OREANDA-NEWS. September 11, 2013. More and more companies are interested in joining the Business Association of the Estonian Business Forum established at the beginning of the year. Now that Danske Bank, DPD Estonia and Vestman Energia have joined the Association, it comprises altogether 26 companies whose common interest is to develop socially responsible and sustainable business activities in Estonia.

The Responsible Business Forum supports its members in planning and introducing socially, environmentally and economically sustainable business. Furthermore, the Association has set itself the goal of affecting the business environment and policy so it fosters responsible business activities.

Important issues for the banking sector also include compliance with the principles of responsible lending and consideration of social impact and sustainability in the investing process. Danske Bank joined the Association as the entire banking group contributes greatly to responsible business. At the same time Danske Bank also supports the local business environment with tools without charge that have been created for undertakings and help analyse the market and potential development scenarios for companies. To increase the financial awareness of children, the bank has created advertisement-free study aids on money, for example Rahamaa.ee.

The central issue for the logistics sector is consistent finding of greener solutions. The sustainable development strategy of DPD, a company that recently started the extensive environmentally friendly Total Zero programme in Estonia, is based on three pillars: people, planet and society. According to the company, for them responsible business is natural and the only possible business behaviour. For DPD, one of the reasons for joining the Association was the new opportunity for exchanging ideas and experience on issues of responsible business and also for active participation in increasing the awareness of the wider public.

The characteristic feature of business of Vestman Energia, a company that located in Viljandi and that has about twenty employees, is that the group companies are operating in such fields of activity that bring long-term benefit both for the environment as well as for society – environmentally-friendly management of arable and forest land and contribution to the dissemination of greener technologies and ideas through investments.

As one of the important reasons for joining the Forum, they pointed out the opportunity to contribute to the development of the issue in a wider perspective in addition to the responsible behaviour of its own companies.

According to Marko Siller, the manager of the Association, the clear interest of more and more companies in the issue is also a signal to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and to Enterprise Estonia for the implementation of more responsible policy supporting sustainable business.