• An ESG report is produced by organisations to disclose to their stakeholders their environmental, social and corporate governance impacts including the risks and opportunities they face.
• ESG reporting is a general term used to describe specific reporting criteria.
• Sustainability reporting in reality is an umbrella term for organisations to report on how they are doing.
• ESG reporting focuses on a broad range of areas.

• The short-term and long-term benefits of ESG reporting include brand value, higher returns on investment, lower risks, strategic freedom and stakeholder support.
• An organisation that is doing what it should be doing is likely to get stakeholder and government support.

• Organisations want to do good and be ethical and the ESG report is a way for organisations to show they are doing this.
• ESG reporting can also help an organisation attract talent.
• In the last few years, there were too many standards. Now there are five standards worth investigating:
  • The task force on climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD)
  • The global reporting initiative (GRI)
  • The international sustainability standards board (ISSB)
  • Corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD)
  • EU green taxonomy delegated act
• Start your ESG reporting journey by:
  • Building an internal team to create an ESG framework.
  • Look at frameworks that align with your organisation.
  • Understand your stakeholders’ expectations and gauge what’s important to them.
  • Identify and map out your data requirements – what you have and what you need.
  • Document your journey.
  • Use your website, both external and internal, to showcase the good things you’re doing.
  • Report what you’re doing and what you’d like to do in the future.
  • Benchmark your report against good practice.

Why does ESG reporting matter? Who’s interested in your ESG activity? As the focus on ESG reporting continues to increase, you need to know how to create meaningful reports.

Join Ruth Odih, secretariat team at Centrica Plc, and Sean O’Reilly, chartered accountant, for this free webinar. They’ll explain how you can get started on ESG reporting. They will also focus on how to implement accurate reporting and what are the short and long term benefits.

This will be an informative and engaging discussion with plenty of practical insights to bring back to your boardroom. We look forward to hearing your questions and seeing you there.

Ruth Odih is a key member of the Secretariat Team at Centrica plc. Her experience is in UK and International corporate governance practices. Her experiences range from large multinationals to large UK-based organisations in catering, energy, oil and gas, private equity and financial services, with some of the organisations being constituents in the FTSE 100 and AIM index. She is a trustee of a local charity.

Sean O’Reilly is a chartered accountant and is currently the assistant head in the School of Accounting and Finance managing the economics and finance programmes in Technological University Dublin. He has extensive experience as a company founder, director, non-executive director and consultant, including international projects.