Access my space
Our members are recruitingTICKET OF THE WEEK
By Luca Silipo, Head of Geodis Research and founder of GEODIS WorldLab
European Taxonomy, Speaking the same language to face the climate emergency together
Declarations of intent are not enough to save the planet. Effective action is needed. An essential lever is to adopt the same reading grid to align practices, measure or compare progress and enable the financial system to help companies that are committed to their green transition. And, consequently, avoid the greenwashing of overly marketing presentations!
This is the role of the European taxonomy. This classification identifies economic activities that have a positive impact on the environment. This regulation, adopted in 2020, is implemented in 2022. It has been designed for sustainable finance by allowing to orient the investments of financial institutions for which it will be more costly to finance companies that do not show significant progress in their transition.
In particular, this concerns all listed companies with more than 500 employees and annual sales of more than 40 million euros. Since 2014, they have already had to carry out non-financial reporting. From now on, they will have to go further by specifying the proportion of their turnover, investments and expenditure in so-called "green" activities.
Six objectives have been defined, ranging from climate change mitigation to the transition to a circular economy, from pollution control to the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems. Two of them (climate change mitigation and adaptation) are active from 2022. Before the end of this year, companies must launch an introspection to identify their activities covered ("eligible") by the taxonomy.
In 2023, they will have to master four new concepts for reporting. For example, they will have to define whether their activity is mitigating or adapting to climate change and by how much of a percentage of the company's turnover. Another is the DNSH concept, which stands for "do not significantly harm", and which will indicate whether a green activity, while contributing to one of the two objectives, "does not significantly harm" the other.
The implementation of the taxonomy is quite complex. As of today, companies will have to set up a system to accurately report on their green and non-green activities.
Ultimately, this collective approach makes it possible to adopt a common language that can be understood by all: competitors, customers, suppliers, financial services, etc., in Europe and even beyond. Actions will then be better coordinated for more positive impact in favour of the planet.
HIGHLIGHTS
Urban logistics on the agenda of the presidential candidates?
Rightly considered by logistics professionals as a real headache, urban delivery deserves to appear in the presidential campaign programmes. Some candidates touch on the subject through themes such as the energy transition or the fight against global warming, but none of them approaches the subject from a pragmatic and operational angle. However, at a time when citizens are increasingly turning to online sales, the problem of the last mile concerns the population as much as sales and distribution professionals. Does this mean that the political world is not interested in the subject? No, but national leaders prefer to rely on local initiatives, which are subject to obligations and constraints that very often exceed their scope of action. So to show that they are not standing still, some towns are improvising pseudo "logistics areas" in underground car parks or more or less well equipped premises. It is clear that these areas cannot be considered as real ULEs, which, let's remember, are intended to reduce or even eliminate lorries within cities. To act effectively, politicians should take up the issue at national level and the legislator should "encourage" cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants to requisition land on the outskirts and organise logistics zones in buildings specially designed to break down goods before they are delivered by non-polluting vehicles in the city. This is a proposal that could be taken up by our dear candidates.
NOT TO BE MISSED
The European Taxonomy: Corporate Sustainability
On 28 January, Lucas Silipo, head of Geodis, gave an overview of the objective of making companies stronger and more resilient based on the European taxonomy.
Events
Find all the events around the Supply Chain.
