By: Paco Álvarez, Co-director of the Sustainability Leaders Program
Four years ago I published on my website (www.labolsaylavida.org) a series of videos in which I tried, in all simplicity, to describe the true meaning of the words “Economy”,“Company", and "sustainability”. I did it because, after four years in my role as Director General of Sustainable Economy, Entrepreneurship and Cooperativism of the Valencian Community government, I attended hundreds of events and meetings in which a clearly erroneous meaning of these words, and many others, appeared. “Economy” was only equal to money; “Company” was only equal to doing business with a businessman and workers; “Sustainability” was exclusively equal to caring for the environment.
A serious mistake, because “Economy” comes from the Greek oikosnemein, which means the management of the house, and it is true that money is needed in a house, but education is also needed, equitably sharing what there is in the house… and keeping the house clean.
A serious mistake, because it is true that a company has to do business and needs an entrepreneur and workers, but does a company exist without clients, without suppliers, without financiers, without the social environment in which it is located?
It is a serious mistake to think that Sustainability is only related to the environment. Sustainability is the intersection of three spheres: economic, social and environmental, and this word can only be used if we do the following exercise: analyze the impacts produced in the other two spheres when we make a decision in one of them.
After returning to active retirement, I have rejoined the international movement of Economy of the Common Good And, as a representative of this movement, I have since participated in the working groups that are drafting the European directives known by the acronyms CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Report Directive), CS3D (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive), ESAP (European Single Access Point) and everything related to the Regulation Taxonomy. One of my pleasant surprises has been that, in the debates that have taken place and are taking place around these directives, the need has emerged to clarify the meaning of the words “Economy” (in the original sense of “house management”), “company” (to differentiate it from the word “business”) and “Sustainability” (to recover the meaning given to it by the Brundtland report that the UN approved in 1986)… It was about time!
The CSRD directive is the one that has replaced the NFRD (Non Financial Report Directive) so in Europe we no longer talk about non-financial reports, we talk about Sustainability reports.
The CSRD was approved by the European Parliament in November last year, and the EU has tasked EFRAG regulatory development. This body has already issued a draft on the requirements that companies with more than 250 employees must meet and has created working groups in which I participate to determine the minimum requirements that will be required of listed SMEs and SMEs in general, although, for the latter, submitting annual sustainability reports will be voluntary for the moment... the word “for the moment” is important.
Based on the above, it is clear that within a few years, all companies, including SMEs, will have to submit sustainability reports, not only because they are required to do so by directives, but also because they will not be eligible for European aid, loans or collaborations on large-scale projects without submitting such reports. For this reason, many questions have arisen in the recent discussions of the EFRAG working groups, among which I would highlight the following:
- Do companies, in general, have people trained to prepare the reports that will be required?
- Can SMEs, particularly smaller ones, prepare the reports?
- Are there currently people trained to be consultants or auditors of these reports? (Let us not forget that, in particular, audits must be carried out by people outside the companies, as is currently the case with financial audits).
Training is the key word to answer these questions; an absolutely necessary training in which the University, in close collaboration with the business world, has a lot to say. That is the main reason why I consider that the training program “Leaders in Sustainability”, proposed by the Cátedra de Empresa y Humanismo of the University of Valencia, is the answer, and I am not saying this because I am the co-director of the course, I am saying this because this training is in line with what the EU is requesting, which is that there are graduates who are properly trained and, if possible, from officially recognised higher education entities.
It is about training for high employability, since in the coming months (years) thousands of people with the appropriate knowledge will be needed.
He University Diploma “Leaders in Sustainability” is offered through ADEIT as a degree from the University of Valencia and is designed for both recent graduates and active professionals. The syllabus is fully updated and responds to the concerns expressed by various interest groups: Public Administrations –EU; Different levels of the State Administration– actors directly involved in the process –auditing, certification and verification entities–, associations, companies and professionals with extensive experience in the management of corporate social responsibility and sustainability.
For the sake of the future of our companies… We need to get our act together!
If you are curious about the Sustainability Leaders Diploma and you want more information, click here.
