ESG reporting is becoming increasingly important for companies of all sizes, including medium-sized companies. By reporting on environmental, social, and governance performance even small to medium-sized companies can demonstrate their commitment to responsible business practices, enhance their reputation, and improve their relationships with stakeholders.
To implement ESG reporting for a small to medium-sized company, there are cost effective steps to enable reporting with limited resources:
Define ESG scope: Determine which ESG issues are most relevant to the company and which stakeholders the report should address. Do not over-engineer and focus on existing practices and available data.
Develop ESG goals and targets: Gather new or review existing data on ESG performance and use it to identify areas for improvement. Set relevant, specific, measurable, and achievable goals and targets for each ESG issue identified. As departure point the company should focus on setting goals and targets in existing ESG related processes and expand gradually from there.
Engage stakeholders: Identify and engage with relevant stakeholders, including customers, investors, employees, suppliers, and local communities, to understand their expectations and concerns regarding the company's ESG performance.
Collect data: Start by standardising current data collection practices and collecting additional and capture existing data in a central repository. The central repository makes it easier to structure and analysis the data for reporting purposes.
Report ESG performance: Develop a clear and concise report framework that presents the company's ESG performance, goals, and targets in a transparent and understandable way. The report should include relevant data and metrics, as well as information on the company's policies, practices, and initiatives related to ESG.
Verify data: ESG reporting relies on accurate and reliable data, so it is important to have robust data management systems in place and to verify the data through independent third-party audits or certifications.
Integrate ESG into decision-making processes: Review the results regularly, even monthly, at the appropriate decision maker level to ensure the integration into decision making and planning processes
Continuously improve ESG performance: ESG reporting should not be a one-time exercise but rather an ongoing process of measuring, monitoring, and improving the company's ESG performance. The company should regularly review its ESG goals and targets, assess progress, and adjust as necessary either through internal or external review approaches
Implementing ESG reporting can be a complex and challenging process for medium-sized companies. However, by following these steps and prioritizing current ESG practices medium-sized companies can demonstrate their commitment to responsible business practices, enhance their reputation, and improve their relationships with stakeholders.
The Ariscu integrated compliance solution ecosystem can assist companies with data collection, stakeholder engagement, report generation, data reliability, continuous improvement, forecasting and decision making. The modular design, compliance register quality, professional service integrity and development resources provides a convenient one stop solution