CRIDO | ESG | Get your company ready for the revolution

As Europe accelerates its measures under the Green Deal, a growing number of companies and organizations will be confronted with new regulations aimed at ensuring the transparency of information concerning their environmental, social, and governance impact (ESG).

According to the draft Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSRD) that has been approved by EU Member States and will now be put to vote in the European Parliament, the reporting obligation will be gradually imposed on successive groups of organisations:

1 January 2024 (reporting in 2025): organisations subject to the current NFRD concerning ESG reporting (primarily traded companies with more than 500 employees),
1 January 2025 (reporting in 2026): all large enterprises,
1 January 2026 (reporting in 2027): small and medium-sized traded enterprises.

The reporting standards, which are currently in the consultation phase, will be a major challenge for all enterprises they apply to: both the number of disclosed indicators and the requirements for their quality will be set at a very high level.

Pressure on organisations to operate in accordance with sustainability principles will also increase on the part of their business partners who are subject to similar reporting obligations and financial institutions required to disclose the percentage of their investments compliant with the EU green taxonomy.

It will therefore be crucial to identify and quantify relevant information and data, both within the organisation and at its contractors and selected stakeholders. Collecting and analysing it is time-consuming, and many organisations and institutions already require reporting some ESG-related information, such as the carbon footprint. The data presented should be accurate and reliable.

All this makes integrating ESG issues into strategy and operating plans as well as reorganising business processes to align them with sustainability principles in the near future a must for a large group of enterprises. Diagnosing an organisation’s current status and setting it on a path it will pursue in the coming years and decades will determine its market position.

How can we help?

We offer comprehensive support in preparing the organisation to operate in the new reality. Our offer ranges from helping with the initial diagnosis (which regulations will affect your company and how), through proactively integrating sustainability aspects into your company’s strategy and business processes, to supporting you in building a solid transparent ESG report that complies with CSRD requirements. Moreover, in addition to the undoubtedly important legal compliance, thanks to our ongoing collaboration with engineers experienced in corporate energy transformation we will also provide a viable plan for gradually transforming your organisation into a fully environmentally sustainable entity.

ADJUSTMENT TO REGULATIONS

A dedicated knowledge compendium/ workshops

We present all ESG requirements your organisation is or will be subject to.

Reporting requirements, both mandatory and for the purposes of stakeholders, including in particular financial institutions and associates.
Operating requirements, including in particular with respect to the environment (e.g. carbon footprint calculation, low-carbon production, ways to disclose emissions).
Domestic and international financial support programs to help adjust your operations to ESG requirements in harmony with the EU taxonomy:
- White Certificates,
- Cohesion Fund,
- Modernisation Fund,
- Regional Operational Programmes.

CRIDO’s diagnosis includes:

Requirements specific to your organisation and industry and general requirements,
Current perspective and long-term changes.

Diagnosing regulatory compliance: study and report

We diagnose your organisation’s current compliance with ESG requirements (gap analysis) in 3 dimensions that constitute the foundation of the future mandatory reporting framework.

Strategy: To what extent are ESG issues present in your business model, strategy, and management organisation? What are significant areas of ESG impact, risks, and opportunities?
Implementation: What ESG policies are in place at your organisation? What are the objectives concerning each topic and sub-topic? To what extent do policies translate into action plans? What resources have been allocated to implement them? How much time do they require?
Performance measurement: What ESG KPIs are measured? What are the company’s KPI results? Are there any external evaluation systems to take part in?

Supporting the reporting process

We provide comprehensive reporting support, covering both the EU Green Taxonomy and the data required under the new CSRD.

Designing the reporting process (cycle):
- Identifying data sources,
- Defining ways to collect data,
- Training and involving persons assigned to the process,
- Selecting a system for data collection,
- Identifying automation possibilities,
- Assessing and evaluating the reliability of processed data,
- Industry benchmarks.
Supporting the development of contribution to the directors’ report/ non-financial report:
- Defining financial materiality and environmental and social materiality,
- Decarbonisation and climate neutrality strategy,
- Supporting the process of setting targets (including science-based targets).

CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION

Analysing energy efficiency and carbon footprint

The starting point for any company’s transformation needs be a comprehensive diagnosis of its current status. Before drafting an ESG strategy and action plans, we conduct an analysis of your company’s individual processes in terms of energy consumption and carbon footprint to present opportunities for improvement.

Analysing opportunities to improve energy efficiency: analysing the energy intensity of respective processes and proposing the implementation of appropriate measures.
Calculating the carbon footprint: knowing the organisation’s main emission sources permits setting feasible goals.
Conducting profitability studies of energy transition projects, including the use of renewable energy sources, co-generation, and Energy As A Service solutions which can support corporate decisions to set the year in which the organisation will achieve climate neutrality.

Corporate transformation strategy

For many of our Clients, the next step after conducting analyses related to ESG requirements, energy efficiency, and carbon footprint is to devise a transformation strategy. The scope of the project, involving owners, management, employees, and other stakeholders, includes:

Setting ESG targets.
Developing action plans, including identifying necessary process changes in the field of:
- technology and production processes (including production costs),
- stakeholder relations,
- supply chain management,
- market strategy (in terms of customers/ products/ distribution channels),
- sources of financing, including identifying funds for corporate transformation (White Certificates, EU and domestic subsidies),
- tax, legal, and compliance issues.
Defining indicators (KPIs) to measure progress in achieving goals and monitor the implementation of action plans.
Supporting appropriate internal and external communication of the strategy and its implementation.
Ensuring a sufficiently high scientific quality of set targets and compliance with protocols and standards to prevent greenwashing allegations.

Project management and proposing specific solutions

We provide project management for implementing the transformation strategy.

Taking responsibility for implementing the action plan within the established time-frame.
Ensuring coordination of suppliers implementing the transformation plan.
Providing operational support in implementing changes in selected areas (e.g., developing policies, digitising processes, implementing IT tools (including tools for drafting operating reports in the format specified in the ESEF regulation, i.e. XHTML), obtaining financing).
Providing change management, including personal, communication, and motivational aspects.
Drafting or amending (adjusting) documents and procedures from the legal and tax perspective in connection with implementing the ESG strategy and related business activities.
Striving to use effected changes as competitive advantages.

Using ESG-related banking products

With our high performance standards in ESG areas, in the course of our projects we identify opportunities to obtain more favourable corporate financing terms, in the form of both refinancing existing debt and obtaining new debt on more attractive terms.

Our offer encompasses:

Analysing current loan terms,
Presenting the available financing offer on the market, taking into account ESG elements (sustainability linked loans),
Supporting the process of achieving corporate compliance with the requirements of financing institutions in terms of ESG.

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