Environmental, social and governance (ESG)
Unlock ESG opportunities to enhance trust, mitigate risk and create new value
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) topics are reshaping the business landscape, affecting financial performance and long-term business success. With heightened pressure from stakeholders and regulators to drive long term value through sustainability, we support organizations in integrating ESG matters into their operations.
Optimizing your ESG performance can help increase value for your business and stakeholders, including:
- Enhanced access to capital: Improved ability to raise funds at more favourable terms, including through government grants, tax incentives, institutional investors and other capital providers
- Increased consumer loyalty and talent retention: Enhanced brand value, reputation and engagement from customers and employees through commitments to responsible business practices
- Decreased operational costs: Lowered costs through sourcing sustainable suppliers, reduced disruptions to business operations, managing regulatory compliance, and financial benefits gained from cost takeout and improved efficiencies
- Improved competitive advantage: Proactively addressing and implementing ESG principles ahead of competitors to boost productivity, innovation and market placement
Our ESG solutions
Tools, resources and insights to help improve organizational performance and drive business growth.
ESG transformation
A comprehensive ESG strategy enables a company to address environmental and social risks and capitalize on emerging commercial opportunities as the world shifts to a more sustainable economy.
ESG reporting
Developing and managing a strategy for reporting on ESG is critical to demonstrate credibility to stakeholders, meet investor expectations, and lead among your peers.
Decarbonization, climate and nature
Accelerate your journey to a low-carbon and nature-positive future
Circular economy
Shape your business responsibly through circularity
Insights and resources
We believe that a digital transformation strategy should be designed with the customer in mind. And know that every industry and sector faces a unique set of challenges and opportunities. That’s why we take an industry-focused approach to digital transformation. From financial services to natural resources, technology to government, healthcare and more, our teams of professionals have the deep industry insights needed to help you define the future of your industry and drive your digital transformation efforts.
Big shifts, small steps
The survey examines sustainability reporting trends around the world
Why organizations need to hardwire data and technology into their ESG...
How can digital transformation help accelerate your ESG commitments?
ESG insights
Transformative insights to help prepare your organization for a sustainable future
Putting the ESG agenda at the heart of everything we do
We believe that sustainable growth is the only way to build a successful business and have a lasting impact on our environment and society. That’s why we published our collective ESG commitments and the actions we are taking in Desa International’s Impact Plan.
Being transparent about how we see our role in the world and openly reporting against our progress has never been more important. Our Impact Plan shows how we’re leading by example and gaining insights to convert to opportunities that help clients on their own ESG journeys. We’re supporting this commitment with a multiyear investment program to help accelerate global solutions for Environmental, Social and Governance issues.
ESG Transformation
Is your ESG strategy enhancing access to capital and enabling sustainable growth?
A comprehensive ESG strategy enables a company to address environmental and social risks and capitalize on emerging commercial opportunities as the world shifts to a more sustainable economy. To get there, a clear understanding of the complex and evolving policy, regulatory, and business environment issues is required, along with the ability to translate these issues into clear business objectives.
Similarly, it is important for organizations to approach their ESG transformation efforts through a customer-centric lens – i.e., integrating ESG into your company’s broader customer and product strategy. To effectively achieve this, businesses must also integrate ESG principles into their corporate strategy – right from top level decision making to market-facing execution.
Every strategic business decision must be made with an understanding of how it might impact the business’ sustainability goals, including reducing emissions, driving inclusion, diversity and equity (ID&E), enhancing ESG reporting and so forth.
If a company can effectively implement its ESG transformation efforts from both the customer and strategy angles, it can simultaneously increase its long-term growth and profitability prospects while anticipating, meeting and even exceeding evolving customer needs.
How this is achieved will look different for each sector, but Desa professionals can ease the ESG transformation and implementation process and help our clients navigate the complex ESG landscape by building a more resilient business that is fit to adapt to market and regulatory change.
We place a strong focus on the human side of transformation — enabled and scaled through technology and alliances — to bring your workforce, suppliers and customers along on the journey to meet your ambitions to become a competitive, purpose-driven business.
Considerations for your leadership team
- How are you identifying and prioritizing the most material and relevant ESG issues that align with your business context and stakeholder expectations?
- How will you demonstrate your commitment to your ESG strategy and ensure engagement throughout the organization – from frontline staff and operations to the back office?
