4 April 2022 - Green transition and sustainable economy no longer have an alternative, and companies that acknowledge that will do business with a greater return on investments and easier access to cheaper sources of financing, it was said at a conference in Zagreb on Monday.
The event, entitled "With ESG Criteria towards Sustainable Economy - Future Perfect Business", was organised by the International Institute for Climate Action (IICA), Media Val and the Croatian Employers Association (HUP), as part of the Future Perfect Business initiative and with the partnership of the European Commission.
Its purpose is to open a broad debate on the need to raise awareness of the sustainability of the economy and society and implement new EU regulations on environmental protection.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are a set of business standards for companies which environmentally aware investors use for potential investments.
Addressing the event, Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Tomislav Ćorić said companies in Croatia recognised sustainable, green business as the direction in which to go, confident that in a few years' time the success of firms competing on the global market would depend on business sustainability based on principles of sustainable development.
The minister said he was confident the Croatian business community would do its best to use the available funds to become globally competitive, thus enabling GDP growth and better living standards and promoting sustainable development.
IICA president Marija Pujo Tadić said that ESG criteria were one of the tools to help in the transition to a low-carbon sustainable economy and in the fight against climate change, and that their introduction would soon become obligatory for corporations and their managers.
"Businesses that recognise that, face the challenges and start implementing the necessary processes to achieve ESG goals will do business with a higher return on investments and better access to cheaper sources of financing than companies that continue to manage their resources in the traditional way," she said.
HUP director Mihael Furjan said HUP was involved in defining legislative and regulatory frameworks related to energy efficiency, social responsibility and new sources of financing at the EU level and provided its members with education and counselling. He expressed confidence that ESG criteria were the basis for achieving greater added value, better jobs and greater competitiveness.
In that context, the HUP director mentioned the Pliva pharmaceutical company and its many initiatives aimed at making its business greener, with one of the biggest being a project to build a big solar power plant on an area of 13 hectares in Savski Marof.
