Belgian Coldchain Federation

This week BE-Cool took an important step in the ESG project by holding an initial consultation with Mrs. Christine Weiker, Secretary General of ECSLA (European Cold Storage and Logistics Association). During this meeting we presented the results and the reporting template, and the reactions were extremely positive. Mrs. Weiker was so enthusiastic about our project that she decided that our president, Joris Olbrechts, together with Sebastiaan De Block, may present the ESG initiative at the next ECSLA meeting in Athens.

The BE-Cold ESG reporting standard offers significant benefits to Belgian refrigeration and freezer companies by ensuring uniformity in their sustainability reporting, ensuring clarity and comparability between companies. This reduces confusion about different calculation methods and increases the understandability of the reports for stakeholders. The standard contributes to efficiency by completing 80% of the requirements automatically, allowing companies to focus on their company-specific data.

In addition, the joint approach promotes knowledge sharing and saves SMEs time and resources by not having to develop their own methods separately. By working together as an industry, companies can strengthen their relationships with customers, banks and insurers and better prepare for future laws and regulations.

The professional federation of the Belgian Refrigeration and Freezing Industry BE-Cold, The Ecological Entrepreneur and a dozen members jointly developed a sustainable sector standard. This joint approach strengthens the competitive position of Belgian cold stores and freezers. It also provides a host of other significant benefits for the members, such as lower costs and easy compliance.

This makes BE-Cold the first in Europe to develop a sustainability report so quickly.