system would apply to all financial market players wishing to offer green, sustainable, environmental or similarly labelled financial products. A group of experts has been working on this since June. The taxonomy will initially only cover environmental criteria for sustainability, not social and governance criteria. A hearing of experts will be held in this regard in Brussels on 18 October. At the conference, Martin Koch, Policy Officer within the European Commission’s DG FISMA, explained that the Commission’s aim was to prevent the EU market for green, environmental and sustainable finance products from becoming fragmented and that a clear framework was needed, especially for cross-border investments.
The planned taxonomy was discussed in depth by the Summit’s participants. Criticism was voiced of the fact that the taxonomy would only apply to explicitly green financial products. As such, the classification would not affect anyone not wishing to label a fund, an insurance policy or some other financial product as sustainable, green, environmental or any such term. In addition, it only applies to financial products, not companies. An enterprise could therefore invest in coal but still launch a financial product to finance wind farms which is labelled as being green. Molly Scott Cato, a member of the European Parliament for the Green Party of England and Wales, said that the taxonomy was a breakthrough that should be feted. “But there is no black-list, and that’s definitely not green. Without this, the taxonomy isn’t terribly useful,” she said in criticism. Koch defended the taxonomy, stating that it had six clear fundamental environmental principles. Green investments would have to be of benefit to at least one of these, such as climate protection, and may not be detrimental to any of them, for example protection of the oceans. Levin Holle, Director General for Financial Markets Policy within Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), said the taxonomy was very important, but warned against being too hasty: “If we get the taxonomy even slightly wrong, we run a great risk of sending a lot in the wrong direction,” he said.
Disclosure requirements: According to Holle, there are two other aspects of the EU reforms which are more pressing for the Federal Ministry of Finance in view of the EU elections in just six months’ time, namely the so-called low-carbon benchmarks and the requirements regarding the disclosure of sustainability aspects. The former are uniform EU-wide benchmarks for the environmental damage caused by the economic activities that investors invest in – investors could then use these benchmarks to make their investments more environmentally friendly. In addition, there are uniform benchmarks for rating the positive impact of investments in climate protection – these are called positive-carbon benchmarks.
The disclosure requirements were the subject of intense debate at the conference. Unlike the taxonomy, these would apply not only to green financial products, but to the financial market as a whole. The European Commission presented a proposal for these in May. The regulation lays the foundations for environmental, social and governance aspects – the ESG criteria for short – being placed at the heart of the financial system. Its purpose is also to make Europe’s economy greener and more resilient and to establish a circular economy, according to the European Commission’s proposal.
The plan is for a number of existing directives and regulations to be amended. All financial market players who manage money for their clients in anything from risk capital funds to pension insurance policies will then be obliged to take ESG criteria into account in all of their investment decisions. They will be required to regularly report to their clients on how they do this. They will also be required to always disclose to their clients the effect that sustainability aspects will have on the value of an investment. “Taking sustainability criteria into consideration is part and parcel of analysing the opportunities and risks of financial undertakings,” said BMF representative Holle.
This is founded on the lesson learned that businesses or portfolios that consider ESG criteria achieve the same return but with fewer risks. “What I think is lacking is the finance sector seeing this more as a business opportunity,” said Chairman of the Deutsche Börse AG Supervisory Board Faber. Together with climate protection and the UN’s 2030 Agenda, this so-called risk-adjusted return on sustainable investments is the second reason why the European Commission is expediting the topic – it believes that a financial system which takes ESG criteria into account is more stable because it involves fewer risks. One of the criticisms levelled at the disclosure requirements during the conference was that having to incorporate ESG criteria into risk management would not make a financial activity automatically more sustainable. Many of the attendees were also still entirely in the dark as to how the new requirements would be incorporated at a practical level into the day-to-day activities of, for example, a portfolio manager.
Expertise, primacy of the policymakers and education
The EU reforms weren’t the only topic discussed at the Summit. The speakers’ and attendees’ key messages included the following:
- The field of politics needs to have primacy over the markets: The policymakers must ensure that the new principles and transparency with regard to sustainability matters are actually observed in the world of finance. Additionally, they must not back away from what has already been decided: “The most important political battle in the years to come will be to get politicians across the spectrum to stick to the goals of the Paris Agreement,” said Molly Scott Cato.
- Establishing role models: Public institutions and the policymakers must actively practise the values and see sustainability as a top priority. Marlehn Thieme, Chairwoman of the German Council for Sustainable Development, called for the policymakers to not only regulate the financial markets, but also act as role models themselves in the case of government investments.
