Network Resources

In our State of the Profession report, we ask about sustainability team size but this member asks a more granular question, "Does anyone have a dedicated position responsible for managing ESG reporting and if so, where do they sit in the organization (Investor Relations, Comms, Sustainability, etc.)?" Read More

One member asks, "If Human Rights is a focus for your sustainability work, where does leadership/coordination for those efforts sit in your organization? Human Rights issues are likely managed by a number of groups across an organization such as HR, Legal and Supply Chain. Do you have a person or team who coordinates and aggregates that work and if so, where does that person reside (in Sustainability or somewhere else in the org)?" Read More

We recently hosted a GBEN Happy Hour! call and invited Mike Wallace from ERM to present what he is seeing in the market. As Mike said, “Understanding how the financial markets conduct their ESG due diligence on public companies will be crucial for accessing capital in a post-COVID. In fact, it provides clues for how companies will be viewed by customers, lenders, insurers and credit rating agencies.” Read More

One member asks the following, "We hope you can help us with a survey of GBEN members regarding ergonomics and the level of company financial support for home offices. We are hearing that some of the high tech companies are asking employees to work from home indefinitely. What are these companies doing to help employees set up a workstation at home? Below are our questions: Read More

One member writes, "As we consider another refresh, we are questioning if others have come up with out of the box ways of conducting these assessments. The process of surveys, interviews, etc. seems antiquated and inefficient. What are some of the latest and emerging trends in conducting materiality assessments? In this period of increased business/NGO partnerships, business/customer collaborations, and emphasis towards ensuring ratings, rankings, and other reporting platforms are industry specific, are there other methods for ensuring companies are focused on material issues in lieu of the traditional materiality assessment approach?" Read More

During a recent GBEN Happy Hour! we explored how members are educating themselves, their teams and other parts of the organization about sustainability. The discussions ranged from sustainability training during employee onboarding to engaging different functional teams, front line employees and senior executives. Read More

One member asks, "Who is measuring scope 3 category 6 travel emissions? Of those measuring, is anyone looking to actively offset those emissions? If so, what is their strategy/approach for offsetting those emissions and how do they fund that in their company?" Read More

In sustainability circles, employee engagement is an evergreen topic. One member recently asked what kind of KPIs others have in place for employee awareness and engagement and how to gauge employees’ knowledge of a company’s sustainability priorities. Read More

The initial impetus for discussing rating and ranking organizations was a member’s question regarding how much the score given their company by Sustainalytics influenced investor sentiment. Opinions about the ratings organizations soon evolved into a discussion of how COVID-19 will get addressed in future reporting and member expectations that reporting on social issues will increase as boards and investors increasingly focus on ESG efforts. Read More

Has anything changed in your company's approach to the various ratings and rankings organizations? Which ones do you prioritize? As we head into reporting season, has your investor relations team reached out to you (especially about the "S" in ESG) and also in terms of COVID-19? This request came from a member specifically interested in how effective some of these ratings are, particularly citing Sustainalytics. Read More