Develop policies on key sustainability topics with G&A

Companies without a sustainability policy cannot demonstrate a formal process and responsibility to embed their sustainability commitments across the company. It increases the risk of crisis events, controversies, and other negative impacts on the business operations from inefficiencies to full loss of license to operate.  It can also lead to overstatements or greenwashing in sustainability reporting, which may lead to reputational damage, investor skepticism, regulatory non-compliance, and potential loss of market competitiveness.

Investors view sustainability policies as evidence of transparency, accountability, and future-focused governance, all of which may influence capital allocation decisions. For these reasons, ESG data raters like ISS, MSCI, S&P and Sustainalytics assess such policies when scoring a company’s sustainability risk profile. Customers also increasingly demand that their suppliers have policies, or policy clauses, that align with their own sustainability priorities. 

Accordance with global sustainability regulations like CSRD, local regulations such as state EPR regs, and reporting standards like ESRS, ISSB, GRI, and many others require companies to disclose whether they have policies to manage their material issues. Strong policies are essential for meeting legal and reporting obligations, and also making sure that all stakeholders understand the company practices in important areas of its operations.

While the specifics of effective policies vary by subject matter, in general an effective policy specifies the related practices of the company, hierarchy of accountable governing roles, assigned implementation responsibilities, and clear frequency of monitoring and reporting that track both qualitative and quantitative outcomes.

A strong policy references and integrates leading frameworks to ensure disclosures are credible, comparable, and investor-ready.