Actions for Sustainable Business Renewal (A4SBR)–The measures and strategies leading to sustainable renewal of businesses
Schedule: 2021–2023
Purpose of the proposed project
According to IPCC’s special report on climate change we have less than a decade to prevent irreversible damage from climate change (IPCC, 2018). The disruption brought by COVID-19 has taken a high toll on companies but at the same time has addressed vulnerability of our society and acted as a reminder of the importance the environmental services play in sustaining wellbeing. Solving climate crisis is undoubtedly the most pressing challenge of our time while providing a door for renewal. In this project, we aim to study the mechanisms and measures that accelerate sustainable transition and to provide a toolkit for companies to apply for their sustainable renewal; to amplify the importance of the sustainability ratings in acquisition of green funding; as well as, opening a window to the microfoundations of company decision-making on measures affecting sustainability performance, ultimately offering means to design policy interventions.
Description of the project
The goal of the project is to provide actionable tools and strategies for companies that lead to sustainable renewal, and to offer policymakers a deeper understanding on microfoundations of company decision-making by researching and exploiting ESG (environment, social, governance) and other sustainability performance data for advancing the sustainable transition.
We aim to provide answers to these targets by studying
- The effects of ESG ratings to companies’ financial performance but above all, how the impacts of ESGs/sustainability performance can be measured;
- Availability and gaps of critical data needed for assessments and their effect on validating alignment needed for green funding (EU taxonomy);
- With what types of measures and tools policymakers could guide company’s economic activities for acceleration of sustainable transition;
- The concrete role business models play in enabling sustainable transition and exploring if and how shift to novel business models can speed up the transition by studying e.g. inclusion of environmental and social costs to the price of goods/services.
Utilizationroadmap
- WP1: The effect of ESG ratings to Financial Performance & Sustainable renewal M1-M8 (Hanken, VTT)
- WP2: Identifying concrete measures and mechanisms needed for sustainable transition M3-M20 (VTT, University of Cambridge, Gigantti, Kotkamills, Touchpoint)
- WP3: Business models in advancing sustainable transition M3-M20 (VTT, University of Cambridge, Maastricht University)
- WP4: International collaborationand exchangeM6-M20 (University of Cambridge, Maastricht University, VTT)
- WP5: Recommendationsto businesses, policymakersand stakeholderson the crucialaspectsof the sustainablebusiness renewal
