Developing a software-as-service solution for micro-, and small enterprises
Eviota, our sustainability assessment and reporting tool to be tested among music organizations in many jurisdictions
The music sector must increase its environmental and social (ESG) sustainability management to meet the challenges of the climate emergency and to make the music sector a fairer, more just workplace for womxn and artists coming from minorities, small countries. The European Union will make target setting and audited reporting mandatory in environmental and social sustainability for large companies. The application of these new accounting, reporting and disclosure rules are optional for the music sector where almost all entities are micro-, or small enterprises and civil society organizations.
Even if music organizations are not pushed by regulators to adopt these new standards, it is in their best interest to take the initiative on the principle of subsidiarty, and develop tools that can be applied as an extension to their simplified financial and tax reporting. Music organizations and businesses that can prove that they are making progress in reducing their carbon footprint, making their water use more sustainable, and they provide equal opportunities for womxn, they will be eligible for new, green bank and insurance products (which are particularly important in live music) and can attract new sponsors and donors.
Compliance with these new rules is very costly, because tools are being developed for stock-exchange listed big companies and financial institutions. The Commission’s impact assessment (SWD/2021/150 final) estimates the cost of compliance with the Corporate Social Responsibility Directive exceeding 4 bn euros for the European companies or around 10,000 euros per company. Reprex, working together with large accounting, audit and value-based banking partners, scientific, research and industry partners in the Digital Music Observatory open knowledge collaboration, hopes to bring down this cost below 500 euros, which will immediately pay off when a music organization receives green money.
We are working on a simple interface that can connect the accounting system of micro and small enterprises with new methodologies, starting with greenhouse gas reporting with Reprex’s open source EEIO application iotables. We will keep many aspects of our software and data solution open, so that later methodological innovations and scientific achievements can be easily incorporated into the system. Reprex’s minimum viable product will be created in four iteration rounds in Malta, Czechia, Bulgaria and Belgium. However, our testing is open for any amount of donations to any music entities in the European Union who can provide input data in English or Dutch, or be able to pay for their translation and localization costs.
