Green Initiatives Vs. Greenwashing: Educating City Managers

I’ve recently had the pleasure to discover an online destination focused on promoting sustainable business developments, both in Romania and across Europe. Green Start-Up, freshly launched just last month, is an innovative bilingual project that addresses ESG, mobility, energy and environmental issues, all from an entrepreneurial perspective.

The project aims to become a guide to serve business leaders, offering a pool of helpful information on the most impactful initiatives from European companies, as well as the latest in tech and innovation, sourced by a team of journalists with over 40 years of combined experience.

As the world expands its focus on creating sustainable and green living solutions, the timing of such an initiative, which looks to promote environmentally-conscious business models in Romania and throughout the continent, must be applauded. After all, we live in an era where 49% of global investors already refuse to finance companies that lack sustainable initiatives - and that number is only set to increase over the coming years.

And while this project has only just gotten off the ground, we must ensure that this and similar initiatives don’t give way to so-called greenwashing; and that major players in the corporate arena, as the main drivers of carbon emissions, are kept under scrutiny over their net-zero pledges. Only then we’ll be able to see palpable change.

The pandemic has highlighted a pressing need for renewed focus on environmental and social issues; with corporate social responsibility being a big part of this. This of course extends to cities, where increasing percentages of the world’s population will be based over the coming years - and we must ensure that initiatives are in place, not only to help communities improve their understanding over these issues, but also to encourage active involvement from their citizens. And for this to happen, urban planners and city managers need to be fully on board and in tune with the latest developments.

Urban planning and city management are, after all, positions ultimately devoted to solving problems, and ensuring that these are future-proof: resilient and sustainable. So in order for this mission to continue its forward momentum, we need to keep shining as much of a spotlight on the issues as we do on innovations and the solutions they bring with them.

I celebrate the launch of Green Start-Up and congratulate the team on their fantastic initiative, highlighting business news and practices closely aligned with EU sustainability goals. I hope it serves as an inspiration for both business leaders and up and coming entrepreneurs in best practices towards a greener, prosperous Europe - while keeping promises and developments from big players in check.