DUE DILIGENCE
Minimise business risks, establish clear responsibilities, and lay the groundwork for risk mitigation plans. Gain insights into cost calculations and pricing, identify and mitigate potential costly surprises, particularly due to soil contamination, and establish a solid foundation for comprehensive and secure sales and purchase agreements. Market Ecology offers extensive services and due diligence investigations in real estate transactions and in corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A´s). We also conduct due diligence and supplier assessments, along with ESG analyses, to ensure that your suppliers' quality aligns with your expectations, preventing unwanted surprises and facilitating compliance with your customers' requirements. With our holistic approach and expertise across various specialist areas, you can trust that you'll have access to thorough and well-founded information to support your negotiations effectively.
Real Estate/Property Transactions
In real estate transactions, it's customary to conduct an environmental risk assessment to evaluate potential risks such as pollution affecting the land and groundwater. These assessments typically involve on-site visits to the property and/or analyses of past surveys and inventories to thoroughly evaluate any environmental concerns.
Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A´s)
Before finalising the sale or acquisition of a company or other organisation, it is essential and prudent to conduct a thorough assessment of the potential environmental impact and liabilities associated with the operation, spanning historical, present, and future aspects. To This proactive approach ensures that legal obligations for remediating any environmental damage are allocated appropriately, following the Polluter Pays principle, whereby those responsible for the pollution bear the responsibility for environmental restoration.
Supplier assessments - CSDDD
Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive
We assist you in navigating through the evolving regulatory landscape and provide guidance in identifying, assessing, and mitigating adverse impacts on human rights, corruption, and climate change, as outlined in international agreements such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and the IFC's Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability, among others. Upon identifying adverse effects on human rights or the environment, companies are obligated to take action to mitigate and neutralise these effects by developing and implementing corrective action plans and investing in necessary infrastructure or providing compensation to affected parties. Additionally, we support business leaders in ensuring that robust due diligence processes are integrated into business strategies and that considerations of human rights, climate change, and environmental impacts are factored into decision-making processes.
ESG ASSESSMENT & REPORTING
ESG, which stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance, focuses on the environmental, social, and governance dimensions of a business. An ESG assessment provides insights into the sustainability of your company's operations and identifies potential risks within your organisation. We specialise in helping you pinpoint and prioritise areas that are particularly relevant to your business and industry.
Climate Impact Calculation
We ensure that our clients receive accurate climate impact calculations according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the most widely used standard for emission calculations, based on the Kyoto Protocol. The calculations are categorised into three scopes:
Scope 1 covers emissions from direct activities such as fuel combustion and owned or controlled vehicles.
Scope 2 includes indirect emissions from purchased electricity, steam, heating, and cooling.
Scope 3 encompasses other indirect emissions from purchased materials, product use, waste management, business travel, etc., not owned or controlled by the organisation. Scope 3 represents the entire value chain.
Climate Scenario Assessment
Using SMHI's (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) Climate Scenario Service, we analyse various temperature and precipitation scenarios for your property or facility based on different future emission scenarios to determine the necessity for action.
Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor (CRREM)
We utilise this EU tool to help property owners understand the climate risk associated with their properties. It identifies when a property becomes "stranded," meaning its emissions can no longer support a global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Climate Declarations for Buildings
We assist project owners - property owners or contractors in meeting the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning´s requirements for accounting for the climate impact of new buildings to reduce the environmental impact during the construction phase. This is compliant with the Regulation on Climate Declarations for Buildings, SFS 2021:789.
Biodiversity
We identify biodiversity risks and recommend mitigating measures.
Given the high threats to biodiversity, which also reduce resilience to climate change, we help our clients identify risks to their properties or facilities. We propose nature-based solutions to enhance biodiversity and contribute to the site's ecosystem services, estimating the associated costs.
SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING
Regardless of whether you have previously reported on sustainability or not, we assist you in converting your sustainability strategy into measurable outcomes and ensure that you are at the forefront of sustainable business practices, adhering to relevant EU directives such as CSRD.
CSRD
Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is a new EU directive for sustainability reporting and is part of the EU's Green Deal. The framework aims to create comparability and transparency with the goal of providing better conditions for achieving sustainability objectives and the EU's Net Zero by 2050. CSRD is designed to encompass all aspects of your operations, thus reaching into the core of your organisation and business strategy. The directive is also intended to simplify comparisons of companies' various sustainability efforts for investors, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders, which can significantly enhance your business's access to capital, customers, employees, and more.
GRI
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is currently the most widely used standard for sustainability reporting across all industries, assisting companies in reporting their impacts on the environment, society, and economy. Interest in businesses' sustainability performance is greater than ever. Let us help you increase transparency and stakeholder trust by communicating your company's impacts on issues such as climate change, corruption, and human rights through the establishment of a sustainability report in accordance with the GRI's guidelines.
GRESB
GRESB stands for Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark and targets the real estate industry and its sustainability efforts. The purpose of GRESB is to help investors track the sustainability performance in managing existing properties as well as new construction and major renovations. Market Ecology assists you in reporting according to GRESB, simultaneously highlighting new development opportunities, options, and risks that need to be assessed for the real estate industry to keep pace with the transition towards a more sustainable future. In this way, you also enhance the dialogue with investors regarding the company's sustainability efforts, where improvement measures can be communicated as clear progress.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Strategically, we develop systems to enhance your operational processes and procedures towards increased productivity and efficiency. We are passionate about elevating your competency in managing your operations even more effectively, ultimately achieving long-term sustainability.
