Most companies have had a brush with sustainability (or it’s finance industry lens: ESG) at the very least on an operational level. Not necessarily always voluntarily or out of conviction, mind.
Consequently, the spectrum goes from the very advanced to the blissfully (or purposely) ignorant. Size is not – at least in my view – a decisive factor in a company’s maturity level.
Looking at corporate boards however, the picture starts to change – not to the better, sadly, it has to be said. While boards of listed companies may have been forced to look at non-financial disclosure so far, it is rare that any board has a sound grasp, never mind approach, to all things ESG and sustainability. This status was confirmed in the Mazars & INSEAD survey research (link) back in 2018, and for all I see, hear and get to learn, not much has changed since.
Or nearly. In the months and years since, a very (very!) small set of tools has been published that allow corporate boards at least to get started into their journey towards a more stringent grasp of all things sustainability, and in particular Climate Change.
Note: I explicitly exclude any kind of reporting tool or initiative, but only consider tools that are indeed targetting the strategic and forward looking capability of a board in regards to their ‘value preserving’ (read: fiduciary duty) responsibility it has.
Here is the list of tools that I am aware of:
Boards & the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs)
- SDG
Compass:
originally intended to support companies in aligning their strategies with the SDGs and in measuring and managing their contribution, it gives board members are good idea on a high-level of the type of efforts and activities that are needed in the company. Very useful to ask pertinent questions at a 30’000 foot level to the executives. - SDG
impact assessment tool
Developed by a range of of Swedish academic and public institutions, the SDG Impact Assessment Tool is a free online learning tool that visualizes the results from a self-assessment of how an activity, organisation or innovation affects the SDGs. It is an excellent way for boards to self-educate themselves on the one hand, and getting an idea of what the relevant reporting KPIs might potentially be. In addition to any insights on how to best quiz executives. - And lastly, the CEO Guide to the Sustainable Development Goals is, while far from interactive, a good starting point on the business case and context for the SDGs for those boards truly starting from Square Zero. While the guide carries the ‘CEO’ in its title, it is useful for anyone working at strategic level in a company.
Boards, Climate Change and Climate Action
The by far most useful tools I have yet come across have been created by Chapter Zero UK, namely (PDF summary for download here):
- The Board Toolkit and Board Readiness Check:
The Board Toolkit helps boards structure a discussion about climate change. It explains a five step process to help protect enterprise value in response to climate change. It consists of two parts:- an overview of the implications of climate change on business and
- an automated tool, called the Board Readiness Check, designed to help boards understand how ready the company is to address climate challenges.
- Directors’ Climate Journey
is framework developed by Chapter Zero UK to help with increasing climate change awareness and embedding systemic responses that facilitate good climate governance. It is based on self-learning (reading and videos) and a range of questions and link to guidance document supporting implementation action at board level. - Physical Climate Risk Primer:
This primer was designed to help understand how climate risks could affect companies and stakeholders, in order to appropriately respond and strategise. It aims to enhance knowledge and understanding of physical climate risks and gives a concise overview of the current state of climate science. - Change Management Toolkit
this toolkit is designed to help non-executive directors educate themselves on the business implications of climate change and provide a resource that they, their boards and executives can use to help design and implement a business response. Not the least also in the view towards a post-pandemic ‘building back better’.
Boards & Purpose
- Enacting Purpose Initiative (EPI) and its SCORE Framework
The EPI seeks to establish best practice purpose governance, globally.
The framework provides a simple set of five elements that are critical for purpose to be properly governed. The five SCORE elements each are coming with its own clear governance question. See here for a summary.
Sadly, I am not aware of tools that help boards understand social/societal issues, or indeed other environmental and so far largely unaddressed issue such as Biodiversity loss etc.
If you happen to know of any such tools, toolkits, frameworks suitable for corporate boards: please do drop me a line. I would be very, very interested to hear about them.
