A national ECG rating continues to be formed in Russia with the support of the Roscongress Foundation

A national ECG rating continues to be formed in Russia with the support of the Roscongress Foundation.

The mission of the created ECG Rating is to unite the efforts of the state and the business community to achieve national development goals in Russia and to form new practices of corporate culture through public assessment of business reputation. The project is realized with the support of the Roscongress Foundation. Special sessions are held at congress and exhibition events and forums organized by the Foundation to discuss and promote the principles and mechanisms of responsible business conduct.

ECG-rating, which stands for "Ecology - Human Resources - State" was developed and implemented in 2023. These are the three key areas by which the 'health' of a business is assessed. "ECG-rating is the most important tool for assessing business responsibility with the world's largest coverage: in two years it has grown from 40 thousand companies in the Central Federal District to 7 million entrepreneurs from all regions of Russia. Today it includes 95 percent of business entities - from individual entrepreneurs to the largest companies and corporations. The rating being formed gives companies an opportunity to obtain data on their reputation on the basis of open sources, which will allow them to receive financial support both at the level of the state and at the level of federal districts. I am convinced that the openness of the rating data, their comprehensibility and unannounced nature for the participants cause the business community to have confidence in it," said Anton Kobyakov, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation.

The official presentation of the Business Reputation Index (ECG-rating) took place within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June this year. The main purpose of the rating is to conduct an objective and impartial assessment of entrepreneurs and companies for their compliance with the principles of responsible business conduct in Russia. The key difference between the ECG rating and other lists of sustainable development indicators is the pronounced emphasis on the socio-demographic component, where not only the employee, but also his/her family occupies a key place.

The rating is already used in the system of state and municipal procurement, and is integrated into the largest electronic trading platforms. It is the basis for the adoption of laws on responsible business conduct in the regions. The rating methodology has become the basis for the national standard "Business Reputation Index of Business Entities (ECG-rating)" (GOST R 71198-2023), which came into force on February 1, 2024.

Russia has become the first country in the world where the approach to responsible business conduct is enshrined at the level of a national standard. At the end of September this year at the meeting of the heads of national standardization bodies of the BRICS countries at the request of the Chinese side was held a presentation of the ECG-rating. Earlier, in July this year, Boris Kovalchuk, Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, presented it at the meeting of the heads of the BRICS countries' supreme audit bodies in Ufa.

In December 2022, the Vladimir region adopted Russia's first regional law on the development of responsible business conduct, which was recognized by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives as the best practice of sustainable development. Practical implementation of the law allowed responsible companies to receive 60 of the most popular services up to three times faster, including obtaining land, construction permits, and connection to energy and utility infrastructure.

In December 2023, similar laws were adopted in the Voronezh and Lipetsk regions. In 2024, regional laws appeared in Belgorod, Orel, Tambov, Ryazan, Bryansk, Smolensk, Kostroma and Kursk regions. These decisions implement the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, voiced in his address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on February 29 this year:"...to stimulate business that invests in development, in the implementation of infrastructure and social projects".

On November 28-29, 2024, the All-Russian ECG Forum of Responsible Business "Investments in Sustainable Development" was held in Suzdal on the initiative of Igor Shchegolev, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Central Federal District, which was attended by more than 3 thousand participants.

Many participants are involved in the formation and development of the ECG-rating in Russia, including public authorities (the Office of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Central Federal District, Federal Tax Service of Russia, Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, Rosstandart, Federal Treasury, Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation and others) and scientific organizations (Higher School of Economics, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Institute of Demographic Policy named after D.I. Mendeleyev, Institute of Demographic Policy named after D.I. Mendeleyev, Institute of Demographic Policy named after D.I. Mendeleyev, and others). D.I. Mendeleev Institute of Demographic Policy, as well as leading business associations of entrepreneurs: the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and others.