While we wait for the new ISSB standards, what can companies do to prepare themselves for new disclosure requirements?

· The big challenge will be that, over time, sustainability disclosures are going to be placed on the same level as financial ones. The ISSB’s advice is for companies to familiarise themselves with the Exposure Drafts in order to understand what sorts of disclosures they will be expected to provide. To prepare, a gap analysis could work well, as would working out which issues are most material to the business. This should help to provide a strong foundation of understanding before they are finalised which is expected to take place before the end of this year.

How best do you think SDGs should be used in reporting?

· The UN sustainable development goals were launched in the lead up to the Paris Climate Summit in 2015, originally intended for international bodies and governments. Companies need to be transparent and communicate authentically their progress toward contributing to them – and, realistically, it is not possible to contribute to all of them. But working out which are most material to the business and then focusing on them should be a strong step forward. A robust methodology over how goals were achieved would also be great. Finally, not over-egging a company’s contribution to avoid what is known as ‘rainbow washing’ is certainly advised.

What are the biggest challenges for sustainability teams within a corporate environment and how is it changing?

· There are a lot of things on the plate of sustainability professionals right now, such as skills shortages - it is a very buoyant job market. There is a real need to strengthen the breadth of experience, alongside bandwidth issues. To reach out to other internal departments – like internal security, finance, risk, comms – is very useful. Collaboration across departments can facilitate more integrated thinking, particularly with the overlap between ESG and sustainability. Overall, looking forward, the question over the governance of sustainability and how that’s going to work is particularly relevant. 

Mindful of the trends in the research presented today, what do you think the future of effective reporting suites looks like?

· This is a very topical area, particularly as we work with large organisations with complex reporting suites – and we ask, how do we get the most out of the work a company invests in its reporting? How do we get the key messages across? To what extent have you as a business done a deep dive with external stakeholders – how do they like content to be presented and how do they consume the content? Is it digital first or hard copy? As a critical friend to clients, we think it is useful to ask these probing questions to understand the purpose of the reporting suite and try to ensure the key messages are put across to the right stakeholders and to the right level of granularity.

Telling a consistent story across the piece is one of the big challenges. We are seeing more companies explaining what their reporting suite looks like at the beginning of their report. NatWest released a lot of different information at the same time on the same day – the simultaneous release of information is something to consider. Tesco also have a reporting hub which goes through different fact sheets, providing different stakeholders with the right information they need.

The point is that reporting should not be just for reporting’s sake. It is a fundamental part of the communications strategy with stakeholders. 

If you would like to find out how else we can support you, please contact our Head of Business Development, Naomi Hawkins.