I have had the priviledge to work related to sustainability topics in the past nearly 20 years. In the beginning I was working in Investor Relations, and sustainability of the raw materials as the topic to be discussed. All the presentations we did had comprehensive information about raw materials sustainability and CO2 emissions of the raw material transportations. After that we needed to ensure that raw materials used to biofuels where as important as the other potential use to the same raw material, palm oil, which was junk food, like cookies, candy and ice cream. The palm oil by the way is not good at all to be used to anything intended for consumption.
Then we discussed about human rights in plantations and in-direct land use. After this topic, I was taking part of auditions to raw material providers or to customer audits to the company. Alongside these work related discussions, information gatherings, info updates to websites and to various materials, such as capital markets or annual general meeting materials, I started to get enthusiastic about the topic. My communication master thesis was coming topical at that time. As I had done the first master thesis on public image, I thought that social responsibility was the new black and did my communication master thesis on employee responsibility of the listed companies reporting. That was a rather new topic at that time! In the past years, I had been involved in sustainability communication, audits, planning on strategic sustainability roadmap and agenda, discussed with stakeholders and reported on sustainability topics, being responsible for employee compliance in multi-cultural and global surroundings, as well as reported those as a part of the upcoming IPO with my previous employer.
In my work as HR executive, it has been vital to know sustainability topics and reporting very well. HR / People & Culture is actually is the function, where the sustainability directive or triple bottom line social part is in all the companies owned, defined and implemented. HR / People & Culture also drives the own and external workforce and compliance related initiatives together with Communications.
What is CSRD?
EU law starting from financial year 2024 required companies above a certain size to disclose information on what they see as the risks and opportunities arising from social and environmental issues, and on the impact of their activities on people and the environment. This helps investors, civil society organisations, consumers and other stakeholders to evaluate the sustainability performance of companies.
What is this S1 of CSRD then?
S1 in this case is the part, where Own workforce is reported and its one of the four social standards focusing on the impacts of business activities on employees. It mandates organizations to disclose their effects on their own workforce, including both positive and negative impacts as well as financial risks and opportunities and reports the key own workforce figures, such as headcount and turnover.
I had the opportunity to take part to VR’s project team on the CSRD reporting and to be responsible for S1 part of the directive implementation to the reporting alongside with my 2 safety and people & culture colleague. This reporting practice was a nice project, as it was the first time companies reported according to the CSRD and a great update to my already rather comprehensive knowledge on especially social sustainability topics.
If you wish to learn more about these topics:
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is working to transform the palm oil industry and to make it sustainable: https://rspo.org/
In-direct land use directive: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/memo_12_787
VR’s first sustainability report done according to CSRD directive: https://2024.vrgroupraportti.fi/en/pdf/VR-BoD-Report-Financial-statements-2024.pdf
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