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Structured vs Unstructured Data
Biz StrategyFinanceFuture Tech

AI x Sustainability (4): The Role of AI in Integrating Sustainability into Financial Balance Sheets

How can AI help connect the worlds of sustainability/ESG data, and that of company financials? ESG is typically considered a mere cost - yet: this perception stems chiefly from a lack of integration of mutually beneficial data of these two worlds. With better approaches to cost accounting, to performance analysis, as well as using predictive analysis relate to trends, legislation and asset management, the ability of AI to integrated diverse and complex data sets may precise be the pathway to shift that needle.
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Structured vs Unstructured Data
Biz StrategyFuture TechGovernance

AI x Sustainability (2): Leveraging AI for ESG Reporting

Could ESG reporting finally become less repetitive and tedious? AI has the potential to transform ESG reporting by automating compliance tracking, integrating data from diverse and unstructured sources, and streamlining audit preparation. This opens up opportunities to free data and ESG experts from repetitive, tedious tasks. Yet, while AI offers promise, tight oversight remains essential to address challenges like data quality ('crap in is crap out') and system integration.
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Waves of global disasters - Meme
Biz StrategyFinanceGovernance

The Next Wave: Biodiversity (9) – Habemus suasiones! Recommendations we have!

After some results at the COP in Vancouver, as well as the release of the first ever Science -Based Targets for Nature (SBTN) – finally (!) the recommendations by the TNFD (Task Force for nature-based financial disclosure) have been released. So the question obviously is, how do these targets address the 5 key drivers of biodiversity erosion eventhough it is only about reporting? Are the TNDF recommendations worth their salt?
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Measurement Data
Biz StrategyGovernance

KPIs in ESG: Stretch Goal or Lowest Required Hurdle?

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. This common sense platitude holds true for a lot of things: Salary, punctuality in trains, inflation. And – of course – sustainability/ESG data. Measuring alone can be complex enough. But there are also incentive systems. And the impact they have on aspirations to deliver results. Where sales targets for instance are as good as always understood as ‘invitation to be exceeded’ (with financial and other bonuses resulting from overachievement) the near opposite holds true for ESG/sustainability related KPIs. And that absolutely must change. For every single person in every single company. KPI priorities must be flipped on their heads.
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Paradox
Biz StrategyGovernanceOpinions

Sustainability Standards? Of course! … For everyone else

It's a funny state of things: One where investors complain that ESG data is not standardised; where at the same time companies – and notably their boards – complain that investors do not ask for data in a standardised way. And where the very same companies and boards nonetheless prioritise proprietary measurement systems over any other one for their own supply chains and products. It's a paradox. One that is not efficient, effective, or conducive to impact. A call to leave politics to the side, focus in impact, and standardise, standardise, standardise.
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CSR Metric report by industry
Biz StrategyGovernance

Reporting Metrics? A tale of chaos and – maybe? finally? – convergence

Reporting on ESG / sustainability dimensions is an issue. One for the executives in a company across all levels of responsibility. And one for the board. For the board indeed even on two accounts, namely: The metric they require to be reported to; and the metric that eventually find their way into publicly disclosed information of some shape or other. Unsurprisingly: How seriously a company takes the ESG issue can be inferred from the extent, poignancy, and quality of their reporting. That again – equally unsurprisingly – says is all about how ESG-savvy their board most likely is. Or, indeed, is not.
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LabourSupply Chain

RAGS Challenge Fund project completion – Lessons learned

The RAGS Challenge Fund ran from 2010 to 2013, and was funded by UK aid from the Department for International Development (DFID). “Working Together for a Responsible Ready-Made Garment Sector” is the final report of the RAGS Challenge Fund. The report is intended to be a vehicle for sharing the lessons learned during the life of RAGS for a number of audiences, such as government entities, NGOs, trade union
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Brand ReviewMaterialsSupply Chain

Better Business series – Nike

In the 1990s Nike was caught in a sweatshop scandal showing poor working conditions in the Asian factories of its suppliers. Today Nike wants to “bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”. The evolution of the company’s mission is powerful because it adds meaning and purpose to its existence: from “produce”, to “help” to eventually “inspire and innovate”.
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