Future Assured Insights: Positioning your organization for success under a sustainability agenda | Part 2

Part 2: Managing and monitoring what is relevant and what matters

In our first issue of Future-Assured Insights, we discussed what it means to be “Future-Assured”—that is to say, relevant, positioned, and prepared for the evolving complexities of sustainable development. But how exactly do you go about this?

This 3-part series of Future-Assured Insights will walk you through the how—practical, prioritized actions to help your organization develop and implement a go-forward sustainability strategy.

In the last Future-Assured Insight article (Part 1), we discussed the steps that comprise the first stage of your ESG journey—that is, in building the foundation of your ESG strategy and determining what sustainability issues are most material to your organization and its stakeholders. Next, you will move on to the second stage: managing and monitoring what is relevant and what matters.

Step 1: Goals and targets: developing ESG-related goals and targets that align with your overall business strategy and vision

All business management systems, whether financial, operational, health & safety, or environmental, are based on the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” cycle of continuous improvement. Building towards sustainability and resiliency is no different.

Once you have established the foundation of your ESG strategy with an understanding of the sustainability issues most material to your business, you need to establish how to manage those risks, take advantage of opportunities and monitor your progress.

Committing to clear ESG-related goals and targets can strengthen the relationships that your organization has with its stakeholders and other rights holders, further enhance your ESG strategy, improve your operational and financial performance, and bolster your reputation and brand image.

For each of the “material” risks and opportunities identified, you need to develop ESG-related goals and targets that are specific to the scale of your organization, the nature of business operations, and any external stakeholder or rights holder requirements or commitments. This translates into establishing fit-for-purpose goals with reference to your material issues, any data already collected, and applicable reporting frameworks, as well as determining the associated metrics and data requirements for each established goal.

Step 2: Data management: collecting and analyzing your ESG data

In today’s world, you cannot hide behind “do-good" stories and statements of responsibility and greening. Organizations need relevant and defensible ESG data and consistent, verifiable reporting. More rigorous and focused analytics on ESG-related matters will enable your organization to meet the needs and performance expectations of your internal and external stakeholders and rights holders both now and in the future.

After you have set ESG-related goals and targets that are fit-for-purpose for your organization, you will need to collect the ESG data to measure progress against those goals and targets. ESG data includes both quantitative information, such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water, waste, and diversity, and qualitative information regarding workplace conditions, company culture, and corporate governance. Your approach to data collection should be easily repeatable and should ensure that the data is accurate, traceable, and collected in a standardized format. Ultimately, you want your ESG data to be reliable, meaningful, practicable, and auditable to set the stage for later analysis and reporting.

Once you have collected your ESG data, you will need to process and analyze the data to gain insights into your organization’s ESG performance. These insights will further inform your continued ESG strategy development efforts as well as your decision-making across a range of business functions. ESG data processing and analysis can be completed using a variety of tools, including, but not limited to, business intelligence software used for data visualization to create dashboards and generate reports and data analytics software used to identify patterns and trends and perform predictive modeling.

So, you’ve established fit-for-purpose goals and targets and have implemented the tools and systems needed to effectively manage your ESG data—now what?

Once you have implemented the programs and systems needed to manage and monitor what is relevant and what matters to your organization and its stakeholders, you need to move on to the third stage: reporting on what is relevant and what matters. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks about how SLR can help you during the third stage of your ESG journey.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of our Future Assured Insights in early January.

Relying on our collective knowledge and expertise, SLR has the capabilities to support you during all stages of your ESG journey. From building the foundation of your ESG strategy and identifying key ESG risks and opportunities, to developing and implementing the programs and systems required to manage and monitor those risks and opportunities, to reporting on your ESG performance, SLR is a trusted partner that can provide relevant, fact-based evaluations and develop actionable advice to support your continued ESG strategy development efforts.