How to encourage management boards to discuss sustainability and ESG actively?
We are often asked how to encourage management boards to discuss sustainability and ESG actively.
Historically, ESG, before that, CSR, was in the investor relations, PR, marketing, or communication units, rarely in the strategy unit, treated by management boards as strategic activities.
In recent years, due to the complexity of current and new regulations, sustainable development has been identified mainly from the perspective of compliance with ESG requirements. Sustainable business, treated as necessity to meet regulatory requirements, means that management boards have to bear the cost of compliance and is often not part of the company’s strategic development planning.
This is a common but, unfortunately, quite narrow-minded thinking that deprives companies of looking at sustainability from the perspective of strategy and business models. Unfortunately, compliance with ESG regulations is often treated as a checklist that must be completed. In such cases, it is difficult to talk about a deeper strategic analysis and think about what our priorities are. Where do we want to build value for ourselves and our customers? How do we implement all this? How do we measure what is implemented? And finally, how do you report what you have implemented?
A good starting point for a conversation is to determine the Why, What, and then the How. Should sustainability and ESG be just a “decoration” or a consciously built element strengthening the strategy?
Inviting the management board to the workshop on double materiality analysis as part of the discussion and strategic analysis of the company’s goals and business model is worth doing. This will allow you to determine priorities and expected results and plan the operationalization and implementation of a sustainable business transformation. Such a conversation focuses on the triple bottom line benefits and the value we can build because sustainable development is about financial, social, and environmental benefits. It’s time to stop considering ESG as a short-term budget expense.
To learn more about it, downolad our Report: Trends and anti-trends in implementation of sustainable transformations of organizations:
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