Sustainable energy
Ever heard of the term "regulatory vortex"? It's like a big tangle of rules and guidelines about how we should take care of our planet. These rules are meant to help us be more eco-friendly, but sometimes they can get pretty confusing and hard to follow. We discussed exactly this problem with Professor Ingo Rollwagen and our CPO Think Tank Community Members. Here you can find some of the thoughts I fix during the lecture.
Why It's Complicated
Imagine you want to make something really good for the Earth, like a new product that doesn't harm the environment. But, guess what? You have to follow lots of different rules for everything – like how to get the materials, how to make it, how to package it, and even how to throw it away. These rules can be like a big puzzle with pieces that don't always fit together. For example, Ingo mentioned in his presentation several regulations, but these are not all of them! You must take into account many other small and not things!
Regulations:
- IFRS S1
- IFRS S2
- Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
- Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)
- European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)
- EU supply chain act
- Etc.
Finding the Right Balance
Rules are important, but they can also make things tricky. We need to find a good balance between following rules and coming up with new ideas. It's like having rules that make sense and let us do good things without too much stress, but today it's quite hard, the regulations become more and more complicated and sometimes – contradictory! Regulation vortex has a big implication for companies and costs:
- recruiting additional staff or acquiring the necessary expertise
- changing data collection and analysis
- establishing or modifying internal systems;
- producing or modifying the production of reported information
Learning is Power
Learning about rules is like learning a game. We need to know the rules to play well. Workshops and videos can teach us how to be green superheroes without getting confused by all the rules. But sometimes it is not enough! One of the best ways – is to ask the person who did similar things! In CPO Global Think Tank Community you can find C-Level executives who made many efforts already or you can chat with our professors, like Ingo Rollwagen! I am sure, you will get many recommendations!
Tech to the Rescue
Guess what? Technology can help us out! In his lecture, Ingo mentioned several exciting initiatives and most of them are connected to technology. You can search for more details about them or contact Kirally Antcliff, who works with Inogo on ecosystemic innovation and DPPs.
- EPR – Extended Producer Responsibility – producers covering the costs over a product’s lifetime (e.g. COM(2023) 420 final)
- Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR)
- CBAM (Cross border adjustment mechanisms)
- DPP – Digital Product Passports
Making Things Clear
The world wants to be a better place, and we want to help. If you start discovering sustainability regulations vortex and would like to care about sustainability, I will recommend you 3 next steps to do:
- Discover main regulation requirements, such as IFRS S1, IFRS S2
- Find IT companies which work closely with regulation requirements and discuss their platforms.
- Discuss the existing situation in your company and define the strategy.
- Ask your peers from other companies about their processes and share your strategy with them. Take into consideration their experience
- Make the step! Go for and with open strategy approaches and ecosystem innovation to share supply networks of the future from advanced, more resilient supply chains to digital, lifecycle- and circular-oriented supply networks and ecosystems.
FYI - two useful links about open strategy:
- Professor Stephan von den Eichen (IMP) - https://www.impconsulting.com/
- Harvard Business Review article - https://hbr.org/2021/11/balancing-open-innovation-with-protecting-ip
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