The recently released 2024 ČEZ Group Sustainability Report is the company’s first that has been prepared in accordance with new legislative requirements (the Accounting Act, European ESRS Standards, and the European CSRD Directive). Furthermore, this is the first time that the report forms an integral part of the Annual Financial Report. The document provides a comprehensive and clear overview of CEZ Group’s impact on sustainability. On nearly 160 pages, it offers readers a detailed insight into specific activities in the sphere of environmental protection, employee and community relations, and legal and ethical compliance, across more than 200 CEZ Group companies.
‘CEZ Group continues to pursue its decarbonisation efforts: nearly two-thirds of our electricity production come from zero-emission sources. We have also been successfully reducing greenhouse gas emissions, emissions of NOX, SO2, and other pollutants, and we continue to reduce our water consumption and waste generation, despite the increasing total number of companies in the Group. We have been making massive investments in research and new, low-emission sources,” said Board member and Chief Sustainability Officer Michaela Chaloupková.
The Sustainability Report had to be prepared in accordance with the uniform structure prescribed by European ESRS standards. CEZ Group had to report on a wide range of standardised data, more than 1,000 data requirements covering all key ESG areas, most of them being formatted precisely in line with set rules, methodologies, and calculation metrics.
‘We have managed to meet the very strict requirements of the non-financial reporting directive, largely thanks to the fact that we have been reporting hundreds of non-financial voluntarily for many years. Even so, preparing the report in accordance with the new requirements was demanding and required the intense involvement of many of my colleagues, and extraordinary dedication from the entire ESG team,’ adds Chaloupková.
The data published for 2024 show, for example, that CEZ Group is successfully advancing its ambitious strategic objectives set in its Vision 2030 – Clean Energy for Tomorrow strategy. Its direct emissions (Scope 1) dropped by 3% year on year, equivalent to 470,000 tonnes of CO2. A further reduction of around one million tonnes is expected this year. CEZ Group thus remains fully committed to achieving complete climate neutrality by 2040, while fulfilling the objectives of its VISION 2030, by promoting equal opportunities, employee development, ethical corporate culture, safe operations, innovation, education and training, and responsible supplier relationships.
CEZ Group’s progress in the sphere of ESG is closely monitored by leading international rating agencies. Major rating agencies have improved CEZ Group’s ratings in 2024. According to CSR Hub, a company that aggregates ratings from dozens of agencies for nearly 60,000 companies into a single final indicator, CEZ ranked among the top 6% of the world’s publicly traded companies last year.
The report is available on CEZ’s website in the ‘For Investors’ section. The figures are also clearly organised in the Data Library, the most extensive ESG data database among European energy companies.