Made Simple

About ESG

Initially, ESG is hard to get your head around. It’s riddled with different names, acronyms and ways people are referring to it.

The Premise is Simple

ENVIRONMENTAL

How your company treats the planet 

SOCIAL

How your company treats people 

GOVERNANCE

How your company is being run 

ESG isn’t about planting trees, donating to charity or happy talk. It’s about hard data.

Metrics.

The world is responding to some big challenges.

Climate change. Ecological collapse. #metoo. BLM. Global inequalities. Human rights violations. COVID. The list goes on.

On a political level, governments are responding with regulation. And the corporate world is responding too.

That response is ESG.  

89% of institutional investors are on board. Over $100 trillion has now been committed to investing in ESG positive businesses.

Regulators are introducing new ESG related regulation, which will require reporting and disclosures.

Thousands of businesses are already reporting their ESG metrics publicly.

The flow on effects will impact all businesses. And all businesses will need to respond. 

You Can Avoid Unwanted Surprises

A board member is asked over lunch: what are you doing about ESG? 

There is no answer.

The CEO is asked by a major client about ESG strategy.

They don’t know what to say. 

The sales team needs to answer all the ESG questions in the tender. 

They scramble for a response.

Customers ask for ESG metrics to meet their compliance obligations.

You don’t have what they need.

You realise you are already investing in ESG initiatives.

The impact and ROI is unclear. 

Opportunities

Expectations are changing. Without an ESG plan, you stand to lose business.

Expenses

Unfocused ESG activities can include recurring and hidden costs.

Value

Poor ESG performance
can have a major impact on intangible asset values over time. 

It’s useful to think about ESG in terms of Domains and Metrics.
There are 18 Domains under the E, the S and the G.
Under each Domain, there are Metrics. 

E

3
4
5
1
6

S

7
8
9
10
11
12
13

G

2
14
15
16
17 (1)
18

Under each of the Domains there are Metrics.

Common metrics have been endorsed by the Big Four consulting firms and the World Economic Forum.

But you don’t need to worry about the Metrics for now.

The most important step is to work out the Domains that matter most to your business.

Then the Metrics become clear. 

For public companies, ESG Metrics get turned into ratings by rating agencies.

The main ESG rating agencies are MSCI and Sustainalytics.

But even the biggest credit agencies – Moody’s, S&P and Fitch – are getting into ESG now.

Private companies don’t need to worry about ratings. For now. 

There are many ESG frameworks and standards emerging.

Examples include SASB (the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board).

And GRI (the Global Reporting Initiative).

It may be useful to know about these. But then again, it may not be.

Standards aren’t standard yet. And adopting them too early can be distracting. 

We’ve developed a simple way for you to build a One Page ESG Plan. It only takes around 20 minutes.

It’s super powerful because it focuses on what matters.

And its simple enough to be owned and used. 

Work out what ESG issues really matter.
Help your business communicate ESG strategy.
Avoid unwanted surprises

Prioritise effort on the things that matter. Report metrics and progress in a simple format.
Avoid unnecessary costs

Get started for free