Wiener Börse AG acts as the central infrastructure provider in the region and opens the doors to the global financial markets. It combines the stock exchanges in Vienna and Prague. Since its foundation in 1771, its fundamental mission has been to create trust and transparency. In addition, the Vienna Stock Exchange is actively involved in the area of sustainability and offers investors a platform for sustainable investments.
BACKGROUND
Sustainability at the Vienna Stock Exchange
As a traditional, regulated company with high standards of transparency and compliance, the Vienna Stock Exchange realized early on that the upcoming EU directives would also make sustainability reporting relevant for a medium-sized company like the Vienna Stock Exchange. The Vienna Stock Exchange had already taken its first steps before working with Code Gaia: a small, interdisciplinary team developed an initial materiality analysis together with an external consultancy, supported by a complex Excel structure. It quickly became apparent how time-consuming and resource-intensive this approach was without a tool.
We knew that we needed a tool that would provide us with comprehensive support – and with Code Gaia, we have found exactly the solution that bundles our data and covers the entire process.
Alexander Racher
ESG Manager Wiener Börse AG
CODE GAIA’S SOLUTION
Cooperation between the Vienna Stock Exchange and Code Gaia
In its search for a suitable solution, the Vienna Stock Exchange came across Code Gaia during its online research. What immediately caught the eye was the clear, understandable language on the website and the references from well-known companies that had to overcome similar challenges. The direct exchange with an existing reference customer was particularly valuable for Alexander: “It quickly became clear to me that Code Gaia understands what really matters in regulated environments.”
The combination of intelligent software and personal support was particularly convincing. “This all-round carefree package was exactly what we needed,” emphasizes Alexander. The modular structure of the platform was also a perfect fit: instead of overloaded systems with unnecessary functions, Wiener Börse was able to select and use exactly the modules it needed – no more and no less.
Implementation and milestones
The initial challenge was to bring together scattered data from different departments – often still in complex Excel spreadsheets. For the Vienna Stock Exchange, it quickly became clear that a central solution was needed to bring order to data collection and evaluation.
The first major step was to prepare the carbon footprint for 2023 – initially with a reduced Scope 3. The aim was to get to know the processes and gain initial experience with the tool. A milestone was quickly reached: the next carbon footprint was already ESRS-compliant, including an employee questionnaire and extensive Scope 3 factors.
The centralized data collection in one tool is particularly valuable. As an SME with many departments and on-premise systems, it was a novelty that data could be consolidated across departments, which helped the company enormously.
With Code Gaia, we were able to consolidate our scattered data for the first time – and suddenly had a solid basis on which we could build all further steps.
PROCESS
Added value and impact
For the Vienna Stock Exchange, the greatest added value was the enormous relief in terms of scarce personnel resources. Code Gaia even made it possible for an ESG assistant, who only works a few hours a week at the company, to manage the data collection in the tool independently.
“This is a sign of quality: a person with a minimal time budget and little prior knowledge was able to familiarize themselves with the tool in such a way that they became our internal expert for the tool,” says Alexander.
The collaboration has also helped the Vienna Stock Exchange strategically: the central database has enabled the company to communicate much more transparently to all shareholders and stakeholders and to focus more strongly on sustainability issues.
Results and insights
Cooperation at eye level
In addition to the software solution, the Vienna Stock Exchange particularly appreciates the personal support. The positive cooperation between the Vienna Stock Exchange and Code Gaia is reflected above all in the close support and rapid responsiveness of the team. “It’s more of a partnership than a traditional customer relationship. The openness, fast response time and expertise of the team have helped us enormously,” says Alexander.
CONCLUSION
Whether the Vienna Stock Exchange will fall under the CSRD in the long term remains to be seen. However, one thing is clear: the chosen path will be continued – whether with CSRD or a voluntary standard such as VSME will be revealed by the omnibus.
“Code Gaia has provided us with a database that we would never have achieved on our own. This gives us the security of being able to act in the future,” says Alexander.
