ESG

How to implement ESG

The key to implementing ESG is to take action instead of relying on policy-making.

“We’d rather see that a company has planted trees, instead of seeing that they have policies about not destroying trees.” Dr Lynn Wilson

Assess Current Performance

To get a good grasp of what to improve, it’s important that a formal and comprehensive assessment is undertaken to spot areas of non-compliance or areas within an ESG criteria that the company is currently deficient in. Though ESG initiatives should be led by those in C-suite positions, it may be more appropriate for your Circular Design Synergy (CDS) Consultant to work with those between mid and high level management to conduct this assessment. The reason for this is that a C-suite executive may lack the capacity to go into the finer details required by this assessment.

To quickly identify ESG deficiencies, the team conducting the assessment will categorise and score the areas in each ESG criteria.

Start Projects that Focus on Action

After this assessment, the company can begin planning for projects that will help improve ESG criteria and the areas under them. It’s crucial that, instead of policies, companies start action-based sustainable projects that really make an impact on the actual situation and not just the ESG metrics on paper. Ideally, these projects should involve complete employee participation.

We advocate for a designated project team and project team leader, it would be better if employees also wholeheartedly support the project and turn it into daily practice.

Monitor Results and Reevaluate

Once the projects kick off, either a project team member or an employee outside of the project team should be assigned to monitor project impact on company practices. If an employee outside of the project team is to be assigned, they should have adequate knowledge of the ESG criteria that the project is attached to and have the skills and training to measure the performance of the project accurately.

How long the monitoring period should be for each project can be decided by the company, though the safest way to get sufficient results is to monitor the project for at least 3 months. After 3 or more months, the assigned person with the CDS Consultant in support will compile their findings and observations into a formal report that’s submitted to both the project team leader and C-suite executives.

The C-suite executives and project team leader should comment on the report separately so that they aren’t influenced by one another. When everyone has individually submitted their comments, CDS will review them and make recommendations. These recommendations, along with the initial report, will be sent to the C-suite executives for review.

At least 6 months after adjustments to projects have been made, the same assessment should be conducted again and the results of the previous and current one compared. If the results have improved, then projects can continue.

If a result or score hasn’t improved, major adjustments need to be made to the project and/or its implementation. The company should also keep an eye out for areas or ESG criteria not targeted by any project and which have lowered considerably since the last assessment. The company can choose to either continue monitoring these areas or ESG criteria or begin developing projects or initiatives to help improve the scores.