Kartenstapel

2019

Plan to make europe sustainable (transition to circular economy and renewable energy)

Three main goals:

• no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050

• economic growth decoupled from resource use

• no person and no place left behind

Key figure:

• The first climate-neutral continent by 2050

• At least 55% less net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared to 1990 levels

• 3 billion additional trees to be planted in the EU by 2030

Mobilized a huge amount of money for that.

The Green Deal is centered around 2 transitions:

• decarbonizing and

• digitilizazing

europes economy.

The Deal is no legislation! It’s a plan for the approaches and legislation that eurupe needs to pass to become sustaonable.

There is no consensus on what exactly that means for both political and economic reasons. The richer countries have started with the transition of there economies. They want to use the funds for innovation. The pourer east wants the funds to catch up with the west in terms of technology and to invest in their economies.

Challenge: What to lable as a green company?

• The rules for the 500 mio euros that the EU is supposed to raise is called Green Finance are still undecided.

• When a sector is marked sustainable they hope to draw funding to it.

A legislation based on the green deal with guidelines and regulations is the fit for 55 package-.

Setting CO2 emission performance standards for new passenger cars and for new light commercial vehicle.

15% reduction by 2025-2029, 55% by 2030-2035, and 100% from 2035 onwards

Scope and Objective:

• ETS2 targets emissions from buildings, road transport, and certain small industries.

Operational Details:

• fully operational by 2027

• 'cap and trade' system

• ETS2 places the responsibility on fuel suppliers to monitor and report emissions. These suppliers must buy allowances at auctions to cover their emissions.

Emission Reduction Targets:

• The cap for ETS2 is designed to reduce emissions by 42% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels.

Revenue and social support:

• All permits will be auctioned, and part of the revenue will fund the Social Climate Fund (SCF), which supports vulnerable households and micro-enterprises. Member States must use remaining revenues for climate and social actions and report on spending.

The Cap:

Government sets a max. amount of emissions.

The Trade:

Government sells or issues permits to emmiters of GHG. Every emitter needs a permit for every ton of GHG the emmit. The emitters can trade their permits (some companies have more permits than they need, some have less —> they can trade permits). And in that market for permits a price is established. Facing that permit price every company has an incentive to reduce emissions.

Demcember 12, 2015 at the UN Ckimate Change Conference in Paris

195 Parties (194 states plus the EU) have joined the Agreement.

Its a legally binding international treaty on climate change.

In force since November 4, 2016.

Every 5 year, each country must submit an updated climate action plan.

The Paris agreement sets long-term goals to guide all nations to:

• substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to hold global temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change

• periodically assess the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of this agreement and its long-term goals

• provide financing to developing countries to mitigate climate change, strengthen resilience and enhance abilities to adapt to climate impacts.

Aim:

• It sets out measures to prevent and limit waste from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) and their components by ensuring their reuse, recycling and recovery.

Key points:

• Vehicle and equipment manufacturers must factor in the dismantling, reuse and recovery of the vehicles when designing and producing their products. They have to ensure that new vehicles are:

  • reusable and/or recyclable to a minimum of 85% by weight per vehicle

  • reusable and/or recoverable to a minimum of 95% by weight per vehicle.

• Furthermore, the EU member states are obliged to set up take-back systems for end-of-life vehicles.

Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015 the United Nations (UN) developed 17 objectives that are to be achieved in all member states in order to achieve global peace and well being

Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures

• The TCFD’s focus is reporting on the impact an organisation has on the global climate.

• It seeks to make firms’ climate-related disclosures more consistent and therefore more comparable.

• TCFD has developed a reporting framework based on a set of consistent disclosure recommendations for use by companies as a means of providing transparency about their climate-related risk exposures to investors, lenders and insurance underwriters

Global Reporting Initiative

• international independent standards organization that helps businesses, governments, and other organizations understand and communicate their impacts on issues such as climate change, human rights, and corruption

• provides a comprehensive sustainability reporting framework

• modular system comprising 3 series of standards

  • GRI Universal Standards

  • GRI Sector

  • GRI Topic Standards

• The Standards contain disclosures, which provide a structured means for an organization to report information

  about itself and its impacts.

