Our world is changing faster than ever. As the climate crisis and global warming in the wake of excessive fossil fuel consumption and soaring greenhouse gas emissions have significantly raised global temperatures, the new global goal is to limit warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century. Climate change, accelerated growth and development, technological progress, and the expansion of production and consumption have been contributing factors pushing us toward a revolutionary paradigm shift – from unlimited growth to sustainable development. Bolstered by the conclusions of the Paris Agreement, the European Union has adopted its highly ambitious Green Deal, setting up high expectations for companies to invest in and adapt to a green, low-carbon economy. Signed by almost 200 countries globally, the recently adopted Glasgow Climate Pact – as a sort of upgrade to the Paris Agreement – commits its signatories to accelerate the development of technologies and adopt key policies geared toward transitioning to clean, low-emission systems in order to help protect our planet.
Without training, constructive dialogue with all key stakeholders, and help from EU funds and other financial resources, Croatian companies may not be able to keep pace with the high demands set by the EU and may fall behind competitors in the common EU market.
This is why we hold the ESG criteria for sustainable development in such high regard. ESG is a set of environmental, social and governance criteria that will soon become a requisite for corporations and their leaders. They are vital for the operation of companies and investors who care about their corporate performance in the fields of social responsibility and sustainability. ESG helps investors assess businesses they want to invest in by evaluating their success in meeting the climate criteria.
With internationally recognized training courses and certificates for ESG experts, pioneered by the International Institute for Climate Action (IICA) based in Zagreb – in collaboration with the International Association for Sustainable Economy (IASE) – we aim to provide professional support to businesses in the areas of non-financial reporting and implementing the Low Carbon Strategy, as well as the Adaptation Strategy and the European Green Plan across their business plans. Over 100 university professors from all over the world, including 4 Nobel laureates, participated in the creation of the syllabus for the first comprehensive training programme focusing on climate sustainability criteria (ESG). To ensure added value, the training programme has been evaluated by the most prestigious global institutions dealing with sustainable development and climate policy-making, as well as financial and governance operations and criteria: UN FAO, UNFCCC, UNEP (UN Environment Programme), UN IFAD, UN WOMEN, GREEN CLIMATE FUND, the World Bank, and many others.
The Future Perfect Business is an initiative launched with the primary goal of educating, informing, raising awareness, and networking with the business community and other interested parties in order to meet the environmental criteria and find a common path toward a resilient and sustainable society. The initiative calls on everyone – the business community, national, regional, and local government representatives, all political persuasions, non-profits (NGOs), and the general public – to join forces to work toward a common cause. By sharing knowledge, processes, ideas, and projects, we can raise the bar of social and personal responsibility toward greater sustainability and help companies introduce new business and governance models to ensure steady future growth. We named the initiative “Future Perfect Business” because when we look at the world and business, we focus on the future and strive to turn it into reality. As a verb tense, the future perfect describes a completed future action. By selecting this particular name, we anticipate a time when we will have achieved all our goals – a sustainable society and economy across all pillars of ESG. Across all our activities – training, certification, awards, gatherings, and professional conferences, we provide companies and institutions with guidelines to enable their decision-makers to become architects of a sustainable future.
The partners of the initiative are the IICA (Institute for Climate Action), Media Val, and the HUP (Croatian Association of Employers).