Editorial Note
This week’s brief highlights continued expansion across Net Zero Compare, with 10 new or updated policies, 16 software products, and 99 industry events added. Featured policy developments such as the ESMA Guidelines on funds’ names using ESG or sustainability-related terms and the Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire show how sustainability governance is becoming more focused on substantiation, accountability, and credible use of ESG-related language across both financial products and supply chains.
The latest software additions also reflect growing demand for more structured climate data and product-level environmental assessment. DisclosureKit by thinkstep-anz supports Australian organizations preparing climate-related disclosures under AASB S2, while Fairglow brings life cycle assessment capabilities to the health and beauty sector. Together, these tools show how reporting, carbon accounting, and LCA workflows are becoming more specialized as organizations respond to regulatory pressure, customer scrutiny, and the need for better evidence behind sustainability claims.
In this issue, we cover policy signals shaping ESG fund naming and supplier sustainability assessment, introduce tools for climate disclosure and product-level LCA, highlight upcoming events on sustainable healthcare, climate leadership, and destination management, share community perspectives on climate tipping points and central bank action, and spotlight Dawn’s role in helping organizations manage carbon accounting and climate performance.
This week, we added 10 new or updated policies to our website, including:
What happened
The ESMA Guidelines on funds’ names using ESG or sustainability-related terms set expectations for investment funds that use sustainability, environmental, social, governance, impact, transition, or similar terms in their names. The guidelines aim to reduce the risk of misleading fund names by requiring funds to ensure that their investment strategy, asset allocation, exclusions, and sustainability characteristics are consistent with the terms used.
Who is affected
Asset managers, UCITS funds, alternative investment funds, fund distributors, compliance teams, legal teams, ESG analysts, financial advisers, investors, and regulators involved in the marketing, naming, supervision, or assessment of investment funds in the EU.
Why it matters
Fund names are often one of the first signals investors use when assessing whether a product aligns with sustainability preferences. These guidelines help address greenwashing risk by making it harder for funds to use ESG or sustainability-related language without a credible investment approach behind it. For asset managers, the rules increase the need for clear documentation, portfolio screening, exclusions, and alignment between marketing language and actual investment practice.
What to monitor next
Monitor how national competent authorities apply the guidelines, how asset managers rename or adjust funds, and whether sustainability-related terms are supported by portfolio composition, exclusions, and measurable investment criteria. Also watch how the guidelines interact with SFDR, EU Taxonomy disclosures, fund classification practices, transition finance claims, and broader EU anti-greenwashing supervision.
Click here to read more about the ESMA Guidelines on Funds’ Names Using ESG or Sustainability-Related Terms on Net Zero Compare.
What happened
The Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) is a supplier sustainability assessment framework used to evaluate environmental, social, governance, ethics, and supply chain practices. It helps companies collect structured information from suppliers on areas such as carbon emissions, environmental management, labour standards, human rights, business ethics, responsible sourcing, and compliance systems.
Who is affected
Suppliers, manufacturers, procurement teams, sustainability teams, ESG managers, compliance professionals, supply chain managers, and companies that need to assess sustainability risks and performance across their supplier base.
Why it matters
The SAQ supports more consistent supplier due diligence by giving companies a structured way to understand sustainability performance across complex supply chains. It is especially relevant as businesses face increasing pressure to document supplier practices, identify ESG risks, support responsible procurement, and provide better evidence for sustainability reporting and customer requirements.
What to monitor next
Monitor updates to the questionnaire, sector-specific requirements, alignment with supplier due diligence laws, and how companies use SAQ results in procurement decisions, supplier improvement plans, risk screening, and ESG reporting. Also watch how SAQ data connects with carbon accounting, human rights due diligence, digital product passports, and supply chain traceability tools.
Click here to read more about the Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire - SAQ on Net Zero Compare.
Click here to browse all 1014 policies on Net Zero Compare.
This week, we added 16 new software products to our website, including:
Category: Carbon Accounting and ESG Monitoring
Target Market: Australian companies, sustainability teams, finance teams, ESG reporting managers, compliance professionals, and organizations preparing climate-related disclosures under AASB S2.
Recent Context: Australia’s mandatory climate reporting regime is expanding, creating pressure for organizations to understand climate risks and opportunities, document governance and risk management processes, and prepare disclosures that connect climate issues with business strategy, financial impacts, emissions, metrics, and targets.
Disclosurekit by thinkstep-anz is a do-it-yourself climate disclosure tool developed to help Australian organizations prepare reporting aligned with AASB S2 Climate-related Disclosures. The platform breaks climate disclosure into structured modules, guiding teams through risk and opportunity assessment, governance, strategy, emissions information, metrics, targets, and supporting documentation.
