conveneesg.

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Whitepaper

The Ultimate Guide to Creating

a Compelling ESG Report
Contents INTRODUCTION
I. Why Report on ESG Among the many issues brought to light by the
II. Getting Started with ESG pandemic, the demand for climate action is one
Reporting of the biggest. Climate change leads not only to
III. Choosing the Best ESG environmental risks, but also affects investments
Reporting Software
through investor flows and financial materiality. For
IV. Future-Proof Your
Reporting with Convene such reason, investors started reevaluating their
investment approaches and companies met greater
scrutiny and complexity in managing ESG.

Companies that want to pursue sustainability take

action using the ESG factors to provide value to their
investors. They reevaluate their plan in the three
spaces (environment, social, and governance) to
prompt more responsible or sustainable growth.

ESG today is rapidly evolving with the market set

to double this year. The Portfolio Decarbonization
Coalition, a UN-sponsored group of 32
institutional investors and asset managers, holds
decarbonization commitments worth over $800
billion. Also, in the US, ESG-focused funds more
than doubled to $51.1 billion in 2020. In Asia except
for Japan, managed sustainable fund assets have
also almost tripled to $36.7 billion in March 2021
from a year earlier.

With the mounting pressure from the business

ecosystem, investors, and legislators, companies
implement ESG to create greater values and higher
financial growth. Reporting on ESG is one way.

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WHY REPORT ON ESG
ESG reporting allows investors to measure whether
a company meets its sustainability commitments
relevant to its supply chains. In short, it evaluates
the company’s progress in terms of sustainable
development. Transparency in ESG performance gained
momentum in importance and status in recent years.

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According to an Environmental Defense Fund report, 93% of consumers
believed to hold businesses accountable for their impact on the
environment. Hence, hustling companies to make sustainability a strategic
priority.

Verifiable and compelling ESG reports are expected from companies to

provide the needed visibility of their progress and goals. They need a
resolute attitude towards ESG and adopt sustainable business practices to
yield demonstrable improvements in performance.

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Why Report on ESG

COMPLIANCE AND
RISK MANAGEMENT
Last March, the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Copyright © 2022 Azeus Group of Companies. All rights reserved. All information correct at time of publishing. V1. 03.2022_PH
announced rules that standardize
climate-related disclosures. Such
requires registrants to disclose
information on their governance
on climate-related risks and risk
PROFIT AND
management processes, as well FINANCIAL GROWTH
as their performance in relation to
climate-related targets. According to a four-year study of
MSCI, companies with high ESG
Similarly, the GRI introduced the scores experienced lower costs
revised Universal Standards to of capital compared to ones with
enhance the reporting processes, poor scores. They are also found to
and provide new guidance possess above-market valuation
for material topics and policy and profitability.
commitments — effective January
2023. Given these current ESG reporting guides companies to
regulations and more, it is clear confront the requirements of doing
that ESG is rapidly moving from business and achieving better ESG
voluntary reporting to a regulatory scores, which translates to lower
disclosure-oriented dimension. capital costs. Reduced cost of
capital can give companies more
dry powder to create acquisitions,
and eventually, exhibit higher value.

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Shaping
Why Report
Boards
on ESG
of the Future: What Can Organisations Do?

CORPORATE REPUTATION AND

BRANDING
Traditionally, annual reporting is the standard for
communicating with stakeholders, addressing operational
inefficiencies, and strengthening brands. It’s a reference tool
for making investing and purchasing decisions. Years later,
ESG reporting has been a great addition to companies that
want to escalate their reputation in the market.

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT
Stakeholders, investors, and consumers in particular, now demand

Copyright © 2022 Azeus Group of Companies. All rights reserved. All information correct at time of publishing. V1. 03.2022_PH
greater transparency in ESG matters and are looking for responsible
brands to spend their money and attention on.

In PwC’s 2021 Consumer Intelligence Series survey, 83% of consumers

believe companies should actively shape ESG best practices.
More than 60% of them also named the ESG focus areas they want
businesses to step up investments on. These are:

• Data security and privacy

• Climate change
• Product safety and quality
• Worker health and safety
• Racial and gender diversity and inclusion

A good ESG report can bring businesses an opportunity to align their

business’ most important aspects and priorities. At the same time, it
helps capture and retain stakeholders’ trust.

As Simon Sinek says, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you
do it and what you do simply proves what you believe.” Stakeholders
need the why as much as they need the data — a strong ESG report
can serve that.

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Gender and Cultural Diversity

GETTING STARTED WITH ESG

REPORTING
Producing a complete, quality ESG report plays a major role in devising
a more effective sustainability strategy. While reporting on sustainability
may seem like a mere responsible practice, the 2021 EY Global Institutional
Investor Survey found that 90% of investors now pay more attention to ESG
performance in their decision-making.

