Two out of three Greengoats are embedded in different stages of presumed Corona fog, but we are not worse off than that we can both think and listen to the world around us.
So, we spent the morning discussing with our friend, Professor Arne Fagerström at the University of Gävle. He expressed a bit of frustration at the general arbitrariness of corporate sustainability reporting, regardless of which index or protocol companies use.
“You are free to report what you like and it often ends up as propaganda”, he says.
He advocates adding the company’s or organization’s effects on the environment and socially in the traditional results and balance sheets. The results can then be revised by an auditor and provide both transparency and comparability – from year to year and between different companies and organizations.
True ambition
To honor this Friday, Fossil free Sweden had gathered a team of wise people with insight in the sustainability issue today. The whole seminar was actually about finding a common language for sustainability. The true ray of hope was that companies seem to step up really struggle to be transparent in their reporting. It’s not about greenwashing and empty talk. Karin Amnå, Sustainability Strategist at the ICA Group explained that ICA is already including their suppliers in the sustainability work, but now, they will also include their customers’ purchasing behavior going forward. Emilia Hagberg, Senior Sustainability Manager at Skanska, also described that they are digging deeper and deeper to affect where they can do the most impact.
“The majority of our greenhouse emissions do not origin from our own operations, but at our suppliers. That’s where we need to act”, she said.
The EU Taxononomy provide transparency
There are a lot of positive things happening right now. If EU’s taxonomy becomes reality, the finance sector will get clearer guidelines on which companies are environmentally sustainable. This will put pressure on larger companies, who in turn will put pressure on their suppliers. To be relevant tomorrow, more than beautiful words are required. You need to have a true ambition to work sustainably and not wait for rules and regulations to guide you. Or, as Andreas Follér, Sustainability Manager at Scania said:
“We don’t want to be dragged backwards into the future. We want to lead it.”
A good illustration of a hopeful Friday. Have a good week-end!