- Developing expertise: There is a lack of basic knowledge of sustainable business practice in many areas, be it in vocational training, university studies, career experience, or on supervisory boards and within federal institutions. There is therefore a need for further education and new textbooks. For example, Ralf Frank, Managing Director and Secretary-General of the German Association for Financial Analysis and Asset Management (DVFA), took a look at various training programmes for investment professionals as part of a study. “The topics of ESG and sustainability didn’t feature in any of the textbooks,” he criticised.
Documentation of the Summit’s findings will be published on the website of the Hub for Sustainable Finance in the next few weeks.
Michael Schmidt, Head of Asset Servicing and Alternative Investments at Deka Investment, summed up what was certainly the key finding of the Summit as follows: “The circle has got bigger. The stone thrown into the water by the EU is throwing ripples and is now impacting more than just those who are enthusiastic about sustainability,” he said."
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string(7863) "If things simply continue the way they have done, the EU will not achieve the Paris climate targets. An additional 180 billion euros annually must be invested in buildings, transport, renewable energies, energy efficiency and much more, estimates the European Commission. To fill the gap, more private capital is urgently needed, concludes the 20-strong group of experts – and lays out on 100 pages of recommendations which regulations need to be changed to achieve this. Not only in order to achieve the Paris targets, but also for implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
“The report is the most comprehensive document ever written on the subject of sustainable finance,” comments Michael Schmidt, member of the Management Board at Deka Investment and one of the experts of the High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (HLEG). This panel is made up of representatives of banks, universities, insurers, funds and stock exchanges as well as NGOs like WWF, think tanks like the 2° Investing Initiative, the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) or Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G).
“Europe now has the unique opportunity to build the world’s most sustainable financial system,” says the report, which states clearly early on: there is no single lever with which we can reorient the entire financial system. “We have developed an overall concept. The individual recommendations dovetail closely with one another, and that should definitely be taken into account when implementing them,” explains Schmidt. Moreover, implementation requires synchronisation with the real economy and especially with politics. “We need to finally agree on a sensible price for carbon emissions,” adds Schmidt.
Classification of what constitutes sustainable investment
Specifically, the report makes a total of 24 suggestions for measures: eight core recommendations, eight cross-sector measures and eight concrete measures, for instance for pension funds or banks. Among the core recommendations is that a clear Europe-wide definition of which investments can at all be labelled as “sustainable” is needed. Such a classification would need to be applicable to all types of investment – from project financing to bonds and equity.
It has to be dynamic in that it adjusts to ongoing developments in scientific insight and could be designed to build on pre-existing standards. A matrix has already been developed by the experts: it links various sectors, such as energy, transport, forestry or healthcare, with the global sustainable development goals like access to clean water or reduction of waste.
Another core recommendation relates to requiring investors to disclose how they take sustainability into account in their investment decisions. Pension funds in the EU are already required to report on if they include ecological and social aspects in their risk management. However, they are not required to disclose how they apply the ESG criteria (environment, social and governance) concretely to their investment decisions.
Further, the report argues in favour of EU labels for green investment funds and green bonds. In particular, the latter would make it easier for ecologically minded companies to raise funding. The experts also see a much more active role for the authorities at EU level that are tasked with financial market oversight. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Banking Authority, for instance, should more closely supervise the long-term risks for the financial system that are associated with climate change.
The “tragedy of the horizon”
A central idea behind the cross-sector measures is the “tragedy of the horizon”, or rather of the mismatched horizon, in the financial sector: investments in sustainability – education, infrastructure, energy – do not yield good results until years or even decades later and thus are not attractive to many fast and speculative financial market players. “Short-termism”, as people sometimes call this type of thinking, is a clear obstacle to more sustainable finance. And the experts do not see a fast solution. They suggest that in a first step the regulations be evaluated with a view to determining which of them promote short-term profit generation.
In other areas, the experts express considerably more concrete views – with respect to ratings agencies, for instance: quite simply, they should incorporate ESG criteria into their ratings and disclose their methods of doing so publicly. This also includes educating their staff on topics related to sustainability.
Marlehn Thieme, Chairwoman of the German Council for Sustainable Development, describes the report of the HLEG as ambitious. “It is very good because it shows clearly how the future of the financial markets can be oriented. And it shows through its orientation towards practical application that sustainable financial markets are possible,” Thieme comments. “However, it fails to set out a synopsis of various policy areas. With regard to European budget, tax and economic policy, we need a coherent regulatory structure that enables the use of market economy tools.” The Council Chairwoman also points to the key role of the companies themselves. “If we are to make the finance sector sustainable, we need both banks and insurers as well as the companies.”
