Winning Sustainability Strategies Online Program: 6 Mar - 9 Apr 2023

The IMD Winning Sustainability Strategies Online Program is a “how-to” guide that offers a very pragmatic take on how to integrate sustainability into your corporate strategy – while ensuring it has a strong business case. The program is aimed at business executives, strategy practitioners, and sustainability professionals, who are looking to harness sustainability innovation and its strategic implications. Facilitated by the authors Jan van der Kaaij, Managing Partner of Finch & Beak, and IMD professor Benoit Leleux, this edition starts on 6 March 2023 and registration closes on 20 February 2023.

Engaging Stakeholders to Accelerate ESG Performance

Engaging stakeholders is essential for companies to build a strong strategy, meet ESG (environmental, social, and governance) commitments and scale their impact. However, successfully collaborating with stakeholders to achieve these outcomes brings other challenges. In this article, we outline the case for, and provide three tips on stakeholder engagement to accelerate ESG performance. More specifically, we consider how materiality assessments can facilitate and enhance the process of stakeholder engagement. For more practical insights, the download provides three tips on how companies can engage their stakeholders while conducting their materiality assessment.

Winning Sustainability Strategies Online Program: 7 Nov - 11 Dec 2022

The IMD Winning Sustainability Strategies Online Program is a “how-to” guide that offers a very pragmatic take on how to integrate sustainability in your corporate strategy – while ensuring it has a strong business case. The program is aimed at business executives, strategy practitioners and sustainability professionals, who are looking to harness sustainability innovation and its strategic implications. Facilitated by the authors Jan van der Kaaij, Managing Partner of Finch & Beak, and IMD professor Benoit Leleux, this edition starts on 7 November 2022 and registration closes 31 October 2022.

Winning Sustainability Strategies Online Program: 12 Sept - 6 Oct 2022

The IMD Winning Sustainability Strategies Online Program is a “how-to” guide that offers a very pragmatic take on how to integrate sustainability in your corporate strategy – while ensuring it has a strong business case. The program is aimed at business executives, strategy practitioners and sustainability professionals, who are looking to harness sustainability innovation and its strategic implications. Facilitated by the authors Jan van der Kaaij, Managing Partner of Finch & Beak, and IMD professor Benoit Leleux, this edition starts on 12 September 2022 and registration closes 1 September 2022.

Winning Sustainability Strategies Online Program: May-July 2022

The IMD Winning Sustainability Strategies Online Program is a “how-to” guide that offers a very pragmatic take on how to integrate sustainability in your corporate strategy – while ensuring it has a strong business case. The program is aimed at business executives, strategy practitioners and sustainability professionals, who are looking to harness sustainability innovation and its strategic implications. Facilitated by the authors Jan van der Kaaij, Managing Partner of Finch & Beak, and IMD professor Benoit Leleux, this edition starts on 30 May 2022.

ESG Ratings: Index, Impact or Both?

Just before the results of the 2021 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), were announced, Finch & Beak conducted an ESG survey among DJSI-eligible companies. In the attached report, you can find the main survey results. The overall conclusion from 143 respondents is that for most of the companies, the undesirable trade-off between index and impact occurs frequently due to mounting workloads to generate ESG data and the absence of standards. The report suggests solutions to avoid the 'reporting trap' by scoping sustainability performance as a supply chain challenge, avoiding over-instrumentalism by engaging closely with stakeholders, and selecting and prioritizing the right ESG benchmarks.

Job Alert: Communication Professional (24-32 hours)

Finch & Beak is a leading European consulting firm in the field of strategy, ESG and sustainability. Our purpose is to accelerate sustainability. Over the past 25 years, we have worked with more than 150 corporate clients across Europe, trained over 5000 managers, and worked with top-level business schools from around the world. To further expand Finch & Beak’s positioning in this fast-growing market, we are looking for an ambitious hands-on Communication Professional.

Updated GRI Standards: What Are the Implications for Materiality?

Last October, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announced the biggest update of its standards since 2016. Beyond legal requirements, the GRI has been identified as one of the most comprehensive and internationally recognized sustainability standards setter for corporate reporting. Scheduled to be applicable by 2023, these changes require companies to increase their level of transparency and to dedicate further resources into non-financial reporting. One of the key updates is the introduction of sector standards, providing additional guidelines for comparability of companies from the same industries. Another important change in the GRI Universal Standards is the revised approach on how organization should conduct their materiality assessment. This article focuses on the proposed changes and what it means for companies which have selected the GRI Standards as their ESG reporting framework.

How to Strengthen ESG Reporting with the Updated GRI Standards

In the corporate world, sustainability reporting requirements are continuously increasing through national and international directives. In the EU, the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will impact the reporting guidelines of a large number of European companies. Beyond legal requirements, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) have been identified as the most comprehensive and internationally recognized sustainability standards setters for corporate reporting. At the end of 2020, GRI counted more than 38,000 GRI reports from organizations, including 73% of the world's 250 largest companies.

Tackling the Rapidly Growing Issue of E-Waste

As consumers are increasingly aware of environmental issues, topics such as climate change, ocean plastics and alternative proteins are grabbing the collective attention. An equally important issue, however, still seems to be hiding in plain sight: e-waste. Its scale and impact have grown because of the pandemic, as companies are purchasing new hardware to accommodate homeworking while the office equipment sits idle. As such, it is estimated that approximately 25 percent of IT equipment in Europe will not be used in the future. Electronics companies have a great opportunity in measuring the impact of their core activities and products, and collaborating with value chain partners on knowledge-sharing initiatives in order to ultimately reduce the generation of e-waste.