- Have you seamlessly integrated ESG considerations into your broader business strategy to drive long-term value creation?
- Which technologies are you using to accelerate your ESG transformation?
- Do you have access to accurate ESG data to inform your decision-making and measure your progress effectively?
- Have you established clear change management, governance, and accountability mechanisms to ensure the successful implementation and adoption of your ESG initiatives?
How we can help our clients
- Define their ESG ambition and assess foundational risks, opportunities and material topics in consultation with key stakeholders
- Develop a roadmap to achieve their ESG targets
- Design, plan and implement the business transformation necessary to achieve their ESG ambitions
- Oversee the successful implementation with program management, data management (including technology platforms), project management, and change management and learning
- Enable monitoring and reporting for continuous improvements
ESG Reporting
Stakeholders – from regulators and investors to customers and the public – are putting your Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) metrics and disclosures under increasing scrutiny. They want access to credible, verifiable and comparable ESG metrics to support decisions on the areas that matter most to them. Developing and managing a strategy for reporting on ESG is critical to demonstrate credibility to stakeholders, meet investor expectations, and lead among your peers.
Emerging reporting frameworks
The ESG reporting landscape is transforming, with corporate activity set to be highly scrutinized under new global sustainability reporting standards. Is your business prepared?
Considerations for your leadership team
- Have you identified and prioritized ESG issues which truly matter to your business and stakeholders?
- Have you developed a multi-year ESG reporting strategy informed by stakeholder feedback and evolving ESG disclosure requirements?
- How are you measuring and reporting on the environmental (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions) and social (e.g., diversity, equity, inclusion, human rights and Indigenous reconciliation efforts) impacts of your business operations?
- Are your ESG metrics and reported performance against targets accurate and complete?
- Is your ESG data ready for third-party assurance?
- Are your business functions - governance, people, process, technology and data - optimized to deliver on the next generation of ESG reporting?
How We Can Help Our Clients
Enabling effective ESG reporting, including single and double materiality assessments, benchmarking, content identification and development, reporting structure and data requirements planning, and compliance reviews.
Aligning with various ESG reporting standards (ISSB, ESRS, SEC) and frameworks (TNFD, GRI, CDP and UN SDGs) including framework selection guidance, gap assessments, and implementation support
Developing an (inaugural) ESG report and/or an integrated report.
Enhancing data quality, including designing appropriate metrics, preparing effective methodology statements, improving the rigor or efficiency of the reporting process and relevant controls.
Assisting with ESG reporting system vendor selection and / or implementation. Desa has strategic alliances with Microsoft, ServiceNow, Salesforce and others to equip your organization with the right technology solutions and platforms to address your ESG reporting needs.
Preparing for third-party assurance over ESG reporting and data As market and stakeholder expectations evolve and reporting requirements become mandatory, the information that businesses report must be robust and independently assured to gain the trust of investors, stakeholders and the wider public.
Decarbonization, Climate And Nature
Climate and nature risks are financial risks. Climate change and biodiversity depletion are among the most pressing issues facing the world today — triggering economic transformation, driving fundamental business model change, and leading to a rethink of what business as usual looks like.
The journey to a low-carbon future starts with setting strong, science-based emissions reduction targets and is brought to life through robust transition plans to decarbonize business operations, assets and entire value chains.
Boards are under significant pressure to address environmental issues, and businesses must grasp the implications of climate and nature risks and opportunities – both on and as an output of their business activities – as they seek to improve climate-resilience and secure a nature-positive future for all.
Considerations for your leadership team
- How are you comprehensively assessing your climate and nature risks to understand potential impacts on your operations, supply chains, and financial performance?
- Have you assessed the sources of and quantified your emissions? Have you established a carbon baseline and set emission reduction targets?
- Have you developed a comprehensive climate transition plan that outlines your roadmap for transitioning to a low-carbon and resilient future?
- Does this plan include engagement across your full supply chain to work with vendors and suppliers to reduce emissions and address climate risks?
- How do you communicate your climate risk assessments, nature risk evaluations, and asset-level decarbonization progress to internal and external stakeholders?
- How are you ensuring compliance with climate and nature reporting standards, disclosures and regulations?
- What adaptation and resilience strategies and investments have you considered to address potential physical risks from climate change and nature loss on your business operations?