• disclosures can have requirements and can also include recommendations

• Requirements list the information an organization must report or instructions it must comply with and report

• recommendations indicate that certain information, or a particular course of action, is encouraged though not compulsory

Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures

Initiative aimed at providing financial institutions and companies with a framework to report and act on evolving nature-related risks.

• TCFD is focused solely on disclosure of climate-related risks and opportunities,ddressing how factors like greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impact financial performance.

• TNFD recommendations encourage companies to produce integrated climate-nature disclosures, rather than just nature disclosures, and also to develop appropriate risk management processes. The idea is that TNFD biodiversity and nature-loss data will complement companies’ existing climate disclosures.

• TNFD recommendations cover certain topics that are out of the TCFD’s scope because they are not directly climate-related. For example, the TNFD calls on organisations to consider impacts like plastics in the ocean food chain, changes to soil fertility triggered by land use changes, and air quality deterioration.

Objectives (ChatGPT)

• TCFD aims to enable organizations to provide better information on climate risks to promote more informed financial decisions and investments in climate solutions.

• TNFD seeks to do the same by integrating nature-related risks into financial planning, helping redirect capital flows towards more sustainable and nature-positive practices.

Assurance in the context of reporting:

• obtaining an independent expert's opinion on the reported information to enhance its credibility and reliability

• Limited assurance is a type of assurance engagement in which the external assurance expert focuses on reducing the risk of material misstatement to an acceptable level. The focus is on understanding the process that led to the preparation of the reported information, using interviews, observations, and analytical procedures.

• In a limited assurance engagement, the auditor performs fewer tests than in a reasonable assurance engagement. The amount of work for a limited assurance engagement is therefore less than for a reasonable assurance engagement

• It is required in the CSRD that companies have assurance on their sustainability information.

• The CSRD expects specific standards for limiting assurance to be in place by October 1st 2026. 

• The CSRD outlines a progressive approach to enhancing assurance levels. Initially the companies are required to have limited assurance but the CSRD plans to have standards for reasonable assurance of sustainability reporting in place by October 1st 2028.

“Single materiality” refers to how climate and other ESG risks and opportunities impact an organization’s financial performance and position.

• identify risks and opportunities that could substantively affect operations, earnings, physical assets, and other elements that contribute to enterprise value

•  approach focuses solely on impacts to the organization, rather than the organization’s impacts on the climate and environment

“double materiality” considers both the effects an organization has on the climate and environment and the potential impact of these factors on its financial performance

• double materiality approach recognizes that organizations contribute to, and are affected by, climate change

• more complex and comprehensive than single materiality assessments as they extend beyond an organization’s internal operations to include its influence on society, the environment, and the broader climate agenda

• double materiality approach is embedded in the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which apply to companies covered by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)

• ‘The undertaking shall report on sustainability matters based on the double materiality principle as defined and explained in this chapter’ (ESRS)

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive

• mandatory for large companies within the EU

• Part of the EU Green Deal

• objectives:

  • Enhancing Consistency and Comparability: The CSRD aims to standardise sustainability reporting, making it more uniform and facilitating comparisons between companies.

  • Improving Quality and Reliability: By introducing mandatory disclosure standards, the CSRD seeks to ensure that sustainability information is high-quality, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions.

  • Promoting Sustainability Progress: The CSRD encourages companies to identify and address sustainability impacts, risks, and opportunities, fostering improved management of ESG concerns.

European Sustainability Reporting Standard

• complements the CSRD

• delineated the specific on how companies should report sustainability information to comply with the directive

• provides a structured framework for reporting, covering a range of environmental, social, and governance aspects

• objectives:

  • Standardising Reporting: The ESRS is designed to ensure that sustainability reporting is accurate, consistent, and comparable across the EU. It aligns with existing reporting frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations.

