Uzbekistan is pushing ahead with a sweeping overhaul of financial reporting across its state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as part of a wider campaign to improve transparency, attract investment, and modernize corporate governance. Under reforms mandated by Presidential Decree No. 4611, a growing number of major enterprises are now required to produce financial statements in line with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The first wave of compliance, launched in 2021, is beginning to bear fruit, with government officials hailing early successes and promising full adoption across all largest SOEs by the end of 2025. A recent seminar in Tashkent brought together finance leaders…
The growing popularity of private jet travel is a glaring contradiction in an age where climate change demands urgent, collective action. While these aircraft offer unmatched convenience and exclusivity, their environmental cost is impossible to ignore. According to research by Transport & Environment, a European clean transport campaign group, private jets are up to 14 times more polluting per passenger than commercial flights and 50 times more polluting than trains (“Private jets: can the super rich supercharge zero emission aviation?” Transport & Environment, 2021).
Long before ESG became a framework for corporate responsibility – before ratings agencies, sustainability reports or shareholder resolutions – a small group of British religious dissenters were practising something strikingly similar. The Quakers, or the Religious Society of Friends, built commercial empires from the 18th century onwards that placed values at the heart of enterprise. Their principles – integrity, fairness, stewardship and accountability – would not be out of place in any modern ESG policy. But theirs was not a response to regulatory pressure. It was a matter of conscience.
The phrase “go woke, go broke” is often used by critics of corporate social responsibility. It implies that companies face a binary choice: embrace progressive values or pursue profit. But this dichotomy between “wokeness” and capitalism is both simplistic and increasingly out of step with corporate reality. Many companies are embedding social, environmental and ethical considerations into their business strategies – not in spite of profit, but because it contributes to long-term value creation. Understanding this shift – and the backlash to it – is fundamental to grasping modern corporate responsibility. For decades, shareholder primacy prevailed in global business. This…
The European Commission has adopted the Omnibus I simplification package which proposed to limit mandatory sustainability reporting under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to large companies with more than 1,000 employees. The voluntary standard for SMEs (VSME) was developed by EFRAG, the Commission's technical advisory body for sustainability reporting.
The ability to produce electricity from sunlight was discovered in 1839 by Edmond Becquerel, the first solar cells were patented by Charles Fritts in 1883, and Bell Laboratories created the first commercially viable silicone solar panels in 1954. Yet, despite solar power’s long-established presence, it remains a key component of current sustainable energy strategies and an important contributor to commercial ESG performance. Advancements in solar technology, and governmental policy shifts, are making solar energy an even more valuable sustainability initiative for UK businesses.
Materiality is used to judge the impact that a specific business risk or opportunity could have on a company and its shareholders, typically in financial terms, and therefore whether they should include it in corporate reports. For example, the cost of switching suppliers post-Brexit could be large and may affect your profits and shareholders’ decisions. But the cost of choosing one item of stationery over another is small and therefore immaterial. Insufficient data can undoubtedly lead to an inaccurate picture of ESG impacts and perceptions of greenwashing. Determining non-financial materiality is littered with challenges. “It tends to take three years…
While many organisations are making strides in sustainability and ethical governance, the “S” in ESG - Social impact often remains underdeveloped. At the heart of this social dimension lies a critical imperative: diverse talent. Twenty years into the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) movement, we are finally asking the tough questions: i). Is this real progress, or just improved reporting? ii). Are our net-zero commitments realistic or are we setting ourselves up for failure? iii). Who and How do we pay for it all?
As the UK continues to establish its position as a global film and television production hub, an increasing environmental impact of this work is compelling the industry to consider its carbon footprint. In 2023, the UK film and television industry saw its carbon emissions per hour of content rise by 33% to 16.6 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e/hr). This surge occurred despite rising awareness of the importance of sustainability in media production and increased environmental efforts.
