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#ESG & Sustainability Consulting
Developing an ESG strategy: from ambition to action plan with results
As a company today, there’s no way around it: Ecology, Social Impact and Good Governance are key themes. From 2024, the EU will gradually introduce mandatory ESG reporting. Your employees and job applicants are also increasingly interested in your organization's mission and the efforts you are making in terms of sustainable business. And so the question arises: how do you develop a solid ESG strategy for your company and how do you translate it into concrete actions? Moore offers advice and guidance.
Most entrepreneurs we speak to today are convinced of the need to do business more sustainably. They want to take responsibility with their business, for example, by switching to renewable energy, opting for electric vehicles and emitting less CO2. Such awareness and actions to reduce the organization's ecological footprint are already a step in the right direction.
But anyone who will be required to do ESG reporting in the future will need a much broader framework. In our previous article, we already explained how such reporting will first become mandatory for large and listed companies from 2024, but will then be further expanded and have an impact on small and medium-sized companies as well. Therefore, we strongly encourage every entrepreneur to think about this.
Question the impact of your company
Thinking about what ESG means for your company is the first step to set up a proper ESG strategy. It forces us to start looking at the company and its value chain in a different way.
To this extent, regulations refer to the so-called “double materiality." On the one hand, you have to examine the real impact of your company on its environment, its employees and its stakeholders. On the other hand, you have to consider what risks or opportunities these sustainability-related developments may raise. By questioning all these matters, new opportunities emerge.
Put together a core team
Moore is ready to guide SMEs to the extent that they do not have the necessary expertise or time themselves to develop an ESG strategy. In a first phase, we will put together a core team of employees. Together with experts, we focus the ambitions and develop the strategy.
In doing so, we achieve two goals: we draw forth the expertise available in the company and we ensure that the project is supported within the organization. The core team will be at the fore front to implement our ESG strategy.
Develop an action plan and methodology for reporting
We ground this strategy with actual data. Where does the company stand today? What actions are we already taking concerning ESG? How far does our ambition reach when it comes to carbon emissions or workable work? What steps do we need to take to achieve these objectives? How do we keep control of our own efforts? Based on the answers to those questions, we develop an action plan, with an associated methodology to measure results.
After all, we want to use set standards to calculate the impact of our actions to be able to report on them. The underlying intention is that, in the next phase, we will have accurate and good information with minimal effort to comply with the ESG reporting requirement. But above all, we can also communicate that objective information to employees, stakeholders or the general public.
Set your own pace
At Moore, we opt for a customized methodology for each individual company. We don’t believe in overall solutions. Every company is different, the starting point on ESG differs, and ambitions can also vary widely. With a customized framework, your organization can set its own pace to take action and prioritize further based on the results. We advise, support and guide the process and change management.
This allows you to evolve your ESG strategy step by step and further refine your actions. In regard to reporting, we also look at what works best for your organization: What data is already present in the financial system? And how do we build the necessary information to be ready for future reporting and auditing? Together we will work on implementing the right systems and methodologies.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. But often there are still easy pickings and an integrated approach around ESG leads to incremental progress with opportunities for cost reductions, innovation or new business. ESG is not merely an obligation, but rather an opportunity to lift your business to the next level or even make the effort pay off in the short or medium term.
Moore's business consultants, accountants and auditors are happy to be your partner in this ESG story.