When evaluating the Sustainable Reporting category, the panel of judges made up of prolific investors, pension fund and insurers from across the globe particularly appreciated the interactive data library launched last year, where anyone can view almost 1,800 indicators from 2018 to 2022 relating to the ESG pillars, making it the largest database of non-financial indicators of any European energy company.
"The importance of sustainable corporate behaviour is growing globally. There is also a logical increase in demand from investors, banks, insurers and customers for credible assessment that clearly distinguishes companies that are serious about sustainability from those that just talk about it. I am proud that CEZ Group is one of the former, as evidenced by the improving ratings from international rating agencies. The appreciation of our extensive, publicly accessible database of ESG indicators further confirms our efforts to be among the European leaders in sustainability," said Daniel Beneš, CEZ CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors.
CEZ Group has built its ambitious Vision 2030 strategy, announced two years ago, in accordance with sustainability principles. Last year, for example, it declared that it would achieve climate neutrality by 2040, 10 years earlier than the original deadline.
The CEZ Group ESG Data Library is available online in English and Czech. Users can filter data by specific international standard or by thematic chapters (environment, social relations, corporate governance and general indicators). The data can be viewed either as a table or as a line or bar chart and are freely downloadable.
"We believe that the only right way to communicate our sustainability activities is to be completely open. And this requires that the information is available in a single place, and that it is easily accessible by anyone at any time. I am pleased that the Environmental Finance jury appreciate our efforts to be transparent. We want to further develop and expand the data library in the future," says Kateřina Bohuslavová, Head of the CEZ Group ESG Office.
She was voted Sustainable Leader of the Year 2023 by the Environmental Finance panel of judges. They appreciated, among other things, the significant improvement in CEZ Group's ESG rating by global rating agencies: for example, MSCI raised CEZ's rating by two categories from BBB to AA, and Sustainalytics improved CEZ's rating from 37 to 29.4 points. CEZ Group is also actively involved in international and global initiatives: for example, it was the first Czech company to become a signatory to the UN CEO Water Mandate initiative aimed at water conservation.