Five ways to embed ESG into your business operations
With 2024 set to see the climate crisis get worse, many consumers and business are looking to buy from responsible organisations.
Because of this, integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles into your business operations can have a significant impact on your company’s reputation and bottom line.
But many companies are pushing papers around instead of making meaningful changes to the core of their business. And this won’t be enough to reap the benefits.
So, how can you take ESG seriously?
In this article, we’ll share five ways to embed ESG into your business operations
- Start with strategy
Start by assessing your business operations and identifying the areas that have the biggest impact. Consider working with environmental consultants that can properly assess your impact on the environment and society. Then, define clear objectives with time-bound targets, and decide on the key performance indicators you’ll use to measure your company’s performance.
- Leverage data insights
Gathering the right data is essential to informing your business’s ESG journey. Many companies fail to leverage their data because its siloed or spread across a huge network of third-party relationships. This can have a detrimental impact on your ESG strategy. You need to collaborate across your organisation’s entire ecosystem to streamline how you collect, synthesise and implement your data.
- Choose your partners carefully
When selecting the third parties you work with, being ESG compliant needs to be one of your most important criteria. This isn’t just the case when opening up new relationships, but also when deciding whether to continue existing partnerships. In either case, monitor and evaluate the ESG performance of all third parties in your business’s network so that you can gauge whether they’re holding back your ESG priorities.
- Report transparently
Accountability is key for ESG performance. Report regularly on your business’s progress towards its goals and targets. Trying to hide any failures will only harm your business. Communicate everything with transparency to your key stakeholders, such as investors, customers and employees. This will inspire stakeholders to have greater trust in your business’s brand, which will help your business’s bottom line in the long run.
- Continue to improve
Embedding ESG into your business’s operations is an ongoing process, so it’s vital you don’t make a few changes and then rest on your laurels. Instead, you need to continuously monitor your progress and find ways to improve. Search for new technologies, sustainable practices and even business models your organisation can adopt in order to push the envelope.
Embedding ESG into your business operations is a challenging endeavour. But you make huge strides by implementing the tactics we’ve outlined above. Doing so will help you build the strength and longevity of your business.
