Report on "Barriers to ESG in Poland. Challenges and lessons for the future"

How to improve the scope and quality of ESG reports?

As ESG is a new and unexplored area, it is one of the biggest and most difficult challenges for many on both the business and public markets. Organisations are looking for benchmarks and experience, with those already reporting looking to improve the scope and quality of their reports, and those facing the obligation looking to work out in advance how to proceed.

Supporting companies on the road to sustainability

With a view to supporting companies and organisations that are just starting out on the road to sustainable development and encountering problems with reporting, DZP's team of experts on compliance, energy, environmental protection and labour law have drawn up a report on “Barriers to ESG in Poland. Challenges and lessons for the future”. It comprises a compendium of knowledge on the role of reporting and the barriers and difficulties it brings. It is also a series of proposed solutions that have been tried and tested among the report's partners. The report is the result of, among other things, an analysis of questionnaires received from businesses participating in the project and a number of interviews with them.

Good practices of companies reporting on ESG

We have collected in the report the experiences and good practices of companies that already report on ESG and those that have not yet published their first report but are taking the initiative on sustainable development. Companies that have shared their experiences with us are: LPP, JLL, Solaris, Veolia, Torf Corporation, CMC Poland, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. Thanks to their active participation and our legal and business expertise, the report reflects the state of ESG reporting in Poland.

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive – how to implement upcoming ESG regulations

In the report, we show how businesses have fared so far and what will change once the upcoming legislation comes into force. We also outline what may prove to be complicated in the future – especially for entities that are only just embarking on the road to non-financial reporting. We show the benefits to be gained from investing in developing ESG. We also highlight "good practice" sections that are sure to help companies meet the requirements before them. We trust that our report will serve a wide audience as a benchmark of good practices and as the voice of business on how to implement the upcoming regulations in Poland.

Thanks to its broad perspective on ESG issues, the report received the honorary patronage of the Human Rights Ombudsman and the Warsaw School of Economics. The project also received media patronage from Rzeczpospolita, and patronage from UNICEF and the Union of Voivodships of the Republic of Poland.

The report was supervised by Anna Partyka-Opiela, DZP Partner, who led the team of authors: Maria Papis (compliance), Wiktoria Kuczkowska (compliance), Monika Leszczyńska (compliance), Rafał Hajduk (energy), Natalia Plaskiewicz (energy), Daniel Chojnacki (environmental protection), Karolina Wójcik (environmental protection), Paulina Janas (labour law) and Zuzanna Gaczyńska (labour law).