A Barometer to Track the Industry’s Progress Towards Climate Neutrality
The European Sustainable Industry Barometer, developed by CSR Europe and Moody’s Vigeo Eiris, will gauge the annual progress made by companies and industry federations on ESG and climate issues.
Companies, large and small, and industry federations are increasingly asked to adopt a sustainable and inclusive approach to growth, leaving no one behind and decoupling economic development from environmental degradation. Some of them, like the companies involved in Drive Sustainability, Responsible Trucking, Upskill For Future, and industry federations like Gas Distributor 4 Sustainability and the European Fruit and Juice Association are already shaping the next frontier of sustainability: they engage in sector and cross-sector collaborations to scale up their impact on the ground.
As actions are taken, how can we keep track of the progress made and identify where additional efforts are needed?
CSR Europe is currently working with Moody’s Vigeo Eiris on the development of the European Sustainable Industry Barometer. The new instrument was presented on 22 February at the EU Industry Week 2021. “The essential idea behind the Barometer is to provide interested parties with a solid instrument to gauge annual progress on ESG and climate issues.”, said Keeran Gwilliam-Beeharee, Vigeo Eiris Executive Director.
The Barometer will look at industry federations and sectors overall in Europe:
To provide a clear view on the ESG challenges faced
To provide a benchmark to showcase:
CSR Europe’s European Industry Federation ISIF scores.
V.E’s existing ESG and Climate scores for corporate and European sectors.
To provide a pathway for entertaining discussion and debate around critical ESG challenges faced by industries within Europe.
The Barometer will take the form of a Report, whose first edition will be presented at the European SDG Summit, in October 2021.
The Methodology
The Barometer will rely on two different methodologies, developed respectively by V.E and CSR Europe.
V.E will will contribute to the instrument with:
The ESG Assessment Methodology – to assess the managerial approach of companies to tackle material ESG factors.
The Energy Transition Methodology – to capture the extent to which companies are positioned to support the transition to a low carbon economy.
As a result of the assessment, companies will receive a score from 0 (weak) to 100 (advanced).
On the other hand, CSR Europe will contribute to the Barometer with the Integration of Sustainability in Industry Federations (ISIF) Measurement Model. The methodology assesses an Industry Federation’s policy, direction, organisation, activities, and communication on sustainability criteria. For the first edition, 20 Federations will be interviewed between May-June with the purpose of generating for each a score from 0 to 10.
Year on year, the Barometer will gauge progress in a systematic, structured manner and understand where progress is being made on multiple levels. The report will also include trend data, best practices, and offer sector context and analysis. Finally, the Barometer will complement the data collected by the European Commission in its annual report on the SDGs.
The Barometer is the key benchmarking tool of the European Pact for Sustainable Industry, CSR Europe’s leading initiative to make the Green Deal a success.
If Europe wants to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and overcome challenges like climate change, sustainability must become everyone’s business. For this reason, the Pact for has set ambitious targets to:
Support European industry sectors and federations in setting the direction for thousands of their enterprises by gradually rolling-out a mature and holistic Sustainability Strategy by 2024.
Have 10.000 companies engaged with their sectors, value chain peers, and other relevant stakeholders in collaborative action.
Overall, the European Pact for Sustainable Industry contributes to the achievement of the European Green Deal and is aligned with the European Climate Pact. Elena Visnar Malinovska, DG CLIMA’s Adaptation Head of Unit, made the point in recognising that “the Climate Pact is about bringing together everyone who wants to take action for our planet and give everyone the opportunity to get involved in the green transition and inspire each other”.
For more information:
Project Manager, Eu Affairs