Organizational & strategic alignment
Data management & reporting
Integration in operations & products
.
Through our experience with leading organizations, we have found that ESG readiness is enabled by four foundational pillars
Organizational & strategic alignment
Data management & reporting
Integration in operations & products
.
Partnerships, coalitions & global efforts
As organizations move through their ESG journeys, they progress across 4 main stages of maturity
1
Taking Stock
Understanding what topics matter most to us, and where we stand on them
- Conduct materiality assessments
- Stand up internal ESG team & champions
- Galvanize executive stakeholder buy-in by developing narratives which celebrate ESG impact to date, identify how ESG benefits each business unit, and establish an ESG ambition
- Identify data sources and gaps; begin basic / manual collation
- Publish ESG and / or sustainability reports
- Adhere to relevant regulations
- Map ESG priorities against UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or UN Global Compact+
2
Ramping Up Momentum
Defining our goals and our roadmap toward progress
- Define and publicize strategies and targets for material topics – including emissions, energy, diversity, and human rights – after syndicating and building buy-in with relevant business units
- Establish and empower ESG team led by VP-level executive
- Stand up measurement and reporting systems
- Pursue credentialing and audits
- Launch portfolio of initiatives in areas of operational control
- Integrate ESG into risk and legal functions
- Align reporting with global standards and frameworks
- Join conferences, coalitions, and /or partnerships
3
Elevating to Gold Standard
Identifying how to elevate ourselves to regional & global gold standards
- Align strategies with global targets (e.g., 1.5°C pathways)
- Integrate ESG into organizational strategy and KPIs; empower individuals across organization to innovate and own ESG progress
- Expand ESG team to include cross-function roles and elevate leadership to C-suite
- Install custom-made and forward-looking dashboards
- Submit ESG data to global disclosure and rating databases
- Drive portfolio of initiatives up and down the value chain, including supply chain audits
- Embed ESG into capital deployment and vendor selection
- Share data, knowledge, and learnings with broader ecosystem
4
Innovating at the Forefront
Moving to the global forefront & innovating to solve global challenges
- Galvanize new revenue streams through new products, services, and closed-loop business models leveraging ESG expertise
- Embed emissions in financial planning through carbon pricing mechanisms
- Collaborate with open source ESG risk databases
- Leverage data science to uncover biases and value pools
- Partner with vendors, suppliers, researchers, and others to collaboratively innovate and develop new solutions (e.g., cleantech)
- Build precompetitive partnerships to develop ecosystem solutions
- Support development of global sustainability standards