EU Omnibus Regulation: Why the EU's timing is not that important when it comes to sustainability

What do you say when you wait for latecomers to start a meeting? Are you punishing the latecomers by postponing? As far as new regulatory frameworks for companies are concerned, postponement (in whole or in part) seems to be normal. The EU is currently discussing this with regard to sustainability reporting (CSRD) and supply chains (CS3D). In the past, for example, the introduction of Europe-wide standardized payment transactions (IBAN, BIC and co.) was postponed. The latter happened in 2014 and was considered unthinkable - but the overwhelming majority of German companies had demonstrably simply started far too late to convert their IT systems and processes. What did the punctual ones actually do in the meantime?

Improved liquidity earlier than others

The answer: they benefited from their pioneering role and enjoyed tangible economic advantages earlier than the latecomers - because in 2014, not only were the account numbers in use today new, but also the associated acceleration in money transfers towards the level we know today. Unimaginable today: until 2014, you still had to wait days for every transfer to be received - even for transfers within your own company accounts - which meant that incredible financial buffers were constantly required.

Quantify consumption (and financial benefits)

And the punctual ones in sustainability reporting? Let's take a pioneer from the UK in the retail real estate segment, which initially reported on internally defined sustainability criteria back in the 2000s and was therefore able to quantify consumption in an adequately comparable manner (Scope 1, 2 and 3 etc.) at an early stage. Similar to the IBAN pioneers, the real estate company was able to reap tangible financial benefits earlier than others - let's jump to 2021, for example:

• 2.5 million pounds were saved in energy costs through modern real-time metering systems. By comparison, investment in energy efficiency measures at the same time was only £1.5 million.
• Pure water costs fell by 28 percent and water management costs by 90 percent.
• Revenue from renewable energies increased by 26 percent.

Stragglers without data for transparent decisions

By way of comparison: in the same year (2021), most real estate companies, especially in German-speaking countries, were often still unable to provide a single economic key figure in their sustainability report. Perhaps this is because most companies lacked data as a transparent basis for making efficient investment decisions in order to reduce costs and increase income. It is well known that collecting data at property level was one of the biggest hurdles for owners and their asset managers at the time. This is still the case today, especially with regard to user data. If in doubt, ask us - we can do it from the outside and take the pressure off you, just like with the sustainability report itself.

Conclusion and outlook

All in all, if you don't start measuring things, you can't improve them. And that in turn means that you are still waiting - even if it sounds polemical - for the savings that others have been accumulating for years, as described above. Don't misunderstand: We all want companies to be able to concentrate on their core business instead of being suffocated by over-regulation and reporting obligations. However, the groundwork for the sustainability report is closer to the core business than many people think - and it is therefore a job that you only want to sit out at first glance. At second glance, you realize: it's unbelievable, unimaginable what was suddenly possible.