Sustaining sustainability

 Simon Goldie, Director of Advocacy

The sustainability agenda impacts FLA members in different ways – whether it’s government legislation requiring businesses to meet net zero targets, regulatory reporting requirements or investor demands for sustainable assets to appear on the balance sheet.

We have been discussing these issues over the last few years, first in our Green Finance Group, then in our FLA Sustainability Group as the debate evolved and broadened.

In the Asset Finance Division, Siemens and CGI talked about how to embed sustainability in your business and how technology can assist in that process respectively, and in the discussion that followed members made clear that they need government agreement on what constitutes a green or greener asset, regardless of whether the mechanism is a green taxonomy, or a reference point created by the British Business Bank. Such a list could be widened to include assets that are eligible for capital allowances, green or not.

Members are also grappling with the complexity of carbon reporting. It was pointed out that regulators are capturing the same information from different sources, so we will be taking this to the Government and proposing that only one entity, the manufacturer or end-user, report.

Published 01 May 2024