As regulators are also moving to make ESG reporting mandatory, companies

need to develop a deeper understanding of their business and report on their
performance. To make things easier, here are six steps to get you started with
ESG reporting.

1. Define your goals and messaging

Before anything else, think about why you want to report. Are
you looking to attract new investors, address social issues in the
company, or strengthen the business’ public image? Regardless
of the goals, they should align with the company’s strategic
priorities.

ESG reporting is about communication, so ensure you write it

for the right audience, may it be the customers or investors.
Doing so can help you get started in your decision-making and
reporting process, ensuring you’re focusing on things relevant to
your stakeholders.

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Getting Started with ESG Reporting

2. Ensure compliance with regulations and provisions

Regulations differ from one country and region to another. These

include the Philippine SEC’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines
for publicly-listed companies, Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s
(HKEX) ESG Reporting Guide, Singapore Exchange’s (SGX)
climate disclosure rules, and Bursa Malaysia’s ESG disclosure
requirements for Malaysian PLCs.

As regulatory schemes and mandatory disclosure rules are

escalating across the Asia Pacific, it is ideal to take them into
account when creating your report. Learn what to expect from
sophisticated regulations and implement the recommendations,
especially if you’re coming from less-regulated industries and
poorly equipped to deal with a mass of emerging regulations.

3. Conduct a thorough materiality assessment

The concept of materiality plays a significant role in ESG
reporting. Typically used in an SEC reporting context, this
involves the evaluation of factors that influence the company’s
financial performance, customer needs, and stakeholder needs
from the gathered data.

These may refer to risks, opportunities, and impacts that are

material to the organizations, or can influence stakeholder
decisions. You may also refer to sources like the SASB
Materiality Map to guide you in determining what topics to focus
on depending on your industry.

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Getting
Gender Started with ESG
and Cultural Reporting
Diversity

4. Decide on the Frameworks or Standards

Accurate, balanced, and comparable information that makes
up a high-quality ESG report. But to yield the most meaningful
disclosure, it is vital to align it with one or more frameworks or
standards. A reporting framework provides guidance for “how”
to structure a report, while a standard refers to specific, detailed
requirements for “what” should be disclosed for each material
topic.

Among the widely referenced reporting frameworks and

standards today are the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI),
Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and Task
Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Make
sure to visit your local provisions to know what frameworks or
standards you should use.

5. Gather the ESG data

Next, decide how you will collect the data you want to disclose. In
general, the data will come from disparate sources and multiple
departments. It is best to first determine the individuals in charge
of collecting operational or non-financial data.

For visibility and accessibility, most companies use underlying

systems to carry out the necessary calculations and
consolidation for the gathered data. This helps streamline the
workflow, particularly when handling multiple data sources, and
prepare the data for validation.

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Getting Started with ESG Reporting

6. Seek internal or external assurance

Objective assurance over ESG reporting is another step not to
miss. An internal audit, for instance, can review the reporting
metrics for accuracy, relevancy, and consistency, which is
critical for public sustainability reports and regulatory oversight.
An internal assurance can also ensure that the disclosed
nonfinancial data is aligned with the formal financial fillings,
preventing issues with regulators and investors. Companies are
also advised to seek external auditing or assurance to ensure
everything in the report adhere to the mandatory and applicable
standards.

7. Generate the report and publish to stakeholders

Last but not least, it is time to tell a complete, balanced narrative

that will properly communicate the company’s specific ESG
issues, performance, and opportunities. Develop a clear point of
view when telling the story of your ESG journey. Create qualitative
narratives supported by quantitative data on the overall
corporate sustainability performance.

Present the key metrics and information to your stakeholders.

Use the right ESG reporting software to enable internal controls
and generate the report efficiently. This is not something you
can do overnight. Your reporting process will get better as your
company gets more comfortable developing its disclosures.

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Choosing the Best ESG
Reporting Software
Gone are the days when spreadsheets are used
to orchestrate a reporting process with numerous
collaborators in different locations. Today, dedicated
ESG reporting software is the best way to go.

Good reporting software can automate your tasks,

collect data from multiple sources, process raw,
accurate data, and can be used by almost everyone
involved in the process. Here are a few more pointers
on what an ESG reporting software should offer.