Systematic Work Environment Management
The purpose of Systematic Work Environment Management (Systematiskt Arbetsmiljöarbete = SAM) according to the Swedish Work Environment Authority's regulation AFS 2001:1 is to enable organisations to conduct and implement work environment activities in the best possible manner, aiming to prevent illness or injury due to work-related causes, and to ensure a good and developmental work environment for all employees. This involves investigations, risk assessments, mitigating measures, and recurring controls. We assist you in integrating SAM as a natural part of your operations, ensuring that the work can be easily maintained with procedures, work environment policies, and annual follow-ups.
Collaborative Management - Process improvements through enhanced collaboration
Collaborative management aims to achieve lasting improvements in collaboration within the organisation through systematic and effective coordination of collaboration between different departments, managers, teams, activities, or processes. Common challenges include: What hinders smooth collaboration? Why are your handovers not efficient? We review your business processes and propose improved communication, information flow, efficient hand-over procedure, and decision-making pathways.
QHSE - Quality, Health, Safety, and Environment Coordination in Construction Projects
With a focus on quality, occupational health and safety, and environment (QEHS), the prerequisites for a safe and secure construction project are established. Unfortunately, incidents and fatalities are still common on today's construction sites. By increasing internal knowledge in quality, environmental, and occupational health and safety work, safety can significantly increase for you and your team. Our team at Market Ecology has extensive experience in QHSE and assists you in designing, implementing, and monitoring a comprehensive QEHS plan with all self-controls needed to include in your construction project to ensure compliance with the requirements of the final product.
Implementation of Management Systems (Environmental or Occupational Health and Safety or Quality or Integrated)
Management systems should be a natural support in your daily work to establish clear procedures. This should ensure the development and quality of your operations to satisfy both your customers and employees and contribute to sustainable success. We guide clients through workshops using a structured process to establish and implement a management system according to ISO 14001, 9001, or 45001. Our aim is to integrate a solid PDCA-cycle (plan/do/check/act) into the clients´ business.
Internal Audits of ISO 14001 (Environmental), ISO 45001 (Occupational Health and Safety), and ISO 9001 (Quality) Management Systems
Certification means that you comply with a framework or management standard within a specific area, which also creates favourable conditions for a clear procedural structure in your operations. Using internal audits as a tool, we help you improve your management system while spreading knowledge about ISO standards and integrating them into the organisation.
Sustainability Strategy, Goals, and Action Plans
Where are we now and where do we want to go?
We provide guidance with methodology and governance to create a business/sustainability strategy, goals, policies, and effective ES(G) - governance. Sustainable success for the organisation requires a well-thought-out, smart, and realistic sustainability strategy where management commitment is crucial, not only for the sake of the strategy but for the company's survival. We also conduct workshops for management teams, analyses, investigations, and benchmarking, risk and opportunity analysis, materiality analysis, stakeholder analysis and dialogue, current state analysis, and more. We help you understand the global sustainability goals, SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), and how you can work with them as objectives. A good starting point for sustainability efforts may be a GAP analysis to identify the gap between current sustainability performance and optimal performance according to ISO 26000, which is a guiding ISO standard in Social Responsibility (SR) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
LEGAL COMPLIANCE
Regulatory Monitoring
We provide Legal registers with additional explanations of why environmental, occupational health and safety, and sustainability laws and regulations apply to your activities. We monitor news and changes in laws and regulations, including the Swedish Environmental Code and associated regulations, regulations from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, EU directives, and regulations from the Swedish Work Environment Authority, among others.
To keep you continuously updated on legislative developments within one or more area, your business may need to enlist with the support of our legal compliance monitoring service. Market Ecology offers tailored legal registers, where we both compile new and update existing lists. Through customised legal registers tailored to your business, we help you control, identify, monitor, and follow up on current environmental and occupational health and safety legislation at the municipal, national, and EU levels. In addition, we cover EHS laws and regulations in the other Nordic countries too – Denmark, Finland, and Norway.
Legal Environmental, Occupational Health and Safety, and Sustainability Compliance Audits
As a business operator, ensuring continuous compliance with environmental and occupational health and safety regulations is often a challenge. Therefore, we conduct compliance audits of your operations by visiting your premises, reviewing documentation, interviewing key personnel, and inspecting your operations.
Together with you, we identify gaps and shape a high-quality operation to enhance competitiveness in the market, establish clearer organisational structure, and improve occupational health and safety while reducing environmental impact. Audits are a perfect tool for improvement work in risk, environment, and occupational health and safety in your workplace. They help identify and analyse areas for improvement and implement the right actions. This leads to better performance, reduced costs, and enhanced environmental, quality, and occupational health and safety efforts. Market Ecology offers efficient audits to improve customer processes, management systems, and legal compliance. In addition, we offer EHS legal compliance audits in the other Nordic countries too – Denmark, Finland, and Norway.
If you have any questions about our services,
please feel free to contact us!
TOMASZ HALKIEWICZ
Senior Sustainability Consultant, founder, and owner
+46 70 757 53 18
th@marketecology.esiteq.com