Circular Economy
Society has long been accustomed to ‘take, make, waste’ methods to production, but these practices are no longer sustainable. To face the challenges of a growing world population, climate change and resource scarcity, the world must change the way we consume — away from the linear, towards a more circular approach.
Businesses are turning more and more towards circular economy in their business models to help manage regulatory requirements and generate sustainable growth opportunities that deliver ESG benefits both internally and externally.
Built on the principles of circularity, circular economies can help create greater efficiency and profitability, less waste, better innovation, and stronger relationships with stakeholders. Examples of circularity principles include effective waste management and reducing pollution, improving sustainable production development, regenerating natural capital and biodiverse ecosystems, shifting from linear to circular (“looping”) systems to extend the product lifecycle (e.g. product design and maintenance for longevity), and so forth.
Considerations for your leadership team:
- Are the challenges of resource scarcity and volatile commodities causing inefficiencies and waste in your current production model?
- Are your consumers’ / clients’ preferences encouraging you to reevaluate your existing linear models of production and consumption?
- Are you aware of the potential economic benefits to be gained from switching to circular production models?
- Are you integrating the principles of circularity with your decarbonization strategy?
- How are you keeping pace with evolving stakeholder and regulatory expectations which are driving circularity?
Collaboration is critical to the success of more circular ecosystems and Desa in USA is engaged with our global network of member firms enabling our professionals to advise clients on a wide range of circulatory topics from a global perspective as they shape and develop new circular strategies and business models.
How we can help our clients
- Enhancing climate targets through robust circular strategies: Reimagining clients’ existing products, services, business models, and supply chain by aligning them with circular strategies that not only create value but also contribute to their climate targets
- Optimizing production and consumption: Leveraging the principles of circularity to redesign production and consumption methods to minimize waste and reduce impacts to nature and biodiversity – as well as bolstering emissions reduction efforts
- Integrating circularity into core business operations: Harnessing data and effective measurement tools to effectively track progress of circularity initiatives, support strategic decision making, align business growth with sustainable practices, and support continual improvement
- Navigating the regulatory landscape with confidence: Helping clients stay informed, prepared and in compliance with evolving regulatory requirements, mandatory reporting and disclosures
Big Shifts, Small Steps
Over the past three decades, sustainability reporting has been largely dominated by voluntary efforts. Today, the reporting landscape is undergoing a transformation, driven by the emergence of sustainability and climate-related disclosure requirements from a wide range of stakeholders including regulators, capital providers and customers.
The findings in Desa’ 2022 Survey of Sustainability Reporting reflect on the current state of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting and overarching business strategies that can enable companies to meet increasing disclosure expectations.
First published in 1993, this 2022 survey marks the twelfth edition and is our most extensive survey analysis to date. The survey examines sustainability reporting trends around the world to offer meaningful insights about disclosure practices for business leaders, sustainability professionals, and company boards.
The 2022 survey includes a number of new topics, including the use of materiality assessments, reporting on social risks, and reporting on governance risks.
Complementing our global findings, Desa in USA has provided a deep dive into the sustainability and ESG disclosure practices of the largest 200 companies (and their international parents, where relevant).
The research examines whether these companies publicly disclose their management practices and/or performance information relating to a wide range of topics and takes a closer look at three interrelated themes in greater detail: Biodiversity and nature-based solutions Indigenous reconciliation Respect for human rights
Why organizations need to hardwire data and technology into their ESG
Digital transformation and sustainability sit at or near the top of most corporate agendas in 2023. According to a Desa survey, two-thirds of CEOs report having an aggressive digital investment strategy, while 71 per cent1recognize that stakeholder scrutiny of their performance on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is continuing to accelerate.
“The pressure is on companies to progress their ESG commitments, and those who bring a technology lens to their sustainability strategy will be better positioned in the long run,” says Ally Karmali, ESG partner and ESG Data & Technology lead at Desa in USA. “It’s more advantageous to start thinking about ESG and digital transformation as working in lockstep, and then make decisions that serve both priorities.”
As part of that process, companies need to set clear ESG goals and be prepared to act quickly in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment, explains Mr. Karmali.
“This includes coming to grips with the rate at which ESG reporting frameworks are being published, in both speed and quantity, and making hard decisions as competing priorities vie for limited economic resources and human capital.”
He says the increased frequency of extreme weather events, like this summer’s unprecedented forest fires and record-breaking temperatures, pose significant economic and operational consequences.