SEAMLESS DATA FLEXIBILITY AND

COLLECTION COMPLIANCE
The solution must gather data from The best ESG reporting software can
various resources and store them help you meet your sustainability-related
securely but still easily accessible for objectives, including compliance with
users. It should be able to support all disclosure requirements and legislation. It
your collaborators, allowing them to should provide customizable dashboards
effortlessly send or input the data you that allow easy tracking of metrics that
need from them. matter to the sustainability institutions
and regulators.
Also, it should enable you to automatically
assign tasks, deploy and monitor Opt for one that can maintain up-to-
questionnaires and assessments, send date ESG standards and frameworks,
requests and follow-ups and track allowing you to configure the report
progress against goals. With such whenever necessary. The solution
capabilities, you and your employees will should seamlessly integrate with internal
spend less time in data gathering and systems and third-party providers for
consolidation and be able to focus on activities such as public perception
other critical tasks, such as analysis. monitoring. In short, it should help you
produce tailored reports that align with
mandatory disclosures or requirements of
chosen frameworks.

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Choosing the Best ESG Reporting Software

SETTING TARGETS
AND TRACKING
GOALS
An ESG reporting software that can handle
standard mapping and benchmarking
can surely help you stay ahead of the
VISUALIZATION market. It should allow you to get a
clearer picture of your data and map it
AND REPORTING against your internal frameworks and the
As tracking non-financial performance latest standards including TCDF, SASB,
can be complex, choose an ESG reporting and GRI. The software should have tools
software that can track all your needed that allow you to set ESG targets and
metrics using customizable graphs and benchmark progress. Look for one that
dashboards. It should possess tools gives you access and benchmark against
that can accurately monitor and report publicly available data of peers and
on different metrics, regardless if you’re visualize company progress in line with
measuring GHG emissions or health and sustainability goals.
safety incidents.

It should be powerful enough to gather

data at a granular level and process VENDOR
large amounts of information. Better if it EXPERTISE AND
can also convert raw data into metrics
SUPPORT
with different units of measurement
and crunch the numbers to produce Aside from being an ESG industry
valuable performance indicators. A good expert, the vendor must have experience
reporting solution allows you to access servicing companies for ESG and
detailed data and insights, driving smarter governance needs. They should be able
decisions and operational changes. to guide you in implementing the new
reporting software, provide training to the
prospective users, and ensure the setup is
on track.

What’s more, choose an ESG solution

provider that offers immediate support
24/7/365, without callbacks or lengthy
hold times. Support representatives
should be in-house experts trained to
resolve issues efficiently and effectively.

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FUTURE-PROOF YOUR REPORTING
WITH CONVENE ESG
Think the factors above sound like a tall order for a single software? Convene
ESG is a reporting solution that does it all. Here’s a quick overview of what
Convene ESG has in store for you and your reporting team.

Workflow Automation and Compliance

Digitize and streamline data collection workflows with robotic process
automation and analyze data on ESG reporting metrics. Convene ESG
allows for easy configuration for reports using the most up-to-date
standards and frameworks, ensuring compliance.

Tailored, Configurable Dashboards

Curate tailored dashboards based on your organization’s workflows
and needs. With visual analytics, data collaborators and boards can
maintain oversight of ESG targets, metrics, and workflows.

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Future-Proof Your Reporting with Convene ESG

Standard Mapping and Easy Benchmarking

All data stored in Convene ESG are traceable, making it easier
for users to track and audit everything. Users can easily pull out
information for decision-making, as well as benchmark against
competitors. Access audit trail to minimize risks of inaccurate data.

Secure and Resilient Data Hub

A digital repository that allows for easy storage and retrieval of
previous years’ data for trend analysis. Users will have complete
ownership of all the data in the software, which are stored in a highly
secured repository.

Customizable Templates and One-Click Reports

Create a compelling, professional-looking report using Convene ESG’s
readily available templates, which you can customize based on your
metrics or frameworks. Generate the report for your stakeholders’
review in one click.

Guaranteed ESG Expertise and Reliable Support

Convene ESG’s team of product experts can guide you on different
governance mechanisms and metrics to kick off your ESG journey
and prepare audit-ready sustainability reports. Available 24 hours a
day, 365 days a year, customers are rest assured to get the support
they need right away.

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ESG DISCLOSURE CREATION
SIMPLIFIED WITH CONVENE ESG
The attention on ESG is expected to continue growing globally, and investors,
consumers, and activists are expecting companies to do more. With the
heightening expectations and increasing need for climate action, creating an
ESG disclosure is the best solution and starting point. Streamline your ESG
reporting process by investing in the right reporting software!

Save your team from manual preparation and reporting with Convene
ESG. Find out more about how this tool can streamline and centralize your
reporting process. Book a consultation with us today!

Start Digitalising Your

Sustainability Journey today!
For more information: [email protected]

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Philippines: +63 921 316 0339 China: +86 400 022 3721
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