ESG, SDG & Impact Reporting, Assessment & Verification

Sustainability considerations are becoming increasingly important for all organisations as nations sign up to a greater number of global sustainability-linked goals. This has major implications for organisations with requirements for adequate sustainability strategies, as well as sufficient mechanisms in place to assess and report on impact. If they don’t, the risk factor associated with them increases. There is also more of a move toward sustainable organisations and responsible leadership, as consumers and employees make more conscientious decisions in who they purchase from and support, or work for, with public bodies being held to account too.

Reporting on key environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices, and delivery on SDGs is key as interest in sustainable investment alternatives grows. ESG is about the risks and opportunities which could impact an organisation’s ability to create long-term value, and there is a movement toward and increasing demand for reporting not just on behaviours, but also on impact.

There is also an increase in pressure from governments to encourage trade that takes into account ESG practices. We now find that most international and domestic public (and many private) companies are being evaluated and rated on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance by various third-party providers of reports and ratings. Institutional investors, asset managers, financial institutions and other stakeholders are increasingly relying on these reports and ratings to assess and measure company ESG performance over time and as compared to peers. This assessment and measurement often forms the basis of informal and shareholder proposal-related investor engagement with companies on ESG matters. Investors believe that ESG is important in understanding a company’s full risk profile. Therefore, they want to know that companies are integrating ESG into the company’s strategy and that the board is engaged in oversight of these topics.

In addition, investors want information, in the form of qualitative disclosures and quantitative metrics (KPIs), that they can use in their investment decision making as there is an increasing move toward responsible finance.

Aside from the pressure for a move toward responsible finance, there is also a growing community of more conscious consumers who are holding governments and organisations to account, who show a preference for supporting companies that are environmentally and socially responsible. The result is highlighted in goals such as COP 26 which aims to move toward all finance decisions taking into account climate change, and other goals take in numerous other factors too. While ESG reporting is more mandated than SDG reporting, the public as well as funders are aligning their choices and decisions with organisations that better demonstrate their impact and how they contribute to these goals.

The major challenge for most organisations is that they have no idea where to start with reporting or measuring impact. There are numerous frameworks that can be used to measure and report, there is no single standard, and each framework has different indicators. Just 10 of the main frameworks have around 735 KPIs as well as different indicators within categories (environmental, social and governance), appearing at different frequencies. Report and ratings methodology, scope and coverage, vary greatly and can often be an obstacle to organisations developing sustainability strategies, and implementing plans for measuring activity and impact. Despite often being engaged in activity which could be leveraged in ESG and other SDG reporting, there are also limitations in being able to access appropriate training, policies, resources, and expertise to set up the systems required to integrate assessments, impact measurement and reporting into normal day-to-day operations in a way that is manageable and maintainable.

How we help

Our mission is to support organisations to develop strategies that are actionable and sustainability practices that are accessible, achievable and maintainable. We take you through a process of ascertaining what the key indicators are for your goals, and determine relevant activities, systems and processes for hitting your sustainability targets. We also assist with implementation plans. This includes support for integration of systems in a way that is manageable internally, and can be maintained for ongoing implementation, reporting and measurement of activity and impact.

What do we do

De-mystify Sustainability, ESGs, SDGs, Impact Assessment, Measurement, Verification & Reporting through organisational reviews of SDG alignment and impact goals and priorities, alongside staff training tailored to your context
Align your strategy, goals and activities with a sustainability plan and indicators that are most relevant for your organisation
Review your resources and develop the best mechanisms to integrate relevant policies, actions, assessments, and reports into your operations in a way that is most attainable
Reviews and assessments of stakeholders in the activity chain- suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, service providers and more to determine sustainability of stakeholders directly and indirectly connected to the organisation for broader scope reporting and reviews
Support with policies, systems and implementation plans for actionable activity and milestone assessments and reporting on impact
Impact verification strategies and systems to measure, manage and report on impact, with customised impact reports for your organisation

We have the expertise and a number of policies, templates, reports, resources and processes that help our clients with:

annual impact reports that documents activity and impact
formal community service policies and strategies
open-book management process that allows greater transparency with financial/operational data
enhancing professional development policies to integrate sustainability
social, environmental and governance metrics to employee reviews
worker satisfaction/engagement initiatives and outcomes
assessing sustainable practice of and giving preference to local suppliers and socially responsible suppliers
benchmarking energy, water, and waste, and assessing energy management for saving and renewables
designing ESG assessment program for significant suppliers
And many more.

Whether it’s for the greater good, or because the nature of business and the market is changing as the demand for sustainable products, goods and services increases – sustainability matters, and in time, it will matter even more. Soon all organisations won’t be able to afford NOT effectively integrating strategies, systems and mechanisms for measuring impact.

Growing Sustainable Enterprises

ESG, SDG & Impact Reporting, Assessment & Verification

Get in touch to find out how we can help.