• Structure:

  • The ESRS comprises two overarching standards (ESRS 1 and 2) and ten topical standards (ESRS E1 to E10), addressing a spectrum of sustainability issues, from general principles to specific environmental, social, and governance matters.

Summary:

ESRS is a reporting standard that will be used to meet the requirements of the EU CSRD.

CSRD sets out reporting requirements and obligations, the ESRS provide the framework and methodology for reporting.

The CSRD sets the legal framework and reporting obligations, while the ESRS provides the roadmap for compliance.

• provides guidance and direction on how an organization should manage and mitigate its impact on the environment

• ISO 14001 is the internationally recognized standard for environmental management systems (EMS). It provides a framework for organizations to design and implement an EMS, and continually improve their environmental performance. By adhering to this standard, organizations can ensure they are taking proactive measures to minimize their environmental footprint, comply with relevant legal requirements, and achieve their environmental objectives. The framework encompasses various aspects, from resource usage and waste management to monitoring environmental performance and involving stakeholders in environmental commitments.

• critical to the operation of the EMS as specified by ISO14001:2015, in terms of achievement against set objectives and continual improvement

• regocnozed management system methodology

• compulsory within ISP14001:2015

Plan: the establishement of objectives, and processes that may deliver them, in harmony with the enviornmental policy established by the organization.

Do: the implementation of the planned process.

Check: the monitoring and measuring of results versus the environmentak policy, including all commitments, objectives, and criteria, and the reporting of them.

Act: the consequent actions taken to ensure continual improvement.

• Context of the organization

• Leadership

• Planning

• Support

• Operation

• Performance evaluation

• Improvement

1) Understanding the organization and its context

• clause required the organization to detemine all internla and external issues that may be relevant to the achievement of the objectives of the EMS itself

2) Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties

• the organization has to assess who the interested parties are in terms of its EMS, what their nees and expectations may be, and consequently, if any of these should become compliance obligation

3) Determine the scope of the EMS

• The scope and boundries of the EMS must now be thoroughly examined and defined considering the aforementioned interested parties and their needs, plus resulting compliance oligations

• consider EMS functions and physical boundires, and all products, services, and activities, inclusing the organization’s ability to exert and control external factors, with the result of the whole definition included in the EMS and kept critically as ‘documented information.’

4) EMS

• the standard indicated that an EMS should be established to achieve the outcomes by using interacting processes and using the information specified in 1) and 2) to deliver continual improvement

1) Leadership and commitment

• organization and top management responsible for all internal and erxternal performance factors

• environmental policy and objectives are alligned with each other

• provisions for rescources to ensure EMS can be operated efficiently

• top mangement must ensure that the people with responsibility within the ESM have correct support, training and guidance to complete their tasks

• communication methods and frequencies must be defined and established for both internal and external interested parties

2) Environmental Policy

• top mangement have the responsibility to establish an environmental policy

• policy should include commitment to pollution prevention, environmental protection, and all factors contexual to the organization itself.

• method for capturing and recording compliance and regulartory factors must be established

• environmental policy must provide a commitment to the continual improvement of the EMS and its results.

• environmental policy must be maintained as documented information, be communicated within the organization and be available to all interested parties.

3) Organizational Roles, responsibilities and authorities

• top mangement must ensure that roles, responsibilities and authorities are delegated and communicated effectively.

• top mangement must ensure that the EMS meets the terms of ISO14001 and that the EMS performance can be accurately reported to top management.

• outlines commitment to reduce its impact on the environment, and

  provides a framework for setting objectives and targets to

  improve the environmental performance of the organization

• There is no standard format for an environmental policy. The policy should be specific to the organisation and relevant to its activities. It should be realistic, achievable and a serious

  commitment to reduce environmental impact.

