Resources for your ESG learning
ESG Resources
ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) has become a widespread phenomenon, spanning every industry and garnering attention and calls to action from the international community. Investment in ESG has progressively increased throughout the 21st century, with 3,657 signatories representing $90 trillion in assets under management signing the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) at the beginning of 2020.
But what exactly is ESG? Why has it become such an important issue for investors and stakeholders?
If you’d like a better understanding of ESG, keep reading. The ESG resources below will help explain the benefits, provide context for how you can implement an ESG strategy at your organization, and highlight value creation opportunities that you can capitalize on.
What is ESG?
ESG refers to the three central factors in measuring the sustainability and societal impact of an investment in a company or business. These criteria help to better determine the future financial performance of companies.
Environmental
Environmental factors include things like climate impact and environmental challenges and opportunities, such as energy use, waste production & management, climate change, pollution, etc.
Governance
Governance factors relate to how a company is run, which includes things like management structure, compensation, internal controls and accountability policies, shareholder rights, and more.
The ESG Reporting Matrix: Understanding the alphabet soup of ESG
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Understanding ESG disclosure
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ESG glossary - Industry terms & acronyms you should know
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Frequently asked questions about the Fitwel certification
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Introduction to Fitwel & reporting best practices
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The state of GRESB: 2020 vision into the future of the framework
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Introduction to SASB
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Zero Waste: The next frontier in CRE sustainability
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GRESB 101: Start early & outperform your peers
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With stakeholders and investors inquiring with increasing frequency about what your organization is doing in regard to responsible investment, how you treat employees and vendors, your dedication to sustainability initiatives, and other activities that fall under the ESG umbrella, it’s more important than ever to have answers.
ESG and its goals affect everyone. Reducing environmental impact, championing human rights, and managing your organization in a sustainable fashion can have widespread positive impacts on your employees’ health and wellbeing, stakeholder satisfaction, investor confidence, your organization’s public standing, and many more.
Understanding the imperative for ESG reporting & disclosure
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Mitigating enterprise risk through ESG framework adoption
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Five reasons every organization should embrace GRI Standards
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ESG marketing - The importance of telling your story
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Why now is the time for private equity to invest in ESG
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Wellness First: Prioritizing health & wellness initiatives in response to COVID-19
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How the COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping ESG
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Targeted Reductions: Minimizing emissions with Science-Based Targets
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An easier question to answer is “who doesn’t benefit from ESG?”, because the answer is “almost no one”. ESG provides benefits for a vast range of people. Stakeholders will likely see an increase in asset value, investors will be able to rest easier knowing that your organization is better equipped to weather future risks or unforeseen difficulties, employees will experience workplace improvements and benefit from fair and thoughtful policies, local (and even global) communities will benefit from environmental impact reductions, to name a few.
Ten ESG value creation opportunities & how to capitalize on them
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Improving business performance through energy efficiency
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How ESG helps enterprises attract and retain capital
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The strategic value of ESG materiality assessments
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The big leap – Taking CSR to the next level with ESG
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The benefits of strategic energy & sustainability management
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Making the business case for ESG
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One of the most effective ways to get started is to perform an ESG materiality assessment. A materiality assessment is a tool for identifying and prioritizing ESG issues that are most critical to your organization. The assessment is designed to find the relative importance of specific ESG or sustainability topics and rank them by their potential impact to your organization and their importance to your stakeholders.
After completing your materiality assessment, you should also audit your organization’s current status. Take stock of your current procedures and policies that you think may already have an impact on your ESG resources and efforts, whether those impacts are positive or negative. For instance, have you previously implemented policies that enforce fair workplace practices and promote human rights? Do you have a process for responsibly disposing of recyclable materials in a safe, eco-friendly way? Identifying these provides low-hanging fruit to build off of as you begin your journey toward ESG.
Maximizing the strategic value of ESG materiality assessments
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Benchmark with the best of them: Simplified compliance, reporting, and transparency
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Goby ESG materiality assessments overview
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Setting challenging ESG goals that create value
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Utility benchmarking for commercial real estate
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Strategic GRESB disclosure & improved results
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The results of your ESG materiality assessment will provide you with a solid base from which to start implementing your ESG strategy. You’ve now identified ESG issues that will have the greatest impact on your organization as well as stakeholder groups and the issues that are most important to them. Your next steps should be to identify ESG resources, implement strategies and policies across your organization, and engage your stakeholder groups to help successfully implement and seamlessly adopt these new business operations.
A complete guide to ESG program management
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Pathways to net zero: A multi-dimensional approach to carbon neutrality
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Building a diverse & inclusive corporate culture
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Incorporating ESG into investment strategy
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How to measure & improve your governance performance for ESG
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Leveraging data to achieve GRESB greatness
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You’ve implemented ESG practices across your organization. Congratulations! However, that doesn’t mean you’re finished with it. ESG is constantly expanding and new practices are introduced frequently, so you’ll want to stay ahead of shifting industry trends and stakeholder priorities and adapt your organization’s ESG resources and approach accordingly.
Now that you’ve implemented ESG, it’s time to tell the world about it. No one is going to know about the changes until you tell them. One of the best ways to promote your ESG success is to submit to industry benchmarks or reporting frameworks such as GRESB or GRI. You should also consider compiling and publishing a corporate social responsibility (CSR) report, which is an excellent way to share your successes with stakeholders.
GRESB 2020: Performance, results, and a look into the future
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Ready, Set, GRESB: A strategic guide for turning ESG insights into actionable results
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A practical guide to ENERGY STAR excellence
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Utility bill management best practice guide
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Actionable ESG: Turning insights into results
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Increasing ENERGY STAR ratings through reduced consumption & improved data validation
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Beyond mandatory benchmarking
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