Mobile report on sustainable performance

Many clients know about waste to energy, but then they have to start with the basics to go to the most specific. Each company has its specificities. The training has to be closely related to the specific needs that the student, professional or company needs.

Companies need to know what ESG is and be rewarded for the effort they put into developing the strategy. The system should have an audit in place, a self-assessment with a questionnaire where you receive a badge that you can share on your website and social media. They need a carrot, not a stick. Something they can show at the end that gives them a competitive advantage. They need to be educated about ESG. They know it at a basic level but they need to be upskilled to get to the next level. Currently, they are left on their own with no direction. They need help with creativity to help them with ideas for society, and how to create a culture of well-being to give them an extra edge. They feel that compliance and legislation around ESG reporting have been talked about as a way to enforce companies to adopt ESG strategies. They feel strongly that this is not the way to go, they feel we need to excite companies about the prospect of ESG. Give them stories and case studies. Particularly around where an early adoption has a sustainable impact. Teach them how to communicate their ESG strategy. They need a Springboard roadmap so it is laid out for them. Clear achievable goals that are broken into steps and are easy to follow.

The necessary is a combination of different skills, since only then can you provide a detailed strategy. Different soft skills are necessary, including communication and management skills. It depends on the type of the business, but good planning and management skills are key since only thanks to good planning you will be able to monitor and execute your tasks. You have to possess a feeling of commitment to change ideas into action, followed by good planning and management skills, and to speak with people around you (have good communication skills) to collect feedback about expectations. The strong will to succeed so you do not give up, and also to be a good observer and researcher in the compilation of your ESG strategy. Being open to change, since in today’s world it is important to be adaptable to different situations. On the other hand, you also need to be sensitive as ESG is still a new area in Poland which is open to the detection of any influences or applications of ESG strategies in local context.

Critical thinking is one of the most important skills contained in the GreenComp. This means knowing your product or your service, being aware of the whole process, being critical of the whole process – because one aspect is sustainable, it doesn’t mean that the other will be. This is also related to critical self-assessment. Connecting GreenComp with EntreComp may represent a challenge especially in profit-oriented businesses, because there is usually a lack of commitment because it can be a less cost-efficient purpose. It’s not as easy to transmit a business goal into a sustainability-focused goal.

The most important skills needed for someone to establish an ESG strategy are creativity, vision, ethical and sustainable thinking and taking the initiative. Of course, many other skills are important too but not essential. The social level lacks knowledge of the comprehensive idea of circular economy and sustainability.

The SME is quite green, it must be understood that ESG policies, sustainability and the circular economy go beyond the pure benefits of the company. The important thing is awareness. Prioritizing efficiency but not only being economic, we are leaving sustainable awareness in the background, when we always have to include it. It is necessary to show SMEs that they can obtain some type of benefit. That they can win, bring benefit to their environment. There are companies that can start with this. You have to open your mind, because the novelty supposes an effort on what they have to carry on a day-to-day basis. More resources are needed within the reach of SMEs. The company's objectives must be aligned with the SDGs. They have a slightly more competitive vision and of improving the image, benefits when implementing policies, than implementing them for the simple fact of believing in them. Waste management is the initial step, then energy saving, transfer to the office, facilities to reduce mobility, prohibiting ties in summer, elementary things, but they allow energy savings.

SMEs are not familiar with SDG but most businesses incorporate them into their business in some format. People are simply looking for companies to be “good companies” a good product, value for money, integrity, honesty, and give the consumer satisfaction of their needs. Business needs an action plan set out on one page with 4-5 key actions. Raising awareness of the issue of ESG and it should be made easy for companies to get engaged with a system that somehow qualifies them in ESG, they should get rewarded for even small changes they make.

The awareness of companies of ESG strategies is increasing but lack of resources for their implementation or lack of information on policies. Straightforward instructions and procedures for implementing such strategies are what entrepreneurs are expecting. Only recently do businesses start recognizing the impact of behaviours on the environment and can be more aware on action they take. Before it was not a matter of importance of those that were not professionals in the field of environmental protection, and familiar mostly only with recycling, greenhouse effect or smog terminology. Therefore, the different aspects that ESG is connected with are new areas for investigation, and training is needed. Polish society is also still getting used to the terminology of sustainable development, sticking to environmental protection, which also proves for the need of raising awareness among the general society, not only SMEs. Businesses not only have to struggle with little (or no) support from the government, but also the pressure of investment for the introduction of more sustainable solutions expected by their clients /customers. Collaboration and exchange of good practise among companies can support sustainable business activities. In other words, looking up at other successful companies, one can introduce similar measures in their business.

Many skills are needed to implement this kind of strategy and that it is hard to implement something when it doesn’t necessarily have short-term impacts. This is especially true among SMEs and entrepreneurs, as it is usually easier for larger corporations financially speaking to put resources into ESG. Importantly, for some companies, sustainability is already on the baseline of the business idea. Young companies especially in Sweden/Scandinavia are already being challenged since the beginning to think about sustainability and how to integrate these practices into their business idea. It was noted that companies are perhaps better prepared to implement an ESG strategy in the Nordics. Usually, only a few people in the company are aware of the sustainability strategy, and this creates a barrier and avoids it from moving forward, sometimes creating greenwashing. If it’s not on the values of the company, it can get blurry. Thus, communication needs to be fluid among the whole company.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) has received more attention in recent years, and many institutional investors now only invest in businesses that disclose their ESG performance. In fact, ESG is a hot topic at the board table since it has implications for analysts, investors, consumers and employees.