As a minimum your environmental policy should contain a commitment to:

• Continually improve environmental performance by monitoring progress against targets and objectives on a regular basis

• Prevent pollution and reduce impact on the environment

• Comply with relevant environmental legislation

You may also want to include commitments relating to:

• Efficient use of water and energy

• Efficient use of other natural resource

• Recycling

• Minimising waste

• Sustainable transport

• Responsible purchasing

• Minimising noise disturbance

• Use of non-toxic products (e.g. biodegradable cleaning products and VOC-free paints)

• Working with clients and suppliers to encourage high environmental standards.

• Raising awareness and training employees on environmental issue

Your policy should be:

• A maximum of one side of A4.

• Signed by management.

• Dated and reviewed annually.

• Communicated to all your staff.

• Made available to the public for example on your website or on the wall in reception.

1) Actions to adress risks and opportunities

• risks and opprtunities must be considered in respect of the organization, the needs and expectations of interested parties and the scope of the ESM, legal and regzulatory issues and the organization’s environmental aspects

• —> to avoid that any external factors may affect performance and continual improvement can be achieved

1.2) Environmental aspect

• organization shall consider, from a life cycle perpective, all environmental aspects of its products, services and activities

• changes or plannes future changes also have to be considered

• the organization needs to maintain documented information on this clause and communication needs to be planned and undertaken frequently

1.3) Compliance Obligations

• The organizatíon must decide what obligations are related to its environmental aspects and how to best access them, decide how they apply to the organization, and take them into consideration when establishing, operating, and deliverling continual improvement through EMS.

• Documented evidence needs to be recorded for these obligations too

1.4) Planning actions:

• plan to take actions to address environmental aspect, risk and opportunities and compliance obligations

• these need to be implemented into the organization’s EMS and associazed buisness processes.

• the task of evaluating the effectiveness of these actions also must be considered.

2) Environmental objectives and planning to achieve them

2.1) Environmental Objectives:

• environmental objectives should be established having considered the idenified environmental aspects (An environmental aspect is the way your activity, service, or product impacts the environment.), risk and opportunities, and compliance obligations.

• objectives needs to be consistent with the environmental policy, measureable, monitorable, communicated effectively, and be such that they can b eupdated when circumstances require.

2.2) Planning to achieve environmental objectives

• what needs to be done, when it needs to be done by, what rescources are required to achieve them, who is responsible for the objectives being achieved, how are results measured, how can the objectives be implemented into existing buisness systems

1) Rescources

• organization must make rescources to achieve objectives available

2) Competence

• people that are given responsibility for EMS tasks are capable and confident

• make sure that this level of confidence exists otherwise train them

• documented

3) Awareness

• employes must be made aware of the environmental policy and its contents, any current or future impacts that may affect their tasks, what their personal performance means to the EMS and its objectives.

4) Communication

4.1) General

• internal and external communication need to be established and recorded as documented information within the EMS (Ich denke mal so MOM mäßig)

4.2) Internal Communication

• frequent communication

• communication with the goal to improve

4.3) External communication

• ensure that communication relevant to the EMS takes place with the goal of ensuring compliance obligations and objectives met

5) Documented information

5.1) General

• the EMS should include all documented information that is declared mandatory, and also anything viewed as critical to the EMS and its operation

5.2) Creating and updating

5.3) Control of documented information

• documentation should be available and fit for purpose where and when needed

• documentation should be protected against damage or loss

1) Operational control and planning

• processes shall be designed in such way that consistency is guaranteed and error eliminated, technology is used to improv control, and it is ensured that personell are trained and competent

• outscourced processes must also be considered and controlled

2) Emergency preparedness and control

• key element of mitigation of environmental risk

• the company shall be prepared for emergeny incidences, actions in place, communication methods and methods for emergency response.

