Month: August 2023

Transparency in corporate sustainability reporting is pivotal to securing a sustainable future.

August 1, 2023 /3BL/ – Transparency in corporate sustainability reporting is pivotal to securing a sustainable future. However, the recent proposal from the European Commission on the draft Delegated Act on the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) has raised significant concerns. This proposal, if implemented, would weaken the impact of the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) regulation (read more about the importance of the CSRD here) and hinder efforts to combat greenwashing . As advocates for the transition to a climate-smart society, South Pole finds this proposal deeply troubling and urges the Commission to reconsider its approach.

The importance of sustainable reporting

Sustainable reporting standards, such as those proposed by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), are crucial for enabling companies to capture their impact on the economy, the environment and people. These are the three pillars of corporate sustainability, otherwise known as ESG (environmental, social and governance).

Such standards provide investors with consistent and comparable data, which is essential for achieving the goals outlined in the European Green Deal. By adopting what is known as a double materiality approach (which represents a deeper dive into climate-related impact than just financial materiality), these standards ensure Europe’s continued leadership in sustainability reporting. However, the Commission’s current approach deviates significantly from EFRAG’s original proposal, and could represent a step backwards rather than forwards.

The climate crisis demands urgent action

As COP27 highlighted, now is not the time for diminished ambition, but rather the ‘time for impact‘ – the moment to act decisively to limit average global temperature rises to 1.5°C, and safeguard the lives of future generations. The world’s leading scientific authority on climate change, the IPCC, has emphasised that we must halve emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero no later than 2050 to hold global warming below the planetary tipping point. This gives us less than a decade to complete a fundamental systems change at a pace and scale never seen before. Even the smallest delay could have disastrous consequences.

Troubling proposals

In this context, the slowing of the pace suggested by the Commission’s draft Delegated Act on ESRS presents several worrisome proposals. According to the proposals, smaller companies with fewer than 750 employees will be given more time to implement key standards and data points, including those related to scope 3 emissions as well as social and biodiversity issues. The proposals also imply a phased-in approach, with full reporting not reached until the year 2028 for fiscal year 2027… And all of this when there is no time to lose and dilatory action could have severe repercussions.

More concerning still is the suggestion that the Climate Change Standard, which was initially proposed as a mandatory disclosure mechanism by the EFRAG, will now become voluntary for all companies, leaving the disclosure of related material impacts, risks, policies and actions subject to a materiality assessment. Topics found to be non-material could therefore be excluded from the reporting (as could the explanation for making the exclusion). The new framework, which promised to help companies better understand their impact (and be held accountable for it), therefore seems to be backsliding by removing mandatory reporting on critical climate and social metrics, which raises concerns about the potential for lowering standards and accountability. The Commission’s proposals, if accepted, would allow companies to exclude vital information about their greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity and workforce. Such exclusions undermine the very purpose of the legislation, whose aim is to prevent greenwashing and enable businesses to disclose accurate, comparable and credible information on all aspects of ESG.

The way forward

South Pole is firm in its belief that the draft Delegated Act must be improved in its ambition and scope if it is to establish a clear, consistent and reliable framework for sustainability reporting and respond effectively to the increasing urgency of climate change. Any business, regardless of size, needs to take significant action to align with a 1.5ºC pathway. This must include the accurate disclosure of essential impacts. The proposed revisions to the Delegated Act on ESRS not only fall short of our needs and expectations, but worse, they could pose a risk to the progress we’ve made so far.

In India, if a village manages to bridge the digital divide and the school-going children become computer savvy, it is bound to draw attention.

This is just what has happened in the remote village of Boru in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district. The local Public School managed to bridge the digital divide between the urban and rural communities by sourcing tablets from Lenovo and ushering in the information technology revolution.

Boru is an unassuming village with a population of a little over 5,000 people. Despite the village’s relative obscurity, it was not spared from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Public School was forced to shut down as the country went into a complete lockdown.

This school is the only school in town that underprivileged children relied on for good English education and a promising future. The pandemic and the resultant shutdown put an end to that. Most students who were from low-income families did not have access to any device or laptop to learn from home and thus their education was severely affected, highlighting the digital divide that exists between the privileged and the disenfranchised. The pandemic only widened the digital divide further: Data shows that rural broadband penetration is only 29 percent against the national average of 51 percent.

The school had to do something as children were missing out on their studies due to the unavailability of devices and lack of Internet connectivity, and so the administration launched a campaign where 144 students from classes 5 to 8 were provided with Lenovo’s cost-effective M7 second-generation tablets with 2GB RAM, and sim cards that allowed them1.5GB of data daily.

The results were magical. With almost 100% attendance, the students got back to studying online and did not face a learning gap. Moreover, there were no dropouts.