That highlights the need for companies to factor climate change into their decision-making today. “Those consequences also include very real risks to human health, safety and security, as well as threats to nature, biodiversity and cultural heritage,” adds Mr. Karmali.
As organizations grapple with climate-related impacts across their operations, leaders are increasingly looking to technology for answers.
“Rapid-scale change is urgently needed. T technology has the potential to advance progress in areas like carbon avoidance, carbon removal, circularity, environmental protection and social well-being all at the same time,” says Mr. Karmali. “For example, data combined with technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and blockchain are quickly becoming strategic enablers for organizations that want to meet their sustainability objectives and solve interconnected challenges that up until now seemed untenable.”
Emergence of new tech
Until recently, organizations had limited tools available to help manage their sustainability footprint and ESG reporting objectives.
Microsoft’s Cloud for Sustainability is an example of emerging technology designed to address this gap. Using cloud and AI technology can give organizations a way to view sustainability performance across their business. This can help them make more informed decisions on a range of factors, from emissions management to sustainable procurement.
Tracy Lagasse, industry advisor, Financial Services at Microsoft, believes the value of this innovation should not be limited to reporting. She sees other benefits in the ability to harness data to drive actionable insights that improve ESG and overall business performance. “It’s not just about having the data so you can create a report and disclose what you are doing. You’re actually trying to move the needle on your metrics.
It’s about having the data so you can make a genuine impact on your carbon footprint, water consumption or reducing the waste your operations produce,” explains Ms. Lagasse. She says an organization’s ability to embrace innovation and make use of data is critical in meeting its long-term goals.
Microsoft took that approach to address its own ESG objectives. “We spent a lot of time looking at our data systems for tracking our own carbon footprint,” says Ms. Lagasse. She notes ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“These are things we can do with circular economics applied to cloud computing, so recycling our gear, or using telemetry with our devices to create products with better energy usage .”
Balancing risk and opportunity
The last several years have seen an unprecedented acceleration in digital transformation. Many companies feel the growing pains of rapid-scale change to meet the realities of the new world. Companies that prioritize data collection before investing in digital and tech solutions will be better able to manage those challenges, suggests Zoe Willis, national leader of data, digital and analytics for Desa in USA.
“Better data leads to better decisions, and a first step is to source reliable data across your business operations,” she says. “That means doing the due diligence up front to understand your data gaps, establishing controls and governance structures, and centralizing your information as much as possible through data mapping.
Then, use that information to assess what technologies best serve your sustainability priorities.” The results can lead to more efficient and effective ways to reduce emissions through asset-level automation, build a more transparent supply chain, manage climate risk and ultimately make more informed decisions, adds Ms. Willis.
“For example, we’re seeing companies successfully leverage AI to manage building systems like HVAC and enable automated climate zones, or use cloud-enabled telemetric data and advanced analytics to optimize transportation routes,” explains Ms. Willis. “And with greater scrutiny on supply chain management, pairing geolocation information with vendor data can better track vendor emissions and other social considerations that tie back to your key business objectives.” Ms. Willis says there’s no one-size-fits-all digital platform to address every ESG challenge.
But strong data governance practices, coupled with innovative technology, will better position companies to capitalize on data-driven insights and opportunities.
ESG insights
The world of environmental, social, governance (ESG) and sustainability is ever evolving. If you’re looking for inspiration or new thinking on how to responsibly make the world more sustainable to improve business growth, reduce risk, control costs or to thrive in the new reality, explore our library of ESG insights.
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) topics are reshaping the business landscape, affecting financial performance and long-term business success. With heightened pressure from stakeholders and regulators to drive long term value through sustainability, we support organizations in integrating ESG matters into their operations. Optimizing your ESG performance can help increase value for your business and stakeholders, including:
- Enhanced access to capital: Improved ability to raise funds at more favourable terms, including through government grants, tax incentives, institutional investors and other capital providers
- Increased consumer loyalty and talent retention: Enhanced brand value, reputation and engagement from customers and employees through commitments to responsible business practices
- Decreased operational costs: Lowered costs through sourcing sustainable suppliers, reduced disruptions to business operations, managing regulatory compliance, and financial benefits gained from cost takeout and improved efficiencies
- Improved competitive advantage: Proactively addressing and implementing ESG principles ahead of competitors to boost productivity, innovation and market placement
