Legislation on ESG criteria (Environmental, Social, Governance) has emerged as a critical factor for the sustainable development of enterprises, the promotion of responsible practices and the prioritisation of the financing of investments. It is considered important to identify the challenges and gaps that appear during the implementation of ESG, so that, with the appropriate tools, these may be addressed and minimised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greenwashing and ESG<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In this light, and given that ESG criteria and sustainability reports continue to influence investment opportunities to a great extent, greenwashing appears to present itself as a major problem worldwide, constituting a significant obstacle for investment companies that aim to apply sustainability in their investment strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what is “Greenwashing” \u2013 the term?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Disinformation disseminated by an organisation so as to present a public image of environmental responsibility, published by or for an organisation but considered to be unfounded or deliberately misleading”, or “the practice of promoting environmentally friendly programmes to divert attention from an organisation\u2019s non-, or less, environmentally friendly activities”.[1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lack of Trained Personnel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The lack of suitable human resources with knowledge and experience in the field of ESG and sustainability may constitute an obstacle to the effective implementation of compliance policies and practices. It has now become essential for companies dealing specifically with real-estate development and the licensing of investments to have a trained legal and technical team in the law of sustainability and the environment, in practices and in ESG criteria. It is now clear that the formation of a new culture and mindset within companies, as to how investments and developments of every kind must now be approached, is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shortcomings in the existing urban-planning tools<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n References to ESG criteria in Greek legislation, with respect to urban planning, appear in Law 4864\/2021 (Government Gazette 237\/A\/2.12.2021) on Strategic Investments, where, in the case of approval of the special urban-planning tool of the Special Spatial Development Plan for Strategic Investments (ESCHASE), it is provided that “Investment plans for which an ESCHASE is approved are obliged, from the commencement of their productive operation, to apply a plan of sustainable-development principles on the basis of ESG criteria and to draw up an annual Sustainability report (‘sustainability reporting’) for the presentation of non-financial information in the context of ESG, in accordance with internationally recognised standards.” At the same time, the law provides for the issuance of a Joint Ministerial Decision (JMD) specifying the details for the application by the investor of a plan of sustainable-development principles. However, the said plan of sustainable-development principles has not been issued to date, so as to set out in greater detail the examination and application of the ESG and sustainability criteria in the context of selecting an urban-planning tool for the development of an area. Although the legislative framework contains references and directions of a strategic character towards the imperative need to assess investments under the new prism of sustainability, the specialisation of this framework has not been fully established, creating significant gaps and challenges that must be addressed for genuinely sustainable and responsible business practice, minimising the “fear” of adopting greenwashing practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [1] The said “greenwashing” policies are considered to constitute a new order of things in climate litigation [see the Dutch case “FossielVrij NL v. KLM” concerning “greenwashing” advertisements].<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Legislation on ESG criteria (Environmental, Social, Governance) has emerged as a critical factor for the sustainable development of enterprises, the promotion of responsible practices and the prioritisation of the financing of investments. It is considered important to identify the challenges and gaps that appear during the implementation of ESG, so that, with the appropriate tools, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[90,88],"class_list":["post-2986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-eva-koloventzou","tag-konstantinos-karatsolis"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n