What is wrong is that there is no general training in this regard. There is now a change, but in economics or ADE, it is a point of a subject, there is no serious university education. You have to go to the private sphere, this is changing luckily. There is no understanding now. And from there, there is a lack of specialists and trainers with a holistic vision of sustainability, before the technique, calculating the carbon footprint, which is very good, but also trainers on sustainability, with methodology to apply to the Company.

There is not a lot of concentration on ESG currently in my area of training so it is hard to say what is going well there. I need to include some sustainable content in training contracts to meet their criteria. I am putting more focus on the well-being element of my training and this is going well. I work with company managers and leaders and help them make connections with each other as peer support for well-being. I think the focus needs to change and companies need assistance in outlining what ESG is to them. Companies need to structure a template to follow so that they can input some of what they are already doing into an ESG plan. ESG is not formal. We help people identify what they need to learn and to learn how to learn. ESG cannot be delivered in a traditional training methodology, there needs to be a mindset shift. Don’t call it training.

There are more assets of business education (initial and continuous), including personal and professional development, more practical activities and focus on real-life situations, while the missing element is the lack of investment in teaching & learning supplies. What is going well is the increased attempt for raising awareness an aspects that matter for you, the business and the planet, and in a longer run the possibility to save time, money and energy (to name just a few) increasing the value of management of resources. The disadvantage may concern the time it takes, both to learn and to seek the effects of the action you take afterwards. Education has changed in the recent years, that it is more accessible, involved more activities, there is blended learning, and there is some freedom for teachers in choosing the materials. There are more courses online and this is something good since there is more technology around us these days. There is however sometimes still the issue with the availability of technology. The current education offer is rich and there is different content to choose from for both personal and professional development, raising awareness an aspects that matter.

Generally, SDGs proved to be widely known among the trainers. They are referenced during training and included in training directed at entrepreneurs. However, it has been recognized that it is still a challenge to bridge the gap between academia and companies. There is a need for more focus on SDGs, instead of just having sustainability as a buzz word. Further, it was noted that SDGs are still a challenge to be implemented because there’s a lot behind it. To the society’s expectations regarding businesses, it depends on what the business is doing, on its context, on the maturity of the market (social, economic, political conditions) and on personal values and priorities. For instance, in Sweden the SDGs receive a great amount of focus and are often mentioned in companies’ values and visions.

In Greece, the education sector is well developed and includes various thematic areas, some of which are related to the environment. However, there are significant gaps in specific areas such as ESG strategies, sustainability and the integration of the circular economy. The number of institutions providing such training is very limited. There are some organizations that provide online webinars including presentations and workshops on ESG issues.

The perfect thing would be face-to-face, although surely for more agility it would be online. Online content does not have the quality of face-to-face, but online it serves to reach much more people, MOOCs platforms are very interesting for this. Continuing training in the company is also important, but at what time, as overtime? So it's complicated. If it's mandatory, it's worse, because you burn people (for example, the tourism sector), because people don't want to work under these conditions. Training must be part of working hours. You have to make things easier, be agile. So in person or online it doesn't matter, but you have to facilitate, change people's mentality. Environmental criteria are the most important: product life cycles, waste management, footprint. Social aspect, reconciling professional family life, including diet and sports for a healthy life, issues of equality, which seems to cost. Governance: transparency, fight against fraud, ethical issues, etc. Soft skills, of course, leadership, teamwork etc.

Blended learning is great but there is a need for connection and facilitation of a good trainer. It should include skills that reward. They need a cert or badge at the end of the training and show them how to get assistance through grant aid. The Hybrid model is now here to stay in terms of training. But as a trainer I prefer it to be in person. Executive coaching works well online as it is a one-to-one relationship. I think a mixture of all training types is needed to make it interesting and cater to the needs of many different types of people. Awareness of ESG formatting into company strategy needs to be developed for Irish SMEs Hybrid is Ok with certain restrictions like live attendance. I think a key skill that is needed for ESG is Critical thinking. This is a skill missing in a lot of the undergraduate classes and formal teaching of this will help the future of ESG.

It cannot be said that there is an ideal ESG training, but one that tackles different perspectives (start-up, SME, corporation, customer, client, student, and unemployed, individual) can enrich the knowledge of a human being; also the topics tackled and the good practices represented to present what is happening across different sectors, in businesses of different sizes and in different countries. A combination of skills (EntreComp, GreenComp, business management also) should be addressed to build a set of competences that go together. Classroom teaching provides for a more engaging environment provoking discussions, and that digital training is flexible. This shows that blended learning is a solution. Digital learning, that it is most useful in current times and regardless of the global epidemiological situation, training can be continued from home. However, the time depends on the amount of content and its difficulty.

It´s important of having face-to-face trainings and exploring learning by doing methodologies as well as practical examples and case studies to get as close as possible to how things work. All skills of EntreComp and GreenComp are necessary and missing. It would also be important to reflect on how to integrate both, and how to bring green skills to entrepreneurship. Clarifying the importance of ESG, the financial opportunities associated to it, and how it can help companies to become more competitive. If addressing SDGs, focus on those that are relatable to the student to avoid making them overwhelmed Case studies could demonstrate what other companies are doing, and how they could improve this, using real-life examples and providing motivation, real practice, and experience.

Training methods should be innovative in terms of ESG, as it is something that should be taught to students in a way that they can use in reality and not just learn in theory. It would be good if teachers/trainers could bring examples of good practice or hold a workshop on how a common enterprise can in some steps become sustainable and follow this model.