🌍 ESG Reporting (CSRD, ESRS, Double Materiality); Sustainability; Impact Investing; Gender Equality
My United Nations (UNECE) sustainability expert working group met in Rome at the National Council for Economics and Labour (Consiglio Nazionale dell'Economia e del Lavoro (CNEL) to discuss specific projects related to food, textiles, supply chains and the circular economy. Key areas needed to achieve scale: ✔️ INTEROPERABILITY OF FRAMEWORKS: we should focus on protocols and standards to achieve scale, and not push any specific tech platform as the solution. ✔️ SIMPLICITY: easy-to-understand solutions that are both human and machine readable. Examples: digital product passports, facility records, and informative credentials. ✔️ TRUST: blockchain and trust used in the same sentence can be misleading, since blockchain only records immutably what you said, which could be a lie. We should use trust registers, product and trademark registers, and identity operators which already in exist in many countries, and then to digitize these registers. Simple architectures can join the sustainability / traceability claim with the evidence, and not through blockchain. ✔️ CONFIDENTIALITY / TRANSPARENCY: if you cannot satisfy the owner of the data that their data is safe - they won't play. There are big differences between sectors regarding the attitude to voluntarily provide data or value chain information. We need tools that allow for sharing data on a voluntary basis. ✔️ COLLABORATION: along the value chain doesn't work since there are breaks in the line of communication, for example, a leather shoe manufacturer will never talk directly to the cattle farmer, and each should not be responsible for the actions of the other actor who has a completely different purpose. Our architecture should allow for traceability and transparency of data, even without direct communication and collaboration between such actors. ✔️ SCOPE 3: the largest and most important, and yet almost entirely based on estimates, or not reported at all. ✔️ MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS: are essential to reach a greater number of businesses within a specific area or sector. Providing tools to these associations, then adds value to their members. ✔️ INCENTIVES: including areas where regulations and mandates exist. Real business incentives are needed, which can be grouped into 3 areas: (1) save a dollar, (2) make a dollar, (3) add a dollar to the value of your business. There needs to be a real business case, for example, ESG reporting might give you better access to trade finance, if the due diligence can be automated. In order to engage and empower people, we need to provide real evidence of the benefit. #UNSDG #UNECE #Sustainability