The school wanted to ensure that the students did not misuse the tablets and reached out to Lenovo for support. The Lenovo tablet team advised the school on the use of educational solutions to make sure that the devices were used only for educational purposes. They deployed the Lenovo ThinkUEM software that allowed for constant monitoring and a check on the content being viewed. The Geofence feature of the program ensured the students were within the defined parameters set by the school. Additional features such as the online status and screen mirroring of the devices allowed teachers to monitor the real-time activity and helped in the quick resolution of any issues.

Another example, where we are bringing in our smarter technology to solve for digital divide is with one of our largest customers ‘Nanhi Kali’ who have been using the Lenovo M7 Tabs for education. Nanhi Kali, a project jointly managed by K.C. Mahindra Education Trust and Naandi Foundation, has been empowering underprivileged girls across India since 1996. Nanhi Kali provides girls with daily afterschool academic support, through centres that operate within government schools. The girls receive access to personalized, adaptive learning software pre-loaded on digital tablets sourced from Lenovo. At present, over 180,000 girls from disadvantaged families have access to Lenovo tablets through this project.

In recent years, the digital divide has attracted much debate, especially in the wake of the pandemic. In India it creates exclusion, endangers social integration, and hampers economic growth for around 360 million students in the country.

However, the intervention of Lenovo technology directly addresses the gap between the digital haves and have-nots, and information technology reaches the doorsteps of even the remotest villages—like Boru. Initiatives such as the CSR partnerships between Lenovo and the NGO Meghshala Trust have resulted in over 5,000 teachers getting trained in 2,300 schools in Karnataka and Manipur. This partnership has assisted more than 210,000 students and 7,000 teachers across India from 2020-2021.

Despite the setbacks due to COVID-19, teachers and educators have innovated at an accelerated pace to provide students and families with educational continuity. Through Lenovo corporate philanthropy, the partnership with Yuva Unstoppable, a not-for-profit working on setting up school infrastructure, resulted in a tablet-based learning and lending initiative, with 2,590 Make in India tablets to 79 government girls’ schools in Gujarat in 2021.

Lenovo’s partnership with Agastya International Foundation also supports STEM education with mobile science labs in government schools in Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai, reaching 8,400 children, and has also created a unique STEM model known as Lab-on-Tab.

By leveraging technology with educators, NGOs, and other stakeholders, Lenovo is helping reinvent learning by adopting a more student-centric approach, providing access to technology to the population that needs it the most. Even local, targeted donations and support can be hugely impactful.. It helped build access to technology in rural areas.

This underlines Lenovo’s belief in providing Smarter Technology for All by empowering under-represented communities with access to technology and STEM education.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., August 1, 2023 /3BL/ – Black & Veatch, a global leader in critical infrastructure solutions, has been selected by Helix Water District in San Diego County, California, to perform design and engineering services for the district’s electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure project.

As water districts, utilities, government entities and commercial and industrial fleet owners advance sustainability efforts and achieve compliance with the latest regulations, the transition to electrified vehicles and needs for related charging infrastructure are becoming more commonplace.

The state of California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) recently approved the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulation, which will generally require state and local government fleet purchases of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles to be zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) or near-zero-emission vehicles (NZEV) in the coming years in California. Starting in 2035, only ZEVs will meet the ACF requirements.

“Our experience with industry-leading clean transportation solutions on a global scale provides a model for reliable and resilient EV infrastructure that can be replicated for water utilities and other fleet operators around the world,” said Scott Maloni, client executive for Black & Veatch.

Water utilities’ interest in electrification is on the rise due to regulations and as part of their sustainability plans. As a climate mitigation or adaptation strategy, 48 percent of respondents to Black & Veatch’s 2023 Water Report said they were pursuing or were planning to pursue the conversion of fleet vehicle(s) to EVs.

Black & Veatch will provide design of all infrastructure for the Helix Water District’s new EV charging stations at its operations center, which will include more than 70 chargers. The project supports the district’s addition of electric-powered light, medium and heavy-duty fleet vehicles and equipment.

Contact Black & Veatch for more information.

Editor’s Notes:

Black & Veatch’s eBook – 10 Steps to Build Sustainable Electric Fleets – available as a free download, considers vehicle electrification’s role in mitigating climate change while bolstering overall energy system resilience. The eBook provides a comprehensive view of fleet planning, from selecting charging technologies and sites to organizational change management, renewables integration and power delivery planning.

About Black & Veatch 
Black & Veatch is a 100-percent employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people around the world by addressing the resilience and reliability of our most important infrastructure assets. Our revenues in 2022 were US$4.3 billion. Follow us on www.bv.com and on social media.

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Susan Rivera | +1 781 565 5819 | RIVERAS1@BV.COM

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