Five Essential Steps to Streamline Sustainability Reporting

Remember the rush of relief when your company’s sustainability report finally goes public? Or that sigh of satisfaction after submitting your Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) responses? Crafting these reports demands significant collaboration, time and effort, often leaving sustainability professionals scrambling for time to focus on other projects.

Those carefree summer breaks from the reporting grind are fading fast and increasing requirements and extended deadlines of sustainability disclosures are consuming more time than ever. As consultants, we are frequently asked how to navigate this ever-evolving disclosure landscape and lighten the load on sustainability teams. While every company’s reporting obligations are unique, here are some essential steps to evaluate your company’s sustainability disclosures:

Inventory Regulations and Commitments

Compile a list of both mandatory and voluntary reporting frameworks to which your company reports. Collaborate with your legal teams to identify which are mandatory requirements. Don’t forget to include any sustainability-related commitments, such as any existing public commitments to voluntary entities such as ClimateAction100, as these may come with their own reporting requirements.

Evaluate Disclosure Formats

With the inventory complete, review how your company has historically shared sustainability-related information and plan for future formats. This could include annual financial reports, standalone Environmental, Social and Governance or climate risk reports, mandatory sustainability statements, company webpages dedicated to sustainability topics and questionnaire submissions such as CDP responses.

Know Your Audience

Identify your stakeholders and the objective behind each disclosure. For example, does your CDP response satisfy investor and supply chain demands for emissions data, while your sustainability report tells a broader story for customers? Consider how sustainability performance ratings or rankings, such as Sustainalytics or S&P Global’s Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA), can be used as an input to the supplier evaluation process. If so, what sources of sustainability information are those rating or ranking systems using?

Understand Regulatory Requirements

As the sustainability reporting landscape shifts toward mandatory disclosures, it is important to understand the specific requirements. Find out if regulatory-mandated disclosures can reference other sources of sustainability information that may exist in voluntary disclosures. This understanding can help align voluntary disclosures with mandatory needs.

Find Efficiencies

With the knowledge gained by completing the steps one through four, identify which sustainability disclosures and formats matter most, and which voluntary disclosures may no longer be adding value to your organization. Consider these efficiency-focused reporting strategies:

• Establish data and reporting governance processes to ensure transparent and standardized data sourcing.

• Identify overlaps within the various mandatory and voluntary disclosure frameworks to reduce duplication.

• Assemble a diverse group of key stakeholders in finance, legal, sustainability, human resources, investor relations and marketing that will work together to develop and approve final disclosures.

• Leverage digital tools to draft and finalize report content, and capture and resolve feedback from internal reviewers.

While the lazy summer days of reporting may be behind us, taking these steps can help your organization create a streamlined disclosure strategy that meets regulatory needs, addresses stakeholder demands and enhances efficiency – ultimately, saving you time.

For more insights or to connect with WSP USA’s Sustainability Energy and Climate Change (SECC) Practice, please reach out to [email protected] or [email protected].