Environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting is the new bottom line for companies today because of the growing demand from stakeholders, such as consumers and investors. Unlike in the past, when sustainability management was implemented as part of corporate social responsibility (CRS), it is now becoming a mandatory application. From governments to capital markets, one of the latest requirements is that all corporations must adopt sustainability to try and achieve positive impacts. However, many are those that find it pretty challenging because it is a relatively new discipline.
As more authorities embrace sustainability, there is no room for companies to get it wrong because of stiff penalties. Besides, stakeholders such as customers and investing funds are looking for companies committed to ESG sustainability, especially those with impressive MSCI scores. One of the best methods of getting it right on environmental, social and governance for your company is to work with an ESG manager.
The experts have all the skills you need for the management or implementation of ESG sustainability policies in your company. As we are going to see, the experts also come in handy in helping you win more funds or support through investments. This post highlights four main instances that indicate you need to hire an ESG manager.
When to Hire an ESG Manager
ESG, shortening for environmental, social, and governance, is a model for evaluating a company's extent to which it works beyond optimising profits. It allows companies to disclose to stakeholders, such as investors and companies’ clients, their efforts and impacts in addressing ESG-related impacts of their operations. We must say that implementing ESG in a company goes deep into every part of your organisation's design and performance, making it crucial to identify and work with experts.
Check out the following situations that indicate it is time to hire an ESG manager.
Your Scaling Up Operations
Are you planning to rapidly expand your company or improve its performance? This can be something like opening new branches in Hong Kong and China, installing new structures for transparency or acquiring additional establishments as part of the company’s strategic investment targets. In such situations, there is a lot of work that needs to be done, such as accounting, analysing new factors that help drive performance, and market surveys. Therefore compliance with ESG-related regulations and policies would add to the already heavy workload for the companies’ managers.
One of the best ideas to address the extra workload is to bring on board an expert ESG manager to help with sustainability matters. This means that more of your time can be dedicated to areas that help grow revenue and strengthen the brand as the expert in environmental, social and governance (ESG) manager works on sustainability-related performance. Remember that once a plan for ESG sustainability is outlined, it is likely to impact every part of the company's operations.
The ESG manager’s job should also include assisting with the job of sustainability coordination and adoption at different levels.
Remember that unlike many people posit, ESG implementation does not result in significant rise in companies’ expenses. In the long-term, the cost associated with ESG sustainability will be negligible. What is more impressive is that your company is sure of winning more revenue through investment and more sales. So, do not be left behind in taking your company to the next level.
If Your Team Lacks the Skills to Implement ESG
ESG implementation or management can be pretty challenging, especially when you are doing it for the first time. Most managers and entrepreneurs wonder, “How do you even craft a good plan for ESG for positive impacts?” The challenge is that you have to follow specific steps to ensure the final company report is accurate and of high quality. Also, data analysis to determine a company’s ESG performance is not easy unless you have the right expertise.
Instead of trying to implement ESG alone and risk greenwashing the report, let an expert assist you. Professionals understand all the mechanics of ESG implementation, from efforts to address climate change to cutting down the impact of pollution, and will easily help you to draw and follow the best plan. For example, you might want to start with reducing carbon footprint and product design changes to win more investors.
Working with a good environmental, social and governance (ESG) manager can help you in tracking down the impacts of sustainability efforts to ensure the targeted goals are achieved. This means that your company’s brand image will be improved significantly to help you get the support of more support from customers, investors, and other stakeholders.
By addressing every negative impact, you will also get a higheR MCSI rating.
New Legislations have Hit the Market, and You Are Unsure of Implementation.
Following the realisation that sustainability management is an excellent path to helping us address our planetary challenges, government, professional bodies, and local authorities are quickly passing new laws. A good example is the recent sustainability reporting guidelines by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). The new regulations, especially the part where listed companies are required to craft strategies for addressing future impacts, are pretty complex. In such situations, an ESG manager will come in handy.
The European Union (EU) has also passed the taxonomy legislation for companies, investing funds, and customers to easily identify sustainable business practices. The law is very helpful, especially for investors to determine the companies to work with. Therefore, a manager can help you to craft strategies for reducing emissions to counter climate change and improve MSCI rating.
When Targeting Optimising Benefits from ESG Reporting
The primary goals of opening a company, no matter the industry, are to optimise revenue and profits. However, trying to use methods that do not factor in sustainability is likely to result in huge losses. For example, using child labour or releasing wastes into the environment is irresponsible and could result in a loss of market share and investment. The lovely thing about using an ESG manager is that he/she can help you to identify and use the sustainable practices to optimise profits and achieve more benefits, including the following:
- Strengthening the brand image both locally and globally.
- Attracting more investors (both individuals and investment teams).
- Reducing the staff turnover.
How to Identify a Good ESG Manager
To identify a good ESG manager, you should look for the following attributes:
- Make sure to describe the job and profile of the ESG manager. Will the job target improving MCSI rating through changing the impact of the company actions? If your staff lacks the skills for ESG sustainability management, make sure to add the task on the contract before the expert takes over the task.
- Should be qualified in offering ESG management services. Consider reviewing the success of the selected ESG manager in delivering results to the previous clients.
- Experience in offering ESG consultancy and support to other companies in the past.
- Licensed to offer ESG services in your jurisdiction.
- Committed to helping you achieve the targeted company goals. Consider making this an important part of the contract. One of the goals should be winning more investments to the company.
- Excellent customer support to help you get clarifications and make the process of ESG reporting smooth. This makes it easy to address any issue or unexpected factors that may arise along the way.
In addition to a good ESG manager, you should also get the right sustainability reporting framework and an appropriate program. The app will come in handy in helping you capture ESG data on all factors under consideration and convince investing stakeholders to consider your company for investment. Good examples of top-rated apps include diginexESG and diginexCLIMATE.
Contact us now for the best apps and ESG managers and the best impacts for your company. With our professionals on your side, you can never go wrong in your ESG reporting journey.
