ESG and sustainability
reporting standards, frameworks and guidelines

just compliance, or something more?

  • 4 April 2023

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If 2022 was the year that many ESG issues assumed a refined focus, then 2023 may be the year that corporate ESG efforts are seriously tested.

 

The future ESG framework is coming into focus. Regulators across the globe have driven a rapid acceleration of complex, profoundly prescriptive ESG-related legal obligations. These rules are intended to drive disclosure, transparency and accountability relating largely to environmental concerns, but also covering human capital and other ESG-related issues. In some cases, international rules regimes are derived from a common standard, and so retain some similarities across countries. In other cases, the requirements relating to similar subject areas bear little common ground. As many companies confront the fact that they will be subject to at least a handful of different regimes, their compliance challenge grows.

 

To date, trends in ESG reporting and due diligence have largely been steered by developments, including reporting and compliance regulatory requirements, in the EU and U.K. 2023 could be a watershed year for ESG-focused regulatory developments in the United States as well.

 

Companies will need to monitor regulations—those in force, impending and under consideration—closely to ensure that they are prepared for a new compliance regime. Synthesizing and harmonizing comprehensive global solutions will be appropriate in some cases and insufficient in others. Companies will need to implement action plans to address complex and, in some cases, conflicting sets of legal and disclosure requirements, and also identify risk areas, mitigants and areas of ESG best practice.

 

ESG: Trends to Watch in 2023, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, March 2023

Watch this if you fulfil one or more of these roles

  • Director
  • Executive or senior manager
  • Company secretary
  • Finance team member
  • Governance officer
  • Sustainability officer
  • Integrated / ESG / sustainability reporter

What you will learn

forewarned is forearmed

When watching this recording, you will be provided with a high-level understanding of the ESG / sustainability reporting landscape – frameworks, standards and guidelines.

Here you will learn how to:

  • Explain the landscape of ESG and sustainability reporting standards
  • Understand how to justify alignment with these standards

Useful reading

Hosted by:

Kindly sponsored by:

Expert Guests

Jennifer Motles
Michael Rea
Marie Josee Privyk

The ESG Exchange is an initiative of the Good Governance Academy

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Alex Hetherington

Sustainability strategist | ESG investor |Climate scenario analyst
TCFD reporter | Third Line Group | Carbon Calculated | TonneZero

Member of the Advisory Committee

Alex Hetherington is a seasoned corporate sustainability professional with 25-years’ experience in carbon accounting, climate scenario analysis and investor insight into market-related climate risks and opportunities. He has worked with clients in Africa, USA, UK, Europe, Middle East and Australia.

 

Originally trained as a journalist, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Politics from the University of Cape Town (1993), Alex took a MSc in Environmental Management from Imperial College, London (2004), and recently completed a CPA in Sustainable Finance and Investment from Columbia University in the city of New York (2021).

Having established himself as an early pioneer in corporate sustainability strategy, Alex co-founded Carbon
Calculated, a carbon management and climate change consultancy, which has worked with over thirty companies and brands across multiple geographies. He currently consults on investor understanding of climate risk and response.

Jennifer Motles

Chief Sustainability Officer at Philip Morris International

Jennifer is an International and Human Rights lawyer currently working at Philip Morris International. More specifically, she is helping to advance its transformation goal of becoming a smoke-free company, with an emphasis on external stakeholder engagement projects.

 

She is a qualified expert in the design and execution of sustainability and stakeholder engagement strategies.

 

Previously, Jennifer worked for international organizations including UNCITRAL, UNODC, UNCTAD/ITC, and last worked for the government of Israel as its Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs representative at the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva.

 

Jennifer holds a Juris Doctor degree from Universidad de Chile, and an LL.M from University of California, Berkeley, as well as specialized diplomas in women’s rights, shared value, sustainability, and political affairs from IHEID, Harvard Business School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Stanford University.

Michael Rea

Provider of Independent Third Party Assurance over ESG/Sustainability Data

Michael has undergraduate degrees in Science and Psychology , as well as an MBA in Corporate Social Responsibility. He is now a Sustainability Assurance Practitioner and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) consultant.


After spending 5 years on annual volunteerism projects in various developing countries (1991 through 1995), Michael completed his MBA as a mechanism to initiate conversations with global corporations that hold the potential to effect meaningful developmental progress in countries in which they operate. From Nortel Networks in Brazil, to Inco in Indonesia, and throughout Africa, Michael built up over 16 years of sustainability related experience, across more than 40 countries, primarily in Africa, South America and SE Asia.


From 1999 to 2006, Michael worked as a Senior Manager in the Sustainability Services practices of both PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG. Since then, he has operated as an Independent Corporate Social Responsibility Consultant  and then as the Managing Partner at Integrated Reporting & Assurance Services (IRAS), providing independent third-party assurance over corporate sustainability matters, as well as advisory services over both CSR and Integrated Reporting.


Michael’s particular areas of interest and experience are Corporate Social Investment, stakeholder engagement, sustainability report authorship and independent third assurance over sustainability content within integrated annual reports. He has had the privilege of completing assignments ranging from human rights monitoring in Sudan, to stakeholder engagement around the clearance of land mines in Angola, Eritrea and Mozambique, to the implementation of SED projects for mining companies in South Africa.


Over a 20-year period, Michael has developed experience and expertise in providing independent third-party assurance over:

  • Canada’s International Code of Conduct for Canadian Companies Operating Overseas (Sudan, Ecuador,
    Colombia)
  • The Global Reporting Initiative’s GRI Guidelines for Sustainability Reporting (Canada, Peru, Australia, Kenya,
    Nigeria, Cameroon, the DRC, the US, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa)
  • AccountAbility’s AA1000AS Assurance Standard for non-financial assurance engagements (Type I and Type II)

Marie-Josée Privyk

Member of the Technical Committee

Marie-Josée is ESG Advisor and founder of FinComm Services, providing companies with sustainability reporting advisory services tailored to their needs and circumstances. Her deep expertise helps companies cut a clear path to decision-useful ESG and sustainability reporting as part of an effective management program that creates value for the company and for society.

 

Marie-Josee draws on 30 years of experience in capital markets, namely as a sell-side Financial Analyst and Head of research, as Director of Investor Relations for a publicly listed company, and as ESG Advisor to companies and investors. Prior to returning to independent advisory, Marie-Josée was Chief ESG Innovation Officer at Novisto, a leading ESG data management software company.

 

Marie-Josée is a member of the Enterprise Data Management Council’s ESG Steering Committee and Co-lead of its ESG Working Group; she is also a member of the Good Governance Academy’s ESG Exchange Technical Committee and the CCLI’s Canadian Climate Governance Experts Initiative.

 

A CFA charter holder, Marie-Josee also holds the IFRS Foundation’s Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA) Credential, the Certificate in ESG Investing from the CFA Institute, and the Responsible Investment Professional Certification (RIPC) designation from the Canadian Responsible Investment Association. Marie-Josée holds a B.Com. in finance from McGill University and a certificate in Applied Communications from Université de Montréal.

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