These Steps can Enhance Your Positive ESG Impact
It is no longer a question of if your company should have an ESG strategy, but how to ensure that the strategy and initiatives are measurable and have the greatest positive impact. How do you develop a purpose-driven approach and build ESG initiatives from a concept to become fully integrated with the business strategy?
Below is a brief overview of some of steps companies and organisations can consider expanding their ESG impact:
Integrate ESG into your core strategy: To stand out among competitors for customers and potential employees, ensure that ESG factors are integrated with your core business and positioned as a driver. Shifting from tackling sustainability as a responsibility to a comprehensive approach to creating positive impact is essential for long-term success.
Identify material ESG topics you wish to address – and how: With a multitude of issues, it is important to focus on the topics most relevant to your company and stakeholders, where you can bring the most expertise to tackling issues and where solutions can also support your core business strategy. This analysis and issue identification can be done through initiatives like materiality assessments. Once you have an overview, prioritise and launch initiatives that will have the greatest, positive impact.
Set targets and track progress: It is important to understand progress and impact, and to demonstrate accountability and transparency. Set targets for your ESG initiatives, build a strategy to scale, track progress and disclose these updates as part of regular integrated reporting. This should also feed into ESG disclosures and ratings, which investors rely on to inform their decisions. This also helps ensure that your initiatives live up to set standards, thereby lowering risk of greenwashing accusations.
In conclusion, expanding your positive ESG impact means ensuring that ESG factors are aligned and integrated with your business strategy. By following these steps, you'll not only enhance your company's ESG performance but also contribute to a more sustainable and responsible business environment.
These are among the topics we explore in our different programmes, such as the Sustainability Leadership Lab.
