How to tell your ESG story

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Future partners want to know your business’s ESG story. Your story could be the differentiator that helps you secure a new contract, investment, or top talent.

What is environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting?

Stakeholders are judging a company based on its ESG credentials, learn more here. Therefore, being able to articulate your position and give some indication of what your business’s ESG ambitions are is very important.

ESG reporting communicates to your stakeholders your E, S, and G goals and your strategy on how you are going to achieve them. The purpose of the report is to outline your ESG activities and ensure transparency in your communications.

What’s the difference between an ESG report and a sustainability report?

ESG reporting is a type of sustainability reporting using the ESG framework. Using the ESG framework helps guide the report through an established metric- and risk-focused lens.

Why publish an ESG report?

Future and existing partners may want to know your business’s ESG story, so it’s vital you tell your own version through a robust stakeholder engagement strategy. If you don’t assess and communicate your ESG credentials, someone else could.

However, you need to get your story right through informed and knowledgeable ESG reporting. An ESG report typically includes quantitative and qualitative information and is based on your ESG current activities, strategy, aims, and targets.

A simple way to build and communicate your ESG story — ESG Building Blocks

ESG can be highly complex to embed into your existing processes and procedures. Marsh specialists are here to help you tell your ESG story, and our ESG Building Blocks provides a framework for the key activities that will help you communicate ESG effectively to your stakeholders, providing solutions such as an ESG reporting framework to guide you on the structure for annual sustainability reporting.

ESG strategy builder

Start your journey and build a plan:

Materiality assessment: Understanding material ESG issues for your business helps to inform decision-making.

ESG gap analysis: An ESG gap analysis helps to understand ESG maturity and key actions to improve your ESG standing.

ESG roadmap: The ESG roadmap helps to create an ESG strategy; prioritising actions to support you to achieve ESG targets.

Carbon accounting, energy management, and net-zero strategy

Help reduce costs and be prepared for stakeholder questions on your emissions:

Measuring emissions: Calculating scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions helps organisations understand their impact on the environment, informs the net-zero strategy, and can be a regulatory or stakeholder requirement.

Energy management and net-zero strategy: Detailed emission reduction and energy management plans support companies to achieve net-zero, a key milestone.

ESG risk register

Understanding ESG risks and opportunities helps create a sustainable company with clarity on impact as well as a robust risk management plan.

ESG reporting framework

Stakeholders want to know your ESG story. As a final step, it is vital you tell your own version through a robust ESG reporting strategy. With the foundations laid, you will have control and understanding of how you communicate your ESG credentials, and in a way that works for you.

Here to help you tell your ESG story

If you don’t assess and communicate your ESG credentials, someone else could. Across our six-step journey (see below), Marsh has the capabilities to help you tell your ESG story to suppliers, future partners, and insurers, providing solutions such as our ESG Building Blocks to guide you through the process.

Visit our ESG Risk Rating page, which offers an award-winning, complimentary self-assessment that enables you to measure your organisation’s environmental, social, and governance performance, improve your ESG risks, and gain access to risk and insurance benefits.

How to tell your ESG story

What is environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting?