The matter of sustainability, in particular related to corporate governance and financial law, has been the subject of more extensive regulatory treatment, forcing companies to take into account the long-term sustainability of their activity. Therefore, there may be a conflict between profit maximization and sustainability, and administrators must act in accordance with the social interests of each company. In turn, regulatory requirements have been increasing, subjecting companies, investors and other stakeholders to challenges and realities in the field of sustainability.
Given regulatory growth, this will undoubtedly be one of the most relevant topics in commercial company law in the coming years, as well as one of the most interesting legal topics in the field of financial law.
The project will be divided into several phases:
(i) in the initial phase of collecting information on the incorporation of ESG factors in corporate management, the specific aspects to be analysed will have to be determined, but the aim is to analyse factors such as the existence of board committees specifically dedicated to sustainability issues, whether companies have initiated energy transition policies (depending on the sector in question), whether societies already integrate the Sustainable Development Goals, whether there are gender equality policies (in the case of obligated societies, whether these are limited to strict compliance with the law; in the case of others, whether they actually exist), whether there are inclusion policies, etc.;
(ii) this data will be processed and, subsequently, a report will be prepared with main conclusions;
(iii) efforts will be made to gather impressions from the market on the state of the art with regard to compliance with sustainability obligations, as well as how they have been integrating this complex reality;
(iv) organize, based on the aforementioned interactions, a collection of studies that allows determining the status quo, both from a transversal and a national perspective;
(v) following the launch of the aforementioned collection, organize an event with representatives or experts from various jurisdictions to understand the context and results of this recognition and regulation.
All these phases will be supported by a website created especially for this purpose, which will contain the various challenges in this matter and the project outputs.
The objective of this project is, in the initial phases already mentioned above, to analyse the way in which the issue of sustainability has been approached.