• regular emergency response testing and relevant training needs to be considered and undertaken, and assenly routes and evacuation procedures defined and communicated

1) Monitoring, measuring, analysis and evaluation

1.1) General

• measure environmental progress

• consider significant aspects, compliance obligations, and operational controls

• methods established should ensure thet the monitoring and measuring periods are allignes with the needs of the EMS for data and results, the results are accuarte, consistent, and can be reproduces and used to identify trends

• results should be reported to personell with authority and responsibility to initiate action on the basis of the outputs themselves

1.2) Evaluation and compliance

• the organization should act upon non compliances with legal requirements

2) Internal Audit

2.1) General

• internal audits and auditors should be independent

• non-conformities should be subject to corrective actions

2.2) Internal audit program

• internal audit frequency should be based on organization in terms of size, sector, compliance obligations, and risk to the environment

3) Management review

• complaints from intrested parties should be reviewed by top mangement with resultant improvement opportunities identified

• management review must be documneted

1) General

• outputs from management review, internal audits, comliance and performance evaluation should be used to form the basis for improvement actions.

2) Nonconformity and corrective action

• prevention of incidents is a key facet of the EMS, and this is specifically addressed in the definition of organizational context and assessing risks and opportunities.

Supply chains can be broken down into a system of “Tiers” based on closeness to your business or final product.

Tier 1: Partners that you directly conduct business with, including contracted manufacturing facilities or production partners.

Tier 2: The sources where your Tier 1 suppliers get their materials

Tier 3: Tier 3 suppliers or partners are one step further removed from a final product and typically work in raw materials.

Drive Sustainability is a partnership of 15 leading automotive companies leading the transformation towards a circular and sustainable automotive value chain by leveraging a common voice in its engagement with suppliers, stakeholders and related sectors.

We build our activities on the following three levels:

1. Giving guidance

2. Ensuring compliance with the common guiding principles

3. Building capacity to implement sustainability solutions

The intention is for dangers to the environment to be prevented from arising in the first place. The precautionary principle therefore leads us to act in good time and with foresight in order to avoid environmental pollution.

The two dimensions of the precautionary principle are risk prevention and taking care of resources. Risk prevention means that, in the event of incomplete or uncertain knowledge of the nature, extent, probability and causality of environmental damage and dangers, one acts in a precautionary manner to prevent such environmental damage from the outset. Taking care of resources means handling natural resources such as water, soil and air with a view to their long-term conservation in the interest of future generations.

European Union's environmental policy is also based on the precautionary principle

The polluter pays principle is a simple idea at the core of EU environmental policy: those responsible for environmental damage should pay to cover the costs.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) means that obligated producers are responsible for the end of life collection and treatment for certain products.

• low for waste management at EU level

• applies waste hierachy, polluter pays principle and extended producer responsibilty

• sets requirments regarding permits, planning and reporting as well as targets to be met by EU countries

• Provides specific mangement procedures for hazardous waste

• Main law for water protection in Europe

• classification system for water quality

• list of prioroty substances that member states must monitor in surface waters

  
  

• EU-wide classification system

  • defines criterias for economic activities that align with a net zero trajectory by 2050 and borader enviironmental goals

• supports objectives of the EU Green Deal

• Key to the EU’s sustainable finance framework - Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth

• Improves market transparancy

• helps to direct investments towards sustainability

• 6 objectives:

  • Climate Change Mitigation

  • Climazte Change Adaption

  • Sustainale Use and Protection of Water and Marine Rescources

  • Transition to a Circular Economy

  • Pollution Prevention and Contol

  • Protection and Restoration of Biodiversity and Ecosystems

A "regulation" is a binding legislative act. It must be applied in its entirety across the EU.

A "directive" is a legislative act that sets out a goal that EU countries must achieve. However, it is up to the individual countries to devise their own laws on how to reach these goals.

A "decision" is binding on those to whom it is addressed (e.g. an EU country or an individual company) and is directly applicable.

