As part of its 4th anniversary celebrations, A.E.S.A. – Associação Empresarial para a Sustentabilidade dos Açores (Business Association for the Sustainability of the Azores) held a conference and round table discussion on the topic: “Non-Financial Reporting to Banks: regulation, trends, and impact on companies.” This is an increasingly important topic for the future of organizations and the evolution of sustainable financing.
Two entities from the Azorean banking system, members of A.E.S.A. – NovoBanco dos Açores and Caixa do Crédito Agrícola Mútuo dos Açores, participated in the Round Table, represented respectively by Marta Guerreiro, Chair of the Executive Committee of NovoBanco dos Açores, and Filipa F. Saldanha, Director of the Crédito Agrícola Sustainability Office, who shared their perspective on the current European regulatory framework for sustainability with around fifty participants. The focus was on the European Union’s CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), which requires Big business companies to report their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices in a transparent and standardized manner, the European Taxonomy, as a classification system for sustainable economic activities, and the European Union’s Pillar 3, which establishes ESG disclosure obligations for banking institutions with the aim of enhancing transparency.
The initiative also included the participation of SIBS, represented by Ana Gouveia, SIBS ESG Lead, who presented SIBS’ free platform designed to centralize and simplify ESG data reporting, enabling a unified approach among several Portuguese banking institutions which covers around 80% of the national banking system.
The event aimed to lay the foundations for the challenges ahead, reinforcing the role of sustainability as a driver of innovation, value creation in companies, and territorial cohesion in the Azores.
