Sam-il PwC "ESG Disclosure Aims for Corporate Behavior Change... Opportunity, Not Cost"

Europe ESG Disclosure Seminar
Over 1,700 Corporate Officials Attend

As ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) disclosure regulations are being finalized one after another in various countries, opinions have emerged that the ultimate goal of sustainability reporting should be to drive changes in corporate behavior. Companies should not merely comply with the minimum requirements but internalize regulatory compliance as a management strategy and seize it as an opportunity for value enhancement.

On the 29th, Samil PwC announced that it held a seminar on the 26th at its headquarters in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on the theme of "Response Strategies to European ESG Disclosure Regulations (Focusing on Actual Cases)."

This seminar was organized to comprehensively review domestic and international ESG disclosure standards and to explain the European Union (EU)’s Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which are the most extensive and complex disclosure standards. The seminar was conducted simultaneously on-site and via online live streaming, with about 1,700 participants including ESG experts from PwC Netherlands and PwC Germany, as well as corporate representatives.

On the 26th, a seminar on 'Response Measures to European ESG Disclosure Regulations' was held in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, where Alexander Spek, a partner at PwC Netherlands, gave a presentation on the progress in Europe.
[Photo by Samil PwC]

The first session was led by Partner Kwon Mi-yeop, who briefly introduced the basic structure and key disclosure elements of the ESG disclosure standards to be finalized this year by the Korea Sustainability Standards Board (KSSB), and explained the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s climate disclosure rules. He pointed out, "The purpose of ESG disclosure is for companies to reveal how sustainability risks and opportunities they face impact their financial statements and what response strategies they have, and to utilize this as a new growth engine for the company." The KSSB is scheduled to announce a draft of the ESG disclosure standards on the 30th.

Partner Yoon Young-chang of PwC Consulting gave a lecture on the "EU Taxonomy." He detailed the entire process of identifying companies’ eco-friendly activities through the EU Taxonomy, conducting conformity assessment procedures to meet the conditions required by the EU Taxonomy regulation, and calculating financial performance indicators (KPIs) for environmentally sustainable economic activities. Introducing considerations for information disclosure under the EU Taxonomy regulation, he said, "Although it will be a complex and challenging task for companies, actively utilizing the EU Taxonomy can provide opportunities to attract new investments."

In the final session, Partner Lee Jin-gyu of Samil PwC, together with Alexander Speck, Partner at PwC Netherlands, explained the EU’s CSRD and ESRS along with actual reporting cases from European companies. Lee emphasized, "To accurately understand the purpose of the EU CSRD and prepare disclosures according to ESRS, it is necessary to establish clear procedures defining the responsibilities and roles (R&R) between the Korean parent company and its European subsidiaries."

Steven Kang, Sustainability Platform Leader (Vice President), who planned this seminar, said, "When new regulations emerge, some companies try to meet the requirements at minimal cost, while others leverage the regulations as opportunities to enhance value. Through this seminar, we hope it becomes an opportunity to reflect on what kind of company we want to be."

Meanwhile, Samil PwC’s Sustainability Platform has expanded and reorganized its existing ESG platform organization into a Sustainability Platform that includes ESG disclosure, climate advisory, and energy transition, to provide complex and specialized services aimed at creating new sustainable value beyond regulatory compliance.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.