Managed Reporting Solutions for ESG Reporting
ESG reporting has begun in over 80 countries. If you don't know where you should be reporting, then you probably need to find out. The number, type, depth and content of requirements are vast and broad. The image shows the status as at 1 May 2023. That is just one form of reporting - regulatory. There is also stakeholder reporting to think about.
Our managed solutions cover your entire ESG reporting process.
ESG reporting is a complex topic that starts with understanding what obligations you have to report and how you need to report. This may include regulatory-based reporting and internal and external stakeholder reporting.
Knowing what to report, to whom, how often and in what format are the simple building blocks of reporting. The challenge then becomes how to generate the data needed to complete the reports.
Regulatory reporting
The regulatory reporting environment is significant and is going to be even harder going forward as more countries get onboard with requiring companies to report key metrics.
Stakeholder Reporting
Stakeholder reporting refers to reports on key goals, objectives and metrics on key risk areas being presented to stakeholders. This may be in the form of board decks, slides, dashboards, podcasts, emails or webinars. Speeki is able to support all of your stakeholder reporting in all forms to all audiences.
ESG reporting needs to be visual, show goals & objectives, and be driven by initiatives.
The misconception about ESG reporting is that you just show some 'current data'. The reality is that the data is constantly changing and is subject to what your goals and objectives are and how you plan to achieve and maintain them.
You have to build programmes to establish the goals and objectives and then develop initiatives to achieve those goals.
Metrics driven by initiatives
Flashy metrics look great but they need to be driven and built using goals, objectives and initiatives to achieve and maintain. They do not happen automatically.
Programmes produce data. Data produces metrics. Metrics produce a report.
Follow the process in this order to get to your ESG reporting. Without programmes, objectives, initiatives and operationalising ESG, you have no data to report.
Different reports for different audiences
There is likely no way to produce one 'ESG report' that addresses all risk areas and all audiences. You will need to tailor your output based on your audience and how they see 'value' in the data.
Visual wins every time.
As the saying goes, a picture tells a thousand words. Therefore, a dashboard must describe a whole book. Visuals beat words every time.
You will be held responsible and accountable for what you say in your ESG reporting.
It is clear that regulators are now starting to enforce 'greenwashing' and inaccurate representations in ESG reporting. In addition, we foresee that shareholder and other derivative actions may start to emerge. It is important that the reporting is accurate and appropriately reflective of the company's true position. This starts with an acknowledgement that programmes drive data development and then presentation.
Step 1: ESG Reporting Needs Analysis
Speeki conducts workshops to establish what reporting needs to be done at a regulatory and stakeholder level and maps out a reporting deliverable.
Step 2: ESG Reporting Design & Build
Knowing where we need to go and what we need to achieve, our next stage is designing what reports might look like and starting to decide how to build the systems to gather the right data for the reports.
Step 3: ESG Reporting Operations
This stage builds programmes to gather the data and then starts to identify key technology to automate reporting and dashboards and starts to build reports for distribution.
Andrew Henderson
Andrew has been a thought leader and compliance technologist for the last 15 years. He has a strong ability in identifying, documenting and supporting processes and systems required to operate any outsourcing or managed services solutions. Andrew leads the development of our managed solutions on ESG.
Key issues to know when choosing Speeki for ESG Reporting
There is a lot to ESG reporting. Speeki will take you through the process and work out a strategy for you to get this project underway. Some guidance on how we work is shown below.
The Engage framework combined with the ease of use of Speeki to build your programmes will be highly recommended and in some cases mandatory for us to manage a ESG reporting project. The software costs can be blended into an overall fee if clients prefer to have simple quarterly billing.
Speeki engages on an annual fee basis for almost all of our projects. After our initial workshops, which are more project-based, our projects for ESG reporting are annual and, in most cases fixed price, billed quarterly in advance. There is a large upfront cost in designing and building ESG reporting.
There is quite a bit of work to do in the early phases of a reporting project. These phases might involve our scoping exercises, looking at current requirements and some design and mapping for a timeline. These are charged at a project fee basis before clients decide whether to proceed with engaging Speeki for an annual contract.
Things are changing in the ESG reporting area very quickly both on the regulatory side and also the stakeholder side with expectations changing. That is why each quarter we do an analysis with clients to pause and reflect on the current engagement and decide whether it needs to be upgraded or changed as the needs change.
Some clients have workshops on-site to maximise executive time and reach decisions faster. Travel costs are extra in these circumstances. Additional costs may also include any design fee from designers to design reports. We can work with our own designers or with the client in-house or external designers as needed.
In the early days of ESG reporting, it is safe to say that not all reporting will become automated. This very much depends on the technology available, your dataset, and how advanced you are in managing programs. You should certainly assume that most will be hybrid and may develop over time to be more automated.
Speeki is the solution for managing your ESG initiatives in one place.
