What May Concern You

Regular disclosure of non-financial data about your company. Usually once a year in the form of a sustainability report, where you describe what you do in the areas of E, S and G.

It often includes a carbon footprint calculation, description of the company's environmental impact, employee data, ethics of supply relationships. You report this not only outwardly (banks, customers, investors), but the output also serves internally for management.

Integrating sustainability into the company's strategic direction. Not just reporting numbers, but knowing where you want to go and why.

In practice, this means: define responsibility (who is in charge within the company), select key ESG areas, set indicators, establish a data collection process and result communication. Without a strategy, ESG becomes just an annual report that no one cares about.

The CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) states: companies meeting 2 of 3 criteria (250+ employees, turnover over 1 billion CZK, assets over 500 million CZK) will report for 2025 (publication in 2026). This is wave 2, estimated 2,000 companies in the Czech Republic.

Gradually it will expand to listed small and medium enterprises (wave 3) and beyond. But don’t wait for a legal obligation; requirements usually come earlier from your customers and banks.

ESG rating of a company issued by specialized agencies (MSCI, Sustainalytics, S&P Global, ISS ESG). It measures how the company addresses ESG topics and what ESG risks it is exposed to.

Note: methodologies differ between agencies, so the same company can have different scores across agencies. Banks and customers look at ESG ratings, but treat them as one of many inputs.

It is also called socially responsible or sustainable investing. An investor looks not only at returns but also at the company's ESG parameters: how it handles the environment, how it treats people, how it is governed.

In practice, this affects the availability and cost of capital. Companies with a better ESG profile today have easier access to financing and often better terms.

A collective term for sustainable financing. It includes green loans, green bonds, ESG funds and other products that, besides returns, consider the investment impact.

The EU-level goal is to direct capital where it makes sense from a climate perspective. For your company, this means: if you have ESG sorted out, you have access to financing on more attractive terms.

Bonds whose return is linked to financing projects with a positive impact on the environment or climate. The issuer (company or state) commits to using the raised funds precisely for the declared green purposes.

They are advantageous for investors due to tax benefits, and for issuers they are often cheaper than conventional debt.

EU rules that classify what is truly “green” economic activity from a sustainability perspective and what is not. They work with 6 objectives: climate change mitigation, adaptation to it, water protection, circular economy, pollution prevention, biodiversity protection.

An activity meets the taxonomy if it makes a substantial contribution to at least one objective and does no harm to the others. Banks and investors consider this when deciding on financing. For you, this means: clarify what percentage of your turnover or investments complies with the taxonomy.

Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation. European rules for the financial sector that define what can be sold as a sustainable investment product. The goal is transparency and preventing greenwashing in the financial market.

For your company, SFDR has an indirect impact: funds and banks subject to the regulation will request data about your sustainability so they can correctly label their products.

When a company marketingly creates the impression that it is sustainable and ecological, but the reality is completely different. Classic promotion of a “green” product that actually has the same or worse impact than alternatives.

Regulation against greenwashing is tightening. Claims in reports and marketing must be substantiated with data. We tell potential clients: if you don’t have the numbers, don’t promise anything in the report that you can’t defend.