Every organization is at a different point in its sustainability journey, and each journey is unique. Whether developing an ESG policy, identifying material sustainability issues, or aiming to be recognized for successes to date, the G&A Institute team has the knowledge and experience to help.
The foundation of a successful sustainability program is comprehensive and focused policies addressing your organization’s material topics and critical issues. The G&A team is experienced in crafting both general sustainability policies as well as those focused on specific ESG issues, such as supply chain management, human rights, green travel, and human capital management.
To create policies, our analysts determine relevant topics, assess relevant ESG rating and ranking methodologies, conduct peer benchmarking, and identify existing policy language. We then work in collaboration with the client to develop policies that are aligned with the specific needs of the company and its industry.
A broad audience has arisen for companies’ ESG successes, and it is more possible than ever to earn recognition for hard work in this area. G&A can help get the attention of third-party organizations that issue ESG-focused awards and recognitions.
We work with clients to:
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Review the company's existing sustainability strategies, initiatives, and achievements in publicly available documentation
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Matching the company's accomplishments with an appropriate set of third-party awards and recognitions for both short-term and longer-term consideration
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Recommend suitable awards and recognitions to serve as a road map for internal decision-making and action
Evolving ESG expectations present a new challenge for company leaders to stay informed and focus on what matters most to their stakeholders, both external and internal.
The G&A team can quickly bring all levels of a company’s leadership up-to-speed on the state of corporate sustainability and ESG. We offer coaching, small group training, and workshops for clients. Sessions are customized to fit your organization’s needs, as well as providing a general orientation covering:
- Lessons learned in corporate sustainability governance, strategies, initiatives, and programs – what works for leaders
- Best practices for corporate sustainability programs
- Sustainability disclosure covering commonly-used reporting frameworks such as GRI, SASB, and TCFD
- The sharpening investor focus on sustainability issues
Every company needs to understand which of many possible topics and issues are truly "material" to their stakeholders. The process of narrowing these topics – generally an early step in a company’s sustainability journey – vary by stakeholder. Therefore, G&A uses a multi-stakeholder approach with a focus on investors.
The results of a materiality assessment support management in:
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Aligning the sustainability program with stakeholder, constituency concerns
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Prioritizing issues for further focus and strategy development
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Selecting key indicators for disclosure
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Developing corporate strategy
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Identifying gaps in data collection
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Increasing the sustainability program’s “return on investment”
Disclosure frameworks and standards – such as GRI, SASB, TCFD (and many others) – ask for extensive data and narrative information. It is helpful for a company to identify and understand existing gaps in their disclosure and reporting that are the most important to fill.
G&A’s unique gap analysis process helps issuers to improve disclosure using frameworks and standards to lead the way toward more comprehensive and structured ESG reporting. Our comprehensive process includes:
- Examining existing public disclosure for alignment with leading frameworks and standards
- Gathering non-public information from internal stakeholders with relevant information
- Mapping where existing public and non-public information exists
- Identifying gaps where required information is unavailable and guiding potential disclosure
- Researching industry peers for their disclosure practices on the various framework indicators
How does a company compare to its peers? In the corporate sustainability context, knowing the answer can help demonstrate leadership, prioritize action, and learn from relevant efforts at other companies.
G&A uses proprietary data mapping, benchmarking, and Big Data systems to examine the competitive positioning of our clients against peers on their material ESG performance metrics.
Our analysis also provides intelligence and examples on the commonly reported indicators within the peer group.
The results of this benchmarking exercise include flagged gaps in your competitive positioning across the various sustainability reporting disclosures, examples of industry leading peer disclosure, as well as areas of where you currently demonstrate leadership.