View DisclosureKit on Net Zero Compare
Category: Life Cycle Assessment
Target Market: Health and beauty companies, cosmetics brands, contract manufacturers, pharmaceutical laboratories, ingredient suppliers, sustainability teams, product teams, and organizations seeking to assess environmental impacts across formulations, ingredients, packaging, and supply chains.
Recent Context: The health and beauty sector is facing growing pressure to improve product-level environmental transparency, address ingredient and packaging impacts, and support more credible sustainability claims. There is rising demand for LCA tools that can work with granular formulation data and sector-specific ingredient databases rather than relying only on broad spend-based estimates.
Fairglow is a SaaS environmental management platform built for health and beauty companies. The software supports product life cycle assessment, corporate carbon accounting, eco-design scenarios, and decarbonization planning by using detailed product information such as formulation, ingredient weight, origin, packaging, and supplier-specific data where available.
View Fairglow on Net Zero Compare
View all newly added Software Products on Net Zero Compare
This week, we added 99 new events to our website, including:
Online Only | September 10, 2026
Audience: Healthcare professionals, sustainability leads, NHS and health-system managers, estates and facilities teams, procurement teams, clinicians, policymakers, and organizations working to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare delivery.
Focus: Sustainable healthcare practice, healthcare decarbonization, operational emissions reduction, sustainable procurement, waste management, clinical sustainability, and practical examples of how health systems can embed sustainability into day-to-day decision-making.
View Event on Net Zero Compare
In Person - Vienna, Austria | September 23, 2026
Audience: Sustainability professionals, climate leaders, business executives, policymakers, investors, entrepreneurs, and organizations working on climate action, ESG strategy, clean technology, and net-zero transition planning.
Focus: Climate action, sustainability leadership, ESG trends, climate innovation, networking, business collaboration, and practical discussion on how organizations can accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.
View Event on Net Zero Compare
In Person - Kranj, Slovenia | October 27-29, 2027
Audience: Tourism boards, destination managers, sustainability professionals, hospitality organizations, policymakers, travel companies, certification bodies, and organizations working on sustainable tourism and destination management.
Focus: Sustainable tourism, destination stewardship, climate action in travel, responsible visitor management, certification, local community impact, biodiversity protection, and practical strategies for making tourism destinations more resilient and environmentally responsible.
View Event on Net Zero Compare
View all newly added Events on Net Zero Compare
Community Buzz
Community Discussions on Climate Policy, Tipping Points, and Central Bank Action
Professionals on LinkedIn are discussing a recent European Central Bank working paper that argues for a more precautionary approach to climate policy. The conversation focuses on the economic logic of acting early, before climate tipping points become more severe, more expensive to prevent, or effectively unavoidable. The post highlights the comparison between the present discounted cost of adaptation and the present discounted severity of climate-related tipping points, emphasizing that delayed mitigation can increase both future damages and the cost of later intervention. The discussion also raises questions about the role of central banks in climate policy. While governments remain primarily responsible for climate action, participants point to the potential influence of financial supervisors through tools such as transition plan requirements, climate risk oversight, and green lending facilities. The broader takeaway is that climate risk is increasingly being framed not only as an environmental issue, but as a financial stability, governance, and policy-timing challenge where delayed action can narrow the window for affordable and effective prevention.
Dawn is a platform designed to help organizations measure, manage, and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through structured carbon accounting and climate data workflows. The software supports emissions tracking, sustainability reporting, and decision-making around reduction opportunities, helping teams move from fragmented data toward clearer climate performance management.
Its focus on carbon accounting and climate management makes Dawn relevant for companies seeking better visibility over emissions, stronger reporting readiness, and more practical support for decarbonization planning. By helping organizations organize emissions data and monitor progress, Dawn supports more transparent, data-informed, and actionable climate strategies.
This Week on the Net Zero Compare Podcast
In this episode:
How climate adaptation requires connected solutions across forests, buildings, cities, water systems, and local economies.
The role of ecological restoration, responsible forest management, and traceable mass timber in supporting wildfire resilience and lower-carbon construction.
Signals from the market on growing demand for green infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and urban systems that reduce heat, flooding, waste, and energy demand.
Practitioner perspectives on connecting science, design, public finance, permitting, and local implementation to help communities adapt to rising physical climate risks.
View Show Notes on Net Zero Compare
If there are specific policies, tools, events, industries, or regions you would like us to cover, reply directly to this email. Reader’s input informs our editorial priorities.
Net Zero Compare
Weekly Intelligence Brief