Overall, the report only concerns itself with making recommendations. On 20 February, the EU Finance Ministers will be reviewing the report and in March, the European Commission will present its action plan on sustainable finance, which is to incorporate the experts’ recommendations. A major conference of experts on the topic is scheduled to be held in Brussels on 22 March. The High-Level Expert Group recommends that a working group at EU level be established this year so that it can develop by 2020 an EU classification system for sustainable investments. “Implementation of our report is now in the hands of the EU and the various financial market players,” comments Schmidt.
What comes next
Council Chairwoman Marlehn Thieme: “Sustainable finance is not mentioned anywhere in the federal government’s coalition agreement. However, as the HLEG report is only a recommendation, political support is needed. The new government must work to promote implementation at EU level of well-designed carbon regulation processes on behalf of sustainable finance and the real economy.”
In Germany, the ten recommendations of the Hub for Sustainable Finance have also taken up some of the recommendations of the HLEG report. This open network of financial market players and other stakeholders was initiated in the summer of 2017 by the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) and Deutsche Börse. Following a first summit in October 2017 in Frankfurt, the various actors are now called on to make contributions that help promote a sustainable financial system in Germany and establish the topic in mainstream capital market activities.
A dedicated project website is currently in the process of being created; until it is completed, the latest information is available at www.h4sf.de. On 22 February, a conference on sustainable finance will be held in Berlin, organised by the Hub together with the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). The main topic of the conference will be the HLEG report. The conference is, however, already fully booked up."
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string(8569) "Environmental and climate protection, fair pay throughout the supply chain, respect for human rights in production countries: ecological and social criteria are already part of decision-making processes for many business professionals and financial backers. On the financial markets, however, the topic still does not carry much significance, For example the volume of assets under management currently listed on the sustainability index of Deutsche Börse totals just 12.5 million euros.
How can we promote the development of sustainable finance? To take on this challenge, Deutsche Börse AG and the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) have joined forces in strategic collaboration. Starting immediately, the Hub for Sustainable Finance (H4SF) will be a place of discussion and forward-looking ideation, in particular aimed at cultivating discourse between the business sector, the financial market and societal stakeholders.
“In Germany especially, the role of the capital market from a sustainability perspective has not yet been given enough consideration,” comments Council member Alexander Bassen, professor at the University of Hamburg for business management and capital markets studies and member of the H4SF Steering Committee. In his view, the actors themselves on these markets have an important lever at their disposal.
Together with other members of the Steering Committee of the Hub for Sustainable Finance, Bassen has now prepared ten recommendations for sustainable finance, which the Steering Committee presented in Berlin on 27 September. The paper was based on the interim report of the High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance of the European Commission, the PRI Roadmap for Germany, the living document Sustainable Finance by the Council for Sustainable Development, which the Council has been updating since March, the goals of the Accelerating Sustainable Finance Initiative of Deutsche Börse and the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures of the Financial Stability Board.
Federal government should facilitate and call for sustainable investment
In the view of the experts, the time has come for policymakers to make good on their obligation. They have an important role to play in generating formative impulses, and as the paper states early on, the government has not fulfilled this role sufficiently. In the opinion of the authors, the financial sector and its due responsibility are under-represented in the German Sustainable Development Strategy. Vice versa, on the part of financial market stakeholders, a sector-specific discussion of their contribution to achieving sustainable development goals is also said to be lacking. Bassen calls on the future federal government to embed the topic in the Sustainable Development Strategy. This would bolster productive exchange between the capital market and politics, in the Council member’s opinion.
The political framework for a more sustainable financial system plays a decisive role. This was emphasised as well by Kristina Jeromin, Head of Group Sustainability of Deutsche Börse. “Sustainable finance is increasingly moving into the public’s frame of awareness. But if we take a look at the reality, such investing is unfortunately very far from being daily practice,” explains Jeromin. Sustainable products and services are certainly valuable and a good thing. “But the market also has to use them.”
In the Hub for Sustainable Finance, concrete tools are to be developed as well as examining and promoting aspects of regulation and coordination of policymaking and the business sector. “The fundamental understanding of sustainability aspects as important indicators for risks must evolve to see that they also offer business models opportunities,” adds Jeromin. “These aren’t obstacles to market access, but rather should be natural components of entrepreneurship and investment strategy.”
Sustainability criteria not hindrance for investment
Steering Committee member Michael Schmidt also sees this push and the recommendations for action as very necessary. Schmidt is an expert on finance, Managing Director of Deka Investment and member of the High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance of the European Commission. In EU comparison in particular, Germany lags behind its peers with respect to the topic of sustainable finance, explains Schmidt. While nations like the United Kingdom or France have numerous representatives that participate in the European Commission’s group of experts, Schmidt is the only representative from Germany. “Too many financial market players still see sustainability criteria as a constraint on achieving their goals – entirely without justification,” says Schmidt. Rather, it both yields returns and is part of the fiduciary duty to take sustainability into account explicitly and systematically in the so-called magic triangle of returns, risk and liquidity.
