What is an ESG Consultant and Strategy?
Sustainability is moving further up the corporate agenda and businesses large and small are looking for ways to address their triple bottom line of people, profit and planet, which means reporting on social and environmental impacts as well as financial information. Key to achieving that is developing a plan to embed sustainable practice throughout your organisation. At Wylde Connections we’re ESG consultants, and we support businesses at every stage of their journey and much of our time is spent developing robust Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies that will provide a framework for future interventions and help companies meet their goals.
Customers, regulators and supply chains are forcing companies to consider the impact they have on the world around them and find ways to embrace sustainable practice. Developing a holistic ESG strategy is a key step on the journey to becoming an ethical and responsible business.
An ESG strategy in essence is a blueprint for sustainable practice. It guides businesses on the journey to embracing the three pillars of environmental protection, positive social impact and good governance. As a roadmap to best practice the strategy will help understand impacts, identify priorities and track progress.
Leading the charge
The most effective ESG strategies are those that do not act as an add on but form a core part of an overall business plan. They should shape your thinking, your actions and your vision. Seeing things through that sustainability lens allows businesses to build resilience, mitigate risks and exploit opportunities. A sustainability strategy should be developed to inform and support your business model, creating long term value for all your stakeholders.
The strategy guides businesses in putting environmental, social and governance issues at the heart of their decision making. It provides a robust framework for setting priorities and collecting data to track and report on progress. By doing so businesses will not only meet their moral, legal and ethical obligations but they will help future proof operations by addressing threats, identifying new revenue streams and responding to changing customer demand.
How an ESG consultant can help
Many businesses lack the in-house expertise and resources to develop their own ESG strategy. At Wylde Connections, our team of consultants work with leadership teams to develop a comprehensive blueprint that will help them meet their regulatory obligations and enjoy the benefits of sustainable practice.
When developing an ESG strategy we start by taking a Deep Dive to gain a detailed understanding of the business and its value chain. We then use a series of tools to help us create and implement an effective strategy, action plan and road map.
These tools include Value Chain Mapping. A value chain is the sequence of activities and processes that create value for customers and shareholders. That covers everything from the extraction of raw materials to end-of-life disposal. Each stage has social and environmental consequences, and by mapping out the end-to-end process, businesses can understand their impacts on people and planet. In conjunction with conducting PESTLE and SWOT analyses, this exercise provides the insight needed to develop an effective ESG strategy.
Another important step is carrying out a Materiality Assessment to determine the ESG issues that affect both your business as well as your stakeholders. It should address impacts that businesses have on sustainability issues, as well as how they are impacted by external factors and events. This is known as Double Materiality.
Central to that is conducting a Stakeholder Mapping exercise to identify who those stakeholders are. Once they are identified and given the opportunity to identify priorities, we support businesses in developing a Stakeholder Engagement Plan to ensure they kept informed of progress and given the opportunity to feed into the overall strategy.
Mapping out your ESG strategy
The next stage is to clarify priorities and devise an action plan ad road map that will drive implementation. Our ESG consultants will help put in place processes and procedures to track and report on progress, such as collecting emissions data to support decarbonisation.
The ESG strategy is then regularly reviewed to respond to the changing needs of the business and ensure it remains fit for purpose. Sustainability is a journey rather than a destination and that overarching plan will help leaders navigate their way through an ever-changing landscape.
There has never been a better time to develop your ESG strategy and take that next step to securing a sustainable future by serving the triple bottom line. Book a Discovery Call and learn more about Wylde can help transform your business.