Created at the University of Valencia with the support of the Valencian Innovation Agency (AVI), within the framework of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Comunitat Valenciana 2021-2027 Program, Report For Good aims to offer a digital platform in WebApp format that helps companies to diagnose and measure their sustainability performance, allowing the systematic creation of sustainability reports adapted to the reporting requirements of the stakeholders with whom they interact.
The event, which took place on Tuesday, December 19 at the University of Valencia Science Park (PCUV), was inaugurated with a breakfast and the subsequent intervention of Tomás González Cruz, project leader, who spoke about the motivations for undertaking this initiative from the university, whose value proposition is "to put light on the road to sustainability," he explained. "A solution designed for those smaller companies that do not have resources and tools dedicated exclusively to sustainability management, to whom we will provide a tool that simply allows the preparation of a first report and facilitates the collection of information and its management," said Gonzalez Cruz.
As guest speaker, Paco Álvarez Molina, international spokesperson for the Economy for the Common Good (EBC) and EBC representative in the EFRAG working groups, gave a talk on the meaning of sustainability and the current status of European directives in this area. The speaker stressed that sustainability cannot have last names (social, economic or environmental) and that all companies, whether obliged or not, "must manage their performance and contribution to achieve real sustainable development". With regard to actions in the European framework, Álvarez recalled the recent approval of the CSRD and said that the regulatory development is nearing completion, scheduled for June 2024, for approval by the European Parliament.
The specialist also highlighted the political agreement reached between the EU Commission, the Council and the Parliament on the critical points of the CSDDD (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive), an important milestone for human rights and environmental protection in supply chains and subcontracting. Álvarez insisted on the key role played by SMEs and urged them to join the sustainability movement even when it is not mandatory, "as this is the way to prepare for what is to come and apply true sustainability". He also stressed the importance of independent entities such as universities promoting initiatives and solutions to help companies along the way, through tools or specialized training.
The day also included a demonstration of the platform by Deyanira Sánchez Amézquita, project manager of the Chair of Business and Humanism at the UV. "To use Report For Good, there is a THREE-step process to register the company and the user. After access, the company information is uploaded, answering a series of questions organized by module or functional area (human resources, finance, production, etc.), through which the tool calculates performance indicators in four dimensions: social and labor, environment, ethics and governance, economic and innovation," he described.
The system of indicators in this first version of the platform coincides with that of the Registry of Responsible Valencian Entities to make it easier for companies to prepare the information and draw up the sustainability report that will enable them to apply for qualification by the Generalitat Valenciana.
"As the company progresses in completing the information, it can generate traffic-light type follow-up reports, through which it can visualize areas of strength or areas for improvement. When the company has completed 100% of the questions, it can create a sustainability report. This functionality of the platform provides companies with a report template that offers a structure that they can adapt to their needs," explained Sánchez Amézquita, who also pointed out that the advantage is "that it comes filled in with the data previously entered and with the management indicators calculated and organized. The template also offers a guideline on the text descriptions that the company should include in relation to the section and indicator. Another benefit of the platform is access to a learning area. More than ten entries of current and educational content are already available in this section, which is also available through the Report For Good newsletter and social networks," she added.
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