With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the world community has committed itself to fighting poverty, protecting the environment and placing sustainability aspects squarely in the focus of all areas of life and all decision-making. For Dustin Neuneyer, Head of Continental Europe of PRI Principles for Responsible Investment, the primary question is whether or not the financial sector can implement the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – even in Germany.
In the past 11 years, more than 1,800 supporters have signed the PRI Initiative, a project originally initiated by the United Nations, meaning around half of the worldwide monies available are covered. At the same time, however, this does not mean that half of all investing is carried out in line with sustainability criteria. Neuneyer confirms as well that Germany is still “underdeveloped” when it comes to sustainable finance. That is in part a result of the German penchant for thoroughness. “People want a solution that’s 100% perfect,” says Neuneyer. “But the world is complex and you have to have the courage to get started and accept partial solutions.”
Debate on advancing sustainable finance agenda
There is truly no lack of examples that illustrate just how urgently engagement on the part of lenders and companies is needed in order to advance sustainable business practice. The diesel scandal with its falsified emissions reports is one and the 2010 fire on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform is another. The resulting oil spill had devastating consequences for the ocean’s ecosystem.
What should the next step be following these ten recommendations for sustainable finance? What groundwork needs to first be laid? The members of the Hub for Sustainable Finance will be discussing their ideas further on 23 October.
At the German Sustainable Finance Summit in Frankfurt, representatives of politics, business and finance experts, investors and scientists will come together. The event is being held under the aegis of the German Federal Ministry of Finance. The Secretary of Commerce of the state of Hesse, Tarek Al-Wazir, will be in attendance to welcome the guests with the opening words. The aim of the event is to highlight the most important aspects for the agenda for sustainable finance in Germany and to generate awareness of it among policymakers.
Due to the high degree of interest, the event is already fully booked up. A live stream of the event will be available on 23.10.17 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for all interested parties at www.h4sf.de."
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“None of the various stakeholder groups involved will be able to achieve the transformation towards sustainability alone.” In her keynote speech at the Athens Sustainability Outlook, Yvonne Zwick, Deputy Secretary-General of the RNE, highlighted this key philosophy as the foundation for the European conference. This was particularly true, she noted, in times where pressure is being felt from two sides: on the one hand from the younger generation, which is demanding effective action against climate change, and on the other from groups that do not see or want to see the advantages a globalised world provides.
It was against this backdrop that some 120 experts came together in Athens in early April to continue specifically the pan-European stakeholder dialogue on the topic of sustainable development and corporate responsibility and to identify important evolving trends. The results of the conference will be presented to the European Commission with the aim of bolstering it in its drive to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out by the United Nations. The two-part event comprised a stakeholder dialogue format with a smaller group of participants as well as a public conference the following day. It was organised by QualityNet Foundation (QNF), a non-profit organisation promoting sustainable development in Greece, and the RNE. Guests in attendance hailed in particular from Greece but also came from Belgium, the Netherlands, France and the Balkan countries
The Sustainability Code as a blueprint for other countries?
As one of the 31 speakers at the conference, Greek Deputy Minister for the Environment, Socratis Famellos, criticised the fact that prosperity is still not measured adequately. He would like to see an increase in indices that also reflect social and ecological aspects. Moreover, approaches of this kind are not yet widespread in the business sector, as was illustrated by the statement from Spyros Lioukas, professor of science & technology management at Athens University of Economics and Business, who gives business schools in general an “F” – the worst possible grade – in the area of ethics.
Thematically the discussions in Athens focused in particular on sustainable finance and the reporting of companies’ non-financial performance. “We talked about other countries’ interest in establishing an instrument similar to the Sustainability Code in Germany,” comments Zwick, who also leads the Code’s office. Some three years ago, following a two-year development process, Greece became the first country in Europe to introduce its own Sustainability Code based on the German example. At the conference, Hellenic Petroleum, Lidl Hellas and the Deutsche Telekom subsidiary OTE-COSMOTE all reported on their practical experiences of using the Greek Code. Most recently, Turkey joined the ranks and is now inviting companies to use the Turkish Sustainability Code as an instrument to support their entry into sustainability reporting and the development of a sustainability strategy.
A sustainable “New Deal” for Europe
Again and again, the participants came back to the question of whether, and how, a sustainable “New Deal” could work for Europe. They put forward that Europe would need to take a leadership role in the areas of circular economy and an inclusive fair market economy. Concretely, they discussed the suggestion that a “sustainability passport” be introduced for enterprises. Further stakeholder dialogue events will be dealing with this topic over the months to come, possibly resulting in the presentation of an initial draft proposal for the European Commission.
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