Enterprise Risk Management
ESG Risk Management in Raw Material Sourcing
SLR Consulting and RCS Global's forthcoming webinar 'ESG Risk Management in Raw Material Sourcing: Regulation & Finance as Key Drivers' touches upon the ESG Due Diligence Regulations, which are becoming more prevalent and require both international and EU-based business to manage social and environmental risks in their supply chains. Alice Valvoda from RCS and Ramona Dauner from Citigroup cover how this impacts the raw material supply chain, as well as investors’ decisions and how investor ESG criteria impact supply chain actors who seek to futureproof their investability.
How to Develop a Strong Climate Strategy
Companies are facing immense pressure to evolve their business strategy in view of climate change. Indeed, climate-related concerns have increased exponentially in recent years among investors and other stakeholders. Developing a climate strategy entails having a plan to mitigate the company’s impacts on climate change, as well to adapt to the new circumstances arising from climate change. This article outlines the compelling case for having a strong corporate climate strategy in place, and suggests three steps to develop such a strategy together with a downloadable checklist.
Leveraging Double Materiality to Identify Emerging ESG Risks
If there is one thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, it is that society can face major challenges, virtually overnight. Companies need to have a sharp view on both short-term impacts and risks further on the horizon in order to steer their business and build resilience to deal with change. Capturing emerging risks in the ESG approach is therefore essential. Additionally, as of 2023, the EU Commission requires companies to apply the concept of “Double Materiality” as part of its new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). One of the main questions that therefore arises is: how do you ensure your materiality assessment covers these new perspectives on materiality?
A New Way of Sustainability Reporting: CSRD
With the aim of improving the widespread availability and use of sustainability information across different stakeholder groups, the EU Commission announced its proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The proposed Directive for the coming years will enhance the rules laid down within the Non-Financial Reporting Disclosure (NFRD), as it will extensively widen the scope of companies applicable to these new reporting legislations; from roughly 11,700 to approximately 49,000. Above the increase in the level of detail being required, companies will also have to verify the information being reported through an external assurer, amongst other decrees. As companies are expected to adopt the first set of new standards by 2024, it is crucial to fully understand the implications and their readiness ahead of the implementation date.
Impact of Sharpened ESG Reporting Requirements
Non-financial reporting regulations are evolving at a high pace – especially in Europe. Spurred by the need to redirect finance towards achieving the EU Green Deal and the Paris Agreement, companies will have to become more transparent on their environmental and social impacts, and their strategy to mitigate ESG risks. But before you can ‘talk the walk’, you’ll need to figure out how to walk, and where towards. This article gives a brief overview of the implications of the most important European non-financial reporting requirements for companies operating in Europe, and how to get ready for them.
What You Need to Know about the EU’s Sustainable Finance Regulations
Having over 9 billion people living well within planetary boundaries by 2050 is an ambitious, yet crucial goal. As an enabler for the urgent transformation required to meet this objective, redirecting finance towards sustainable investments plays an essential role. Europe has already taken important measures to shape the future of its financial sector towards a more sustainable future. These have far-reaching implications for all financial market participants operating in Europe and may inspire other parts of the world to accelerate on the topic of sustainable finance. This article gives a brief overview of sustainable finance in Europe and its global implications for companies.
Using materiality to navigate to a sustainable future
ESG Acceleration Webinar: Forward-Looking Materiality
During this webinar, we explored how to apply the materiality assessment as a tool to capture (emerging) ESG risks and opportunities, as a driver for future strategy and risk mitigation, and how to align materiality with enterprise risk management. Special guest speaker was Suzanne Westlake, Head of Corporate Responsibility & Corporate Affairs at Ocado Group.
Rethinking Value, Emerging Risks and Revealing ESG Leaders
Early February, the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook 2021 was published - highlighting the sustainability leaders and key industry trends, which have emerged from the 2020 Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA). In addition, the Yearbook provides interesting reflections on the new challenges and trends brought about during the last year. This article gives a brief summary of the take-aways from the Yearbook, with a deeper view on rethinking value, and identifying and managing emerging risks.
Updating Your Materiality Matrix Post Covid-19
As the world is in various stages of recovery from the impact of the corona virus, it becomes clear that while there is a ‘new normal’, companies are aiming to go back to business-as-usual as soon as possible. How does Covid-19 affect your company’s sustainability strategy and how should this be reflected in your materiality matrix? Should you discard your old matrix and rebuild from scratch? Should pandemics be featured in it? As is almost always the case in complex situations, the answer is: it depends.
