The environmentally friendly action of a company, the practices it implements to support social groups, and the transparent corporate procedures it adopts are three criteria that increasingly influence its value.
For what reasons should companies adopt ESG criteria?
Experts
Giorgos Stamatis, General Secretary of Social Solidarity & Combating Poverty
Loukas Spanos, ESG Project Leader at Qualco Group
Eva Genakou, Advisor and Coordinator of the ESG Committee, BSE.
Moderator
Elena Papadimitriou, journalist
The environmentally friendly action of a company, the practices it implements to support social groups, and the transparent corporate procedures it adopts are three criteria that increasingly influence its value. The threefold ESG is an ever-rising trend that is here to stay and embraces human, physical, and social capital.
- What is the definition of ESG, and what are its practical applications in the corporate context?
- What specific actions are carried out in the context of Environmental Protection?
- What strategies are adopted in the context of the need for transparency in corporate processes?
- How is the social strategy shaped in the context of ESG?
- What are the benefits for companies from adopting ESG criteria?
- For what reasons should companies adopt ESG criteria?
- More than 50 listed companies apply ESG criteria. What are the challenges they face in their implementation?
Elena Papadimitriou was born and raised in Thessaloniki. She studied Journalism and Mass Communication at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, including a semester of studies in The Hague under the European Erasmus program. She completed her postgraduate studies in Political Science and Sociology at the University of Athens. She has been working in the press and electronic media since her student years. From 2003 to 2006 she worked as an editor of free and cultural reporting in the newspaper CITYPRESS. During the period 2006 - 2014 she was a member of the journalism team of the morning news program of MEGA, writing at the same time as contributor for five years in protagon.gr. In July 2014, she started working in SKAI television and radio, covering international reporting in the main newscast and presenting news bulletins and shows. She has covered important events of European and international affairs in recent years, sometimes with long television broadcasts, in journalistic missions to places like Moscow, Turkey, Italy and Belgium. Maintaining to this day the longing for major festivals and concerts, she has traveled to dozens of European cities for cultural events, writing articles in a number of media. She speaks English, French and Italian.
He was born in Athens in 1975. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy and afterwards he completed an MSc in International Medical & Crisis Management at Athens Medical School. His postgraduate thesis was specialized in homeless people and homelessness in EU Member States.
During 2004-2006 he worked as an associate at the Ministry of Health & Social Solidarity, acting as coordinator of medical and social intervention programs for vulnerable groups.
Since 2006, he has been working at the Municipality of Athens, as a responsible for the strategic planning and implementation of Volunteerism programs and social solidarity activities focusing primarily on the integration of immigrants and the elderly, while he was responsible for the operation of the first Local Migration Board.
Since July 2019, he has been appointed as Secretary General for Social Solidarity and Fight Against Poverty.
Loukas Spanos is an economist (BA, MSc, University of Athens) & accredited mediator. He is ESG Project Leader at Qualco. Previously he was Director of the Financial Mediation Center at the Hellenic Financial Ombudsman and served as Senior Advisor to the Board Chair of the National Bank of Greece, responsible for CSR & Sustainability. He has over 10 years of experience in senior governmental & public affairs roles with substantial policy-making experience, including serving as Head of the Office of the Minister of Labor (2010/11) and Head of the Office of the Minister of Development (2009/10). He has been a member of various experts’ committees, including the Expert Committee of the Athens Exchange for the implementation of the European Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) and the Committee of the Hellenic Corporate Governance Council for the development of a compliance methodology for Greek listed companies. He has research experience in the fields of corporate governance, CSR & ESG. Recent work includes his contribution (CSR & crowdfunding) to the ‘Corporate Responsibility and Digital Communities’ published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018. He has taught courses in the fields of finance and corporate governance at the Athens University of Economics & Business (AUEB), at the Department of Economics of the University of Athens, and the National Technical University of Athens. He is a fellow of the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (Sylff) of the Tokyo Foundation.
Dr. Eva Genakou is ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) Consultant at the Association of Businesses and Industries (SEV) and founder of Prosperity Consulting. For 20 years, she has helped create ESG and sustainability strategies for 70+ £100bn projects. During the pandemic, she founded Prosperia to help even more businesses move to more sustainable practices to remain competitive.
Before that, she was Director of Sustainability at Logicor, a Blackstone and China Investment Corporation company, and a leading European property owner in the logistics sector. Previously, she was Director of Sustainability at Brookfield Asset Management-owned multinational construction company Multiplex, where she spent 11 years. She has been recognized as a Fellow of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), Chartered Environmentalist, Chartered Waste Manager, and Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
She served on the Advisory Board for the UK Green Building Council and the Steering Committee for the anti-slavery alliance Stronger Together. She has co-authored several publications, including "Resilient Workspace: Climate risks and opportunities," British Council for Offices, 2020 and "Minimising risks through responsible sourcing," CIRIA, 2017. She is a multilingual international speaker and founder of UK Contractors Declare. She was on the Top100 Women in Construction 2020 List and received a Distinction (High Commended) for the Sustainability Executive of the Year award, BusinessGreen Leaders, 2019.
She graduated from the University of Athens with a BA in Chemistry, followed by an MSc in Environmental Engineering from the University of Manchester and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Southampton.
