Workshop for ESG risk management and compliance with the requirements of ESG regulations – Furniture industry
October 23, 2023 | Belgrade
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, with the support of the German Organization for International Cooperation GIZ, launched the Responsible Business Hub RBH customer service for all domestic companies that export to the German market or plan to do so in the future. The goal of this customer service is to provide support to companies in Serbia to understand and properly work on the implementation of the German Act on Due Diligence in Supply Chains, as well as on all other regulations in the field of the green agenda.
According to the new German law that entered into force on January 1st this year, domestic companies that are in the supply chains of German companies have the obligation of due diligence through the following activities:
- Establishing a risk management system
- Resolving internal jurisdiction in the company
- Conducting regular risk analyses
- Giving a statement of principles
- Establishing preventive measures in the sphere of own business and towards direct suppliers
- Taking corrective measures
- Documentation and reporting
In order to promote the importance of risk management and analysis in every company, we organized consulting workshops for companies from several different industries. We introduced the present companies to the principles of risk analysis, the importance of quality risk management, and the importance of appointing a responsible person within the company.
During the workshops, the participants had the opportunity to apply the learned concepts of risk management by conducting a short analysis of the company's exposure to risks in the field of environmental protection and human rights under the professional supervision of Deloitte experts.
As a result of the workshops, we received an overview of the most important risks for each of the five sectors and created a plan for further activities.
The last in a series of consultation workshops on the topic of risk management was held with representatives of companies from the furniture industry. The member companies of the Panel Furniture Manufacturers Group, Association for Forestry, Wood Processing, Furniture and Paper Industry were present. For some, this was a completely new area, some encountered new customer requirements, while for some companies, this was just a check to see if they were on the right track.
The conclusion of the workshop participants is that this is a current topic that will be dealt with in the coming period and that this concept of information and education is extremely important for domestic companies in order to more easily prepare for new challenges and a new type of business with companies from the European Union.
The most important risks for this branch of industry are energy security and the availability of natural resources, the lack of workers, and narrowly specialized work profiles for this branch of industry. Special emphasis was placed on unfair competition and lack of suppliers.
