Abstract
This presentation will take the audience on the following journey:
- A brief history of sustainability reporting. It’s always good to understand where we’ve been before charting where we should go, and why.
- The current state of reporting today. We are bombarded (almost daily!) of new disclosures, revised disclosures, merging disclosure organizations, pending (or threatening) regulatory expectations. Reporting has become a reactive process rather than driven by a real business need (which it should be) and this reactive reporting is creating bulky reports, increasing frustration and lessening the actual power and utility of a good reporting process.
- Now what do we do? SOOP team will walk the audience through our ESG Discovery Process: identify potential ESG issues using an objective process that applies a quantitative analysis technique to a very qualitative (and nebulous!) situation. We will underscore how important leadership engagement is to the ESG Discovery Process, as with stakeholder engagement.
- Build the report, brick by brick. We will explain how to filter through the many many disclosures (SASB, ISSB, GRI, CDP, TCFD, ICMM, LPRM, OECD,...) to arrive at the most appropriate set of metrics for your company’s business.
- Use the Process to feed, strengthen, or build anew your Business Sustainability Strategy. We will emphasize how reporting and strategic planning are mutually dependent. Too often, reporting is a separate standalone exercise - a complete waste of time and investment if not executed in tandem with strategic planning.
- An Engineer’s First Love: MS Excel. At the heart of reporting is data collection; data must be tracked down and collected in some central place. On the other hand, ESG reporting tools are plentiful these days, ranging in price, complexity, and even colours. New tools promising to be the solution to your ESG dilemmas are coming out every day. We will discuss how to be discerning shopping for such tools and why the basic spreadsheet (you already have) will be your most steadfast best friend, year over year.
- Recap and Next Steps. We have created a process diagram that we will share with the audience to help them decide how to begin, course correct, or further strengthen their sustainability reporting (and strategic planning!) journey.
Finally and if possible, we will invite one of our clients to join us or to use their experience as a case study.