In recent years, more companies have focused on Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) initiatives, driven by key investors and stakeholders. This propels organizations to reevaluate how they measure and report their risk, compliance, sustainability, and stewardship performance and how ESG can be incorporated into their culture to achieve their organizational commitments.
On 26 January 2021, Benchmark Gensuite hosted the All-In: On ESG Digital Transformation Launch Event to mark the beginning of the company’s latest chapter and to hear from industry experts and EHS, Sustainability, & Stewardship practitioners on how ESG is transforming their organizations and programs. The event was a great success, with nearly 500 subscribers, partners, and global thought leader attendees in attendance and an impressive lineup of featured speakers that included David Metcalfe (CEO – Verdantix), Jan Johansson (Senior Project Manager, Sustainability Affairs – Electrolux), Jim Kohlbach (Corporate Sustainability & Stewardship Manager – Amphenol), Liz Hackett (ESH Executive – Cytiva), and Andy Beck (Managing Director – global).
Together under our new banner of Benchmark Gensuite, we are excited to extend our heritage of benchmark best-practice workflows and collaborative innovation to the broader ESG community.
5 Key Takeaways for Successful ESG Digital Transformation
1. Making the Case for Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG).
Ten or so years ago, the market was in a “steady state” when bringing corporate sustainability and environmental objectives to fruition; however, a fundamental shift has occurred in recent years and has expanded to include social concerns and corporate governance practices. This focus on ESG is being driven by the financial and investment sectors. It is flowing through to the corporate marketplace at an accelerating rate, where organizations will now need to take necessary steps to ensure that they deliver on their ESG commitments.
2. ESG Responsibilities Often Cascade from the C-Suite to the EHS Leader.
While good ESG reporting is a cross-functional endeavor, EHS & Sustainability leaders are increasingly asked to deliver on ESG performance indicators & program initiatives. EHS and sustainability management systems provide a foundational system of record when it comes to reporting ESG program performance and responding to requests from financial or leadership stakeholders. David Metcalfe, CEO of Verdantix, explains, “We are seeing more CEO-lead sustainability strategies, cascading down to the requirement for comprehensive ESG or corporate sustainability data systems […] This provides a fantastic opportunity for people in EHS roles – who have already proven themselves to be brilliant leaders through the pandemic – to leverage those digital investments already made and reassuring the C-Suite that they can solve the problem.”
3. ESG is a Dynamic Landscape, Bringing Great Challenges & Opportunities.
With a growing number of ESG reporting frameworks and various internal & external stakeholders requesting performance disclosures, ESG can seem like a moving target. In Blackrock’s 2020 Global Sustainable Investing Survey, it was noted that 53% of respondents cited the poor quality or availability of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data and analytics as the most significant barrier to more profound and broader implementation of sustainable investing. Creating a system of record that can compile and verify investment-grade ESG data, actively monitoring changes, and ensuring that your organization has processes and procedures to address them can help you stay on track to achieving your ESG targets & commitments.
4. Digital Transformation & Advanced Technology Are the Keys to Long-Term ESG Success.
2020 proved to be a year where technology adoption was necessitated to enable a remote workforce and ensure business continuity. Organizations that had already begun their digital transformation journey or had plans to expand technology throughout the enterprise were much more resilient and capable of quickly addressing the immediate workplace risks posed by the pandemic; a similar digitization approach should be incorporated into a company’s ESG strategy. Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, the Internet of Things, and Virtual and Augmented reality are advanced technologies paving the next generation of data. AI, in particular, is at the forefront, enabling users to reach beyond the standard capabilities of data collection, reporting, and analysis to gain clear and actionable insights. This will impact the future of analytics for areas such as incident management and chemical risks and also extend to ESG-related solutions such as sentiment analysis for employee and safety culture.
5. Operationalizing ESG is Critical to Delivering Your Commitments.
It’s not enough to report your ESG metrics; ESG commitments need to be drilled to the point of action and integrated into the company’s culture to enact meaningful change. Having a partner in this ESG transformation journey is also essential to success. Benchmark Gensuite Founder & CEO R Mukund states, “We have developed both a methodology and a technology: distilling the business process, finding the essence of it, engaging people and driving accountability and ownership and ensuring that we are getting people to deliver toward the business objectives through collaboration and a sense of community. We want to take these lessons learned and apply them to the ESG world.”
Contact us if you would like to learn more about how Benchmark Gensuite can partner with you to deliver on your ESG commitments and build on your environmental, safety, occupational health, quality, operational reliability and security, sustainability, product stewardship, and responsible sourcing excellence programs!
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