Standards are recommendations and using a standard is voluntary. (My thoughts: Sometimes following a standard is needed to fulwill a certain directive)

• Cap and trade system to reduce emissions via a carbon market

• polluters pay for their greenhouse emissions

• cap is reduces annually in the aim of meeting future emissions targets

• one allowance gives the right to emit one tonne of CO2eq

• Companies are required to surrender enough allowance to fully account for their emissions each year

• Revenues from the EU ETS —> national buget

• Its a directive

• Context of the organization

  • understanding the organization and its context

  • UN Sustainability goals, national goals, policycontext

  • Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties

• Stakeholder analysis

  • Internal (resources available, competence,infrastructure etc.)

  • External (regulations, laws, customerrequirements etc.)

  • Value chain – identify actors• Relevance and priorities → requirements on theorganization e.g. mandatory compliance,customer demands or volontary good to have

• Risks and opportunities

  • risk analysis

  • swot analysis

• Significant environmental aspects

• eliminate waste by designing products so they are part of a lifecycle where they can either be composted and become nutrients, or be reused in new products

• In a circular economy, products and materials are kept in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting.

• Sharing enhances use life —>consumption without increased resource use

• companies that offer these platforms still own the produtcs —> easier for reverse logistics , better maintenance …

• developed by Hart and Milstein

• strategic tool (a digital platform or framework that helps business leaders plan, implement and monitor their long-term goals and visions)

• holistic approach for organisations to integrate sustainability into their core business strategies

• to help companies create value while simultaneously addressing environmental and social issues

• builds on the idea that sustainability is not just about reducing negative impacts but actively creating positive outcomes for society and the environment

• central tenet of the framework is value creation: Hart and Milstein argue that by addressing sustainability challenges, companies can create long-term value for themselves and society —-> win-win for companies and planet

• highlights the importance of engaging with a broad range of stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, communities, and regulatory bodies) to understand sustainability challenges and opportunities

• the framework underscores that sustainability should be part fo the organisation’s DNA

• sustainable value = the value that is created when addressing sustainability within organizations

The Matrix:

The vertical axis of this matrix represents time while the horizontal axis represents the organisation, with an internal perspective on the left and an external perspective on the right. Hart and Milstein propose that most businesses generate value in the four quadrants defined within this matrix:

• coorperate social responsibility is a buisness model by which companies make a concerted effor to opperate in ways that enhance rather than degrade society and environment

• can improve society and brand image

• includes 4 categories

  • environmental impact

  • ethical responsibility

  • philantrophic endeavors

  • financial responsibility

Inside-out thinking means your focus is on processes, systems, tools, and products that are designed and implemented based on internal thinking and intuition. The customer’s needs, jobs, and perspectives do not play a part in this type of thinking; they aren’t taken into consideration. You make decisions because you think it’s what’s best for the business – not for customers. Or you think you know what’s best for customers.

Outside-in thinking means that you look at your business from the customer’s perspective and subsequently design processes, tools, and products and make decisions based on what’s best for the customer and what meets the customer’s needs. You make decisions because you know it’s what’s best for your customers. Why? Because you listen to them, and you understand them and the jobs they are trying to do.

• How can we reach our sustainability targets profitably?

• What is our strategy - are we leading or following? Why?

• How should we balance an dapproach sustainability actions that are profitable and ones that are not?

• Where should we focus if change needs to be driven at different levels, e.g. creating customer demands, supply chain?

• How should we manage this when the future is uncertain?

• found in sustainable buisness models and CE

• Producer is reponsible for the life cycle

  • created incentives for producer to use less material and make sure it’s used efficiently —> dematrialization, longer life

  • good quality product and less need of maintenance and spare parts —> reduced cost and material, longer life

  • Producer with most product knowledge is in charge of the product life cycle —> efficient use and maintenance, longer life

  • Producer still owns product during use —> take back easier, facilate reuse or remanufacture