BNG, in collaboration with the Coalition of the Willing, has launched the Guide to Sustainability Reporting and Accountability for Local Authorities. The Guide has been developed to support local authorities in preparing their sustainability reports. The Guide is based on the European Corporate Sustainable Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Lonneke de Waal, sector lead for government & education at BNG: ‘With our financing, we want to contribute to making the Netherlands more social and sustainable. Our goal is to improve our own sustainability performance and that of our customers. In addition, there is increasing demand for accountability for this performance, both from legislation and regulations and from our investors. Meeting these demands is crucial for us to be able to continue offering competitive rates to our customers. In short, we saw that there was a lot coming our way and our customers' way in terms of reporting obligations. Local authorities also play a role in this. Two years ago, we started discussions on how we could best support local authorities in this regard. Together with all parties in the Coalition, we have been able to bring together a great mix of expertise. The Guide is the result of this.’ The Coalition of the Willing is a collaboration between municipalities and provinces, banks, water boards, scientific institutes, accountants and sector and umbrella organisations.
Download the Guide to Sustainability Reporting and Accountability for Local Authorities here (Dutch)
Although local authorities are not yet legally obliged to report on sustainability, this may indirectly be the case through the CSRD. Local authorities form a link in the value chain of CSRD-regulated companies, such as affiliated parties and banks such as BNG. Based on the CSRD, the Guide provides guidelines and practical tips for measuring, reporting and improving the sustainability performance of these public organisations. To support this, the Guide describes several sustainability indicators in addition to methodology (including the use of data sources such as VNG and CBS).
The Manual identifies issues that apply to all local authorities, but it also takes into account the differences in responsibilities between the various organisations. For example, sector-specific data points for provinces, municipalities and water boards have been defined in collaboration with Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Michiel Ellens, business developer for local authorities: ‘Using the same sustainability indicators contributes to the standardisation and availability of data. Of course, this helps us as a bank to obtain a more uniform picture of our customers' ESG performance. It also helps local authorities themselves to integrate sustainability into the budget cycle and their accountability in an integrated manner. Even small municipalities can use the Guide.’
'The Guide is a dynamic document, as sustainability reporting is still under development. Topics such as circularity and climate resilience are still difficult to measure, and a lot of work is being done to make social topics measurable. The aim is to expand the set of indicators step by step,' says Ellens. Other steps in the further development of the Guide include determining material themes for different types of local authorities and improving data availability. Ellens: 'It remains an ongoing process, but we hope that this initiative will bring us one step closer to a better world.