ISO 14001:2015 and the need for Sustainability Reporting
“Radical transparency converts the chains that link every product and its multiple impacts – carbon footprints, chemicals of concern, treatment of workers, and the like – into systematic forces that count in sales.” (Daniel Goleman)
With publication of the new ISO 14001:2015, management representatives, supervisors and employees need to start thinking about how to interpret the changes for their own organization now. One subject that the revision focuses on is internal and external communication. Some consider this to be a Soft Fact, but depending on your business sector, risks, or levels and conflicts of interest this may become a very Hard Fact very quickly. Once the credibility of environmental communication has been compromised, it is extremely difficult to regain the trust of customers, partners and the public. There have been many examples of this in the past. ISO 14001:2015 now includes a stronger focus on this.
ESG and CSR
The EU’s much talked-about, so-called “CSR Directive” 2014/95/EU – CSR stands for “Corporate Social Responsibility - establishes new environmental, social, and governance (ESG, aka “sustainability”) reporting requirements for organizations of more than 500 employees, a net turnover in excess of EUR 40 million (or balance sheet total in excess of EUR 20 million) AND which are considered in the “public interest”, that is listed on a European exchange or otherwise subject to this Directive. These organizations need to adjust their practices as necessary to come into compliance before enforcement commences in 2017.
The ESG disclosure, aka “non-financial statement”, can be submitted either with the annual corporate report, or separately, and must include information on:
- Environmental matters
- Social and employee-related matters
- Human rights
- Anti-corruption and bribery issues
- Diversity in the board of directors
At this time, the Directive is being transferred into national law by the various member states, which will then be the applicable reference. Subject organizations are encouraged to make use of that time to prepare their internal policies and procedures to allow for measurement, monitoring and reporting of ESG performance.
Source: Claudia Nauta, DGQ Program Manager in the current issue of the DQS in Dialog (DiD) Magazine and DQS Holding editorial staff