GREEN PATH TO ESG – NEW PROJECT

VISIT OUR ‘NEWS’ PAGE TO READ MORE ABOUT OUR WORK AND DOWNLOAD FREE MATERIALS AND REPORTS

We are happy to announce, that 1/05/23 we stared our international project with the leader of the project PROJECT TARNOW, the NGO from Poland 🇵🇱

THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT is to introduce the ESG topic to both Projekt Tarnów and AUTPOST staff and to improve the professional competences of SME sector, sole traders, management staff, auditors, accountants, PR staff via the Vocational Educational Training (VET). Between 2017-2021 non-financial reporting has become a requirement for many entities. The CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) covered about 6,000 companies in the EU, including 300 entities in Poland. It will now cover more.

In few months (2023) the CSRD requires the introduction of ESG reporting from 2023 in public and private companies employing over 250 people. This will require over 30.000 of entities to put a new set of documents together based on the new regulations and still no guidance on how to properly do it. we would like to focus on the ‘G’: Management and its purpose, transparency of the organisation, stakeholder engagement, ethical behaviour, supervision of opportunities, risk management and planning.

We also would like to focus on introducing ISO 26000 as part of the ESG and the ‘G’ Governance. The adoption of the European Green Deal (Green Deal priorities) – and the EU New Taxonomy created a need for a new business management model. The priorities we have selected are crucial for the development of SMEs in Europe, which is estimated to be 23 million (2015). For many industries it means a number of activities related to the Green Deal.

The project also aims to minimise the gap in lack of links between ESG reporting (non- financial) and financial information, no real-time information, no information on how the company creates long-term value (financial and non-financial), no focus on really important aspects, no forward-looking disclosures.

Objectives:

1) Establishing cooperation between Projekt Tranów & AUTPOST

2) Establishing cooperation between Partners and organizations from EU in the field of ESG

3) Good practice exchange in the field VET on ESG for EU SMEs (interviews, design thinking workshops with international experts)

4) Developing training packages, incl. training programs with materials for SMEs to conduct training in the area of sustainable development, CSR, non-financial matters, ISO 26000 in micro companies.

The project implements all selected priorities. Directly implements the priority regarding the environment and combating climate change as an element of building knowledge, skills and attitudes in the field of climate and ESG development in the EU. Building the potential of SME staff (training programs) also supports the care of SMEs competences, and also meets the needs of today’s labour market challenges (green competences). The project will also have a real impact on the management of changes in SMEs in a dynamically changing economic environment, e.g. in terms of saving resources, reducing energy consumption and waste, offsetting greenhouse gas emissions, making choices in favor of sustainable food and mobility, etc.

Our target audience are the organisations participating in the project: Projekt Tarnów and AUTPOST, and its experts, associates, and ultimately their target groups to which they direct their activities to. Both entities will gain international context by implementing a joint project: AUTPOST Limited, by establishing cooperation as part of an educational project, strengthening cooperation with the international community of experts, and developing educational services in the field of environment; Projekt Tarnów, by expanding knowledge in the area of sustainable development, circular economy, CSR, ISO 26000 and by building professional competences dedicated to VET organisations and employers.

The project will be dedicated to the VET environment, incl. company employees, stakeholders, sole traders, large companies. Employers and employees will be direct recipients of the developed solutions. Moreover, it will also include VET educators in formal and non-formal education.

The project will include managers of enterprises from the SMEs sector, three groups in particular: a) owners b) employees in managerial positions c) employees whose executives plan to promote to managerial positions. In 2018, the EU business economy included almost 25.3 million active enterprises employing over 131 million people.

According to the data collected by Central Registration and Information on Business, in the period from 01.2019 to 03.2020, i.e. until the pandemic, the number of active economic activities in Europe increased. Since SMEs are the engine of the European economy and have a huge impact on production, the environment, and the effects of economic activities, this groups need support in the field of VET, including sustainable development, green transformation, circular economy, CSR, etc.

To the group of people managing the workplace on behalf of the the employer, we should include members of the management board in limited companies, managers of domestic and foreign subsidiaries, directors of state-owned enterprises, and in some cases managing directors, known as CEOs, who manage the company individually without being a member of the management board. These people are key in the field of enterprise management, and therefore knowledge of ESG is indispensable for them to meet the requirements of European standards.

In 2018, almost 9.4 million people in the European Union held managerial positions, of which 6 million were men (64% of all managers), and 3.4 million were women (36%) (Eurostat). By developing good practices and solutions in the field of sustainable development and green governance, the competencies of both employees and employers in VET as well as leaders in enterprises from the SMEs sector will improve: a) building a vision of SMEs in the area of sustainable development, b) creating and protecting values following the adoption of the European Green Deal c) networking.

---

Disclaimer: This project has been co-funded with support of European Union. This material reflects solely the views of authors. European Union is not responsible for any use of the information presented and publish therein.

---

Check our materials for TASK 2