Although not mandatory for SMEs, ESG reporting should concern them too in light of their business relationships with large firms, which are required by law to comply with the principles of this new global trend. Otherwise, small firms risk being excluded from the partner lists of large firms.

“All banks have an appetite for the renewable industry for two reasons,” declared Sebastian Staicu, Structured and Sustainable Finance BCR, at the conference “More renewables for Romania”, organized by Energynomics. “The first is the price of energy and the geopolitical context that has woken us all up, and here we are not only talking about renewable energy but also about energy efficiency. Then there is a global, regional and local trend – ESG. ESG is embraced at the political, banking level and it’s the direction we all believe in and want to support.”

The provisions of the Green Deal are truly a paradigm shift. It is a transition from an economy that looks in a way, with certain business behaviors, to a new economy, and ESG – Environment, Social, Governance – means responsibility and the consideration of other aspects in except the financial one.

For the renewable energy industry, international ESG standards mean low emissions, sustainability, attention to waste, attention to biodiversity and attention to the impact on communities and society as a whole.

“These principles are becoming more and more clearly defined. Even if SMEs are not targeted by the obligation of ESG reporting, they will have to think about this aspect from the perspective of the relationship with their customers or suppliers, large companies. We tell our clients what we mean by sustainable, we don’t want to take it before the country, but we want to do things together”, added Staicu.

The conference “More renewables for Romania” was organized by Energynomics with the support of our partners among which ABB, ACE Industrial Software, BCR, Consolight, Eaton Electric, Elektra Renewable Support, EnergoPower, European Energy, Finder, Geminox, Huawei, ING Bank, LAPP Romania, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Phoenix Contact, Photomate, Prime Batteries Technology, REI Grup, Renomia-Gallagher, Valmont, Volt, Wiren România, Wise Finance Solutions.