The Green Claims Directive, the new SBTi guidelines & our webinar on sustainable business transformation

We’re excited to share our very first monthly digest with you. This edition covers insights on The EU's Green Claims Directive, SBTi’s new sector-specific guidance on real estate and an exploration of why there’s no way around companies having to understand their value chain impacts. We also introduce you to our upcoming webinar on sustainable business model transformation, our financial services impact investing survey and the ESRS Accelerator — aiming to help your company prepare for the upcoming sustainability reporting regulations.

Our upcoming webinar with Viessmann

On April 9th, we are hosting a new webinar delving into the remarkable sustainability journey of Viessmann, a company leader in the heating and cooling industry. We will explore the practicalities of how this German powerhouse is redefining its business model to meet ambitious sustainability targets, aiming to generate 30% of total revenue from circular business models by 2030.

The speakers are Andreas Wade , Group Sustainability Director at Viessmann and driving force behind the company’s sustainability strategy and Sven Beyersdorff , partner and co-founder of Nordic Sustainability leading the strategy and finance sector work within the company.

You can sign up here .

The Green Claims Directive setting a new sustainability standard

The Green Claims Directive was passed by the EU in February, setting a new standard for environmental transparency. We've dissected the Directive to understand its implications for businesses and the shifts it foresees.

Here are our main takeaways:

1. The Directive targets greenwashing by ensuring environmental claims are backed by solid data and scientific research. Enhancing reliability in the marketplace.
2. It introduces stringent criteria for environmental claims, demanding transparency and lifecycle assessment establishing a more holistic approach that enforces accuracy.
3. SMEs are also in focus, with measures to ensure they're not disproportionately burdened by the new regulations.

Find out more about the directive here .

Your corporate responsibility extends (way) beyond just your own operations

In the world of corporate sustainability, gone are the days when responsibility ended at your company's front door. With a shift towards value-chain responsibility, remember the following:?

1. Your company’s impacts may arise from business relationships, contributions to broader industry effects, or other more indirect connections within the value chain that go way beyond just first-tier suppliers.?

2. The materiality of an impact is not lessened by the company’s distance or control over the impact, nor from its leverage over the situation.

Read the article to find out how your company can approach sustainability moving forward.

New SBTi guidelines on real estate

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The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has rolled out new guidance specific to real estate?(with ramifications going beyond the sector), pushing for ambitious decarbonisation of building-related emissions.The building sector is a significant contributor to GHG emissions. However, the SBTi's latest guidelines are targeting both operational and embodied emissions from our urban landscapes.

The clock is ticking, with a six-month window post-pilot program in late 2024 for companies to set SBTi-compliant targets for building-related emissions.

Who's affected? Construction firms, property developers, asset managers, and more — if your emissions or real estate portfolio hits certain benchmarks, it's time to act.

What's new? Regional targets, a focus on building materials, and a 'whole-building' approach to GHG accounting, among other strategic shifts.

Read the full post here .

Preparing you for the future: the ESRS Accelerator

Navigating the complexities of new sustainability reporting mandates can be challenging for many organisations. To address this, we've created the ESRS Accelerator, designed to help you achieve your reporting objectives efficiently.

Leveraging insights from comprehensive double materiality assessments conducted with some of the largest Danish firms, we've designed a concise four-course bootcamp. This program (held in Danish) is tailored to deliver optimal results and includes:

• Comprehensive access and training with the top ESRS tools available
• Expert-led instruction and collaborative sessions with our foremost ESRS specialists
• An opportunity to build a professional network with peers from various companies

?You can sign up for the ESRS Accelerator here.

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?A trillion-dollar shift: impact investing's surge and challenge

?Valued at?$1 trillion?in 2022 and expected to reach?$4.5 trillion by the end of 2023, the impact investment market continues to gain traction and attention.?However, investing ‘responsibly’ by only avoiding ‘sin’ industries and mitigating negative impacts is no longer enough.

Society, investors, and regulators now look to their investments to create positive and measurable social and environmental impact alongside financial returns.?Thanks to regulatory and industry standards such as SDFR and GIIN, the definition of a positive impact has become more clearly defined. Still, two key challenges remain:

1. How do you create your fund/investment product in a way that meets the new standards of impact?
2. How to then communicate these efforts credibly and authentically to avoid greenwashing claims and stand out from the crowd?

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Nordic Sustainability has partnered with Fin International, a branding and creative agency specialising in the investment industry. Together, we aim to get under the bonnet of the challenges faced by the investment sector with regards to both the accomplishment and communication of impact investing.

We want to gain a comprehensive understanding of this problem by conducting market research both from an outside-in and inside-out perspective. This will enable us to not only better comprehend the current challenges, but also help you gauge your position in comparison to your peers.

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If you would like to contribute, please click?here .

Thank you for reading the first edition of our newsletter. If you think a fellow sustainability nerd would need to hear about the latest sustainability news, forward this email to them. We want this newsletter to be a two-way conversation. Share your thoughts and questions with us here?and join our?virtual events .?

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