At first glance, you would assume that whistleblowing and sustainability have little to do with each other. While whistleblowing is generally known as a tool to draw attention to grievances in companies, sustainability is aimed to preserve and enhance in a long term the value of business undertakings for society and stakeholders.

Although there is no general definition of whistleblowing, it is understood to include all scenarios in which a person from inside or outside reports a suspected violation of law or regulation of public interest to a determined reporting point with the purpose to contribute in this way to the clarification. Primarily valuing the position of those who contribute to the system, the European Union commenced in 2013 to determine rules on strengthening the position of whistleblowers, resulting in the EU’s Directive 2019 and now in an extensively discussed Austrian Whistleblower Protection Act.  In essence whistleblower systems are about engagement of stakeholders creating a framework with simple procedures and predictable processes to provide whistleblower the possibility to report grievances free of reprisal or other social discrimination and responsiveness in a way that reports are treated seriously with an expectation that grievances are eliminated with our without contribution by the whistleblower itself.

So what does all this have to do with sustainability?

The term sustainability is often used synonymously to describe the processes associated with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) activities of Corporations. The transformative journey to be taken will generally only work if all stakeholders of a business undertaking interact, communicate and identify risks and opportunities associated with such sustainability goals.

Whistleblowing systems can be used to encourage stakeholders not only to uncover grievances in the company in the narrower sense, but also to point out opportunities for the step-by-step development towards greater sustainability in the company. Reports of whistleblowers can make it possible to identify various risks of the company that would otherwise have a negative enviromonmental or social impact which otherwise would have even not come to the discission makers’ attention. At the same leverage of stakeholder engagement broadens acceptance of subsequent measures or generally measures which relate to sustainability.

fwp supports businesses not only in the streight forward implementation of the Austrian Whistleblower Protection Act, but also support in the identification and legally sound adaptation with regard of all internal and external processes towards more sustainability and therefore in the perception of market opportunities across the full range of ESG.