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Yes - because sustainability is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have. 

As a 2020 study by Capgemini highlighted, around 79% of all consumers change their purchasing preferences based on sustainability. Products or services are purchased by a total of 66 % of consumers based on their sustainability. It can therefore be assumed that a company will lose customers if no attention is paid to the issue of sustainability. 

The study also states that a loss of sales of up to 6% can be observed when sustainability is not practiced. 

• • EU Taxonomy: The classification of environmentally sustainable economic activities. For this purpose, 6 environmental objectives have been defined, of which 4 conditions must be met for an economic activity to be classified as environmentally sustainable. You can read more about the EU taxonomy in the here read. 
  • CSR Directive Implementation Act DE (CSR-RUG): Disclosure of information on non-financial aspects concerning environmental, employee and social concerns, respect for human rights and the fight against corruption and bribery. In each case, the disclosures must be made that are necessary for an understanding of the course of business, the business results and the situation of the company as well as the effects of its activities on the respective areas(DNK).
  • Non-Financial Reporting Directive EU (NFRD): Disclosure of non-financial and diversity-related information for companies with more than 500 employees. This requires disclosure of information on environmental matters, social issues and treatment of workers, respect for human rights, anti-corruption and bribery, and diversity on company boards(European Commission).
  • Due Diligence Act/ Supply Chain Act: Obligation to disclose human rights responsibility and due diligence along the entire supply chain of a company. For this purpose, companies receive a "clear, proportionate and reasonable legal framework for fulfilling their human rights due diligence obligations"(BMAS).

Yes, organisations face fines for non-compliance with EU taxonomy directives, for example. 

As long as the results are within the framework of regulatory requirements, nothing happens in the first place. But in the long run, this will develop into a competitive disadvantage, as more and more customers demand sustainable management and sustainable products. 

Rather, one must see the poor result of one's own sustainability performance as an opportunity - because no master has fallen from the sky and one can only improve. Accordingly, after a poor result, suitable measures can be derived to improve one's own sustainability performance. 

For small and medium-sized enterprises, it is difficult to stay up to date on the topic of sustainability analytics. Especially when it comes to the associated legal regulations (e.g. EU taxonomy, supply chain law) and the respective standards for reporting, it can be difficult to get an up-to-date overview. However, precisely because of this complexity of the topic, more and more consulting firms have specialised in the topic of "sustainability" in order to make it easier for end clients to work in the new sustainability environment. It is therefore advisable to get in touch with consulting firms such as s-peers AG.