ESG is not a trend, but the way to responsibly shape the future. But what about ESG compliance in your own company? ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance and medium-sized companies are confronted with this in many areas. A sustainable ESG concept helps a company to define and achieve its sustainability goals, to be attractive to banks and to increase the value of the company. When developing and implementing such an individual concept, many questions arise that need to be clarified. A systematic and structured approach ensures the necessary transparency here.
Concentrating on the essentials
The starting point for the development and implementation of an ESG concept is the consideration of materiality. And this in two respects: Which sustainability criteria have an impact on the company and what relevance do these criteria have for the company’s stakeholders? In this way, the possible starting points can be worked out from the variety of potential ESG criteria and an individual roadmap can be developed. Materiality, by the way, is the starting point of any sustainability reporting.
The field of ESG topic areas is broad and ranges from resource scarcity to gender equality and human rights to compliance. That’s why the company first clarifies: What does the company actually need? And what does management want to achieve with it? What effects do the various measures and goals achieve in terms of external impact, and what expectations are there in the company’s ecosystem? Which measures are absolutely necessary; which are recommendable? THE MAK`ED TEAM analyzes the different areas according to ESG criteria and systematically surveys the framework conditions. For the ESG concept, possible objectives are clustered into must-have, can-have and nice-to-have objectives, which result from the three essential sustainability aspects of environment, social affairs and governance.
Sustainable and secure management
To clearly define how to achieve the defined goals, a strategy is developed. During this strategy development, it is clarified which concept is to be used: If the company operates nationally, the German Sustainability Code (DNK) may be useful; for companies operating internationally, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) may be useful as a comprehensive reporting standard. When developing the ESG concept, it is also important to align it with the European Taxonomy Regulation and sustainable finance aspects. During the development process, it is ensured that the reporting obligations, which the company may also have indirectly via the supply chains, are fulfilled in accordance with CSR-D and are designed in a stakeholder-oriented manner. This protects the company from risks arising from sustainability concerns and makes it resilient.
When it comes to implementation, the ESG concept, which is aligned with all relevant sustainable finance aspects and reporting obligations, is implemented step by step in the company with a clear timeline and defined resources, embedded in existing management systems and flanked by a reporting system.
THE MAK`ED TEAM knows the relevant aspects for an ESG strategy and the appropriate criteria that will ensure successful business in the future and sustainably increase the value of the company.
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