The sustainability leadership dinner session scheduled on 12^th October will be a momentous high level gathering of sustainability heads and ESG leaders across industries to discuss on the need to up the ESG mandate in making sustainability a business imperative.

ESG’s individual components are linked since it is an integral part of how businesses operate. For instance, when businesses try to abide by environmental rules and more general sustainability concerns, social criteria might overlap with environmental criteria and governance. Although most of our attention is on environmental and social factors, governance cannot be hermetically divided, as every leader is aware. Indeed, mastering both the letter and the spirit of the law is necessary for effective governance. For example, preventing violations before they happen by maintaining transparency and open communication with regulators rather than submitting reports formally and letting the findings speak for themselves. On analysing ESG reporting framework, metrics such as energy emissions, waste generation, philanthropic initiatives undertaken, diversity, digital inclusion, technological integration, and ethical governance codes have become essential to ascertain penetration of sustainable values into the business processes and determine the accountability of the companies towards the planet.

Traversing the evolution of integration of ESG strategy for Customer Enterprise

ESG investment was first used in the 1960s. Socially responsible investing (SRI), which barred companies or entire industries from investments due to commercial operations like tobacco, firearms, or items from conflict-ridden regions, gave rise to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. The unfathomable corona pandemic has made it crystal clear that human beings are not the masters of the planet but rather stewards of nature. Therefore, it has become non-negotiable for the corporations to ensure ethical decisions in the business processes related to environmental, social and governance aspects. The vast amount of data that is disclosed by the companies as a part of their ESG reporting is far less valuable than the detailed information that is obtained after a series of complicated processes, extensive due diligence, collaborations, and sector-specific insights. There also exists a trade-off between providing the standardized data verses the esoteric detailed analysis which form the basis of the business strategies that can ensure market outperformance. ESG is probably going to have a stronger impact on how stakeholders like consumers and investors as well as investors evaluate companies.

Building enterprise sustainability requires multi-pronged approach to rethink an organization’s stand on environmental stewardship by making sure that the ESG metrics are utilized to their maximum potential in providing detailed information regarding the risk management system, net emissions, and other commitments towards environment and social responsibility. It has become paramount for the leaders to have a hygiene strategy to sanitize wide variety of data available by investing in the correct talent pool, optimizing direct and indirect costs, business continuity planning, and identifying problems in all the phases of operations, even the supplementary ones. To make the enterprise sustainable, having tools like intelligent asset management, monitoring, and predictive systems become essential for smooth functioning of business processes to drive ESG impact and enhancing the value of the business.

With SEBI introducing the new ESG parameters called the Business Responsibility and   Sustainability Report (BRSR), the goal to become a responsible business has become indispensable for the listed entities. The inclusion of leadership indicators in the new ESG reporting framework has put the onus of integrating sustainability into the corporate DNA on the senior management by ensuring having quantitative and standardized disclosures on ESG parameters to enable comparability across companies, sectors, and time. The idea behind the new change is that such disclosures will be helpful for investors to make better investment decisions. Adopting to the new changes in the reporting framework will also enable companies to engage more meaningfully with their stakeholders, by encouraging them to look beyond financials and towards social and environmental impacts.

Key Areas of Discussion:

• Impact of SEBI’s mandate on Business Responsibility & Sustainability Report on Indian Enterprises?
• Evolution of ESG &Sustainability Reporting – Excel to Mod Apps
• The Business Impact of ESG Performance
• Role of leadership in enhancing ESG reporting