Mazars study: How is ESG perceived by companies in Slovakia?

In an ideal world, the fight against climate change would involve not only ordinary citizens who would change their consumer behavior, but also smaller or larger companies whose activities have a significant impact on the environment would follow them. The global involvement of all relevant entities would also be a matter of course.

However, the reality looks different. During the last fifteen years, the establishment of a responsible corporate policy of large companies has focused primarily on the area of ​​CSR, in which companies aspired to become responsible partners for their business associates, employees, their immediate surroundings, and the region where they operate. All this happened in a relatively little measurable form and based mostly on a voluntary basis. The exception was the regulations established by the standard, which had to be followed.

Companies in Slovakia are currently moving their level of responsibility forward. Some do so on their own initiative, others because they are ordered to do so by legislation. The current responsibility challenge takes the form of three key concepts: "Environment", "Social" and "Governance", known by the acronym ESG, which every business will have to deal with in the future.

In the report, you will learn:

• To what extent have the companies already implemented ESG in their corporate strategy?
• What are their plans?
• What is the biggest ESG challenge for the business leaders?
• What would they need help with?

Read more about the challenges faced by companies in Slovakia in the Mazars publication.

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The qualitative survey was carried out by the survey agency Ipsos Slovensko on a sample of 10 selected companies with regional representation across the entire Slovak Republic. The selected companies had to meet the criterion of at least 250 employees. The survey used the method of individual interviews. The respondents representing the examined companies represented the positions of executives (board members), managers who are also in charge of the ESG topic (Enviromental & Energy managers), or HR managers in companies where the ESG area is not yet assigned to another specific position. The interviewed companies operate in the segments of information technology (IT), production (electronics, food industry), telecommunications, automotive industry, retail and transport.