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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.

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 the Belgian cold and frozen food industry.

It also provides a host of significant benefits to members, such as reduced costs and easy compliance. This makes BE-Cold the first in Europe to develop sustainability reporting so quickly.

The Belgian economy would grow by 1.1% in 2024 and by 1.3% in 2025. In the process, 16 000 and 25 000 new jobs would be created, respectively. The employment rate barely rises. Inflation is estimated at 3.2% this year and would fall to less than 2% in 2025. These projections assume unchanged policies and thus do not anticipate measures that have not yet been decided.

This post contains the inflation outlook from November 2024 to December 2025, prepared by the Federal Planning Bureau, based on observations through October 2024. According to the Federal Planning Bureau, average annual inflation (national consumer price index, NICP) should reach 3.1% in 2024 and 1.8% in 2025.