How do you begin your ESG reporting journey?

Here is an excerpt from this article by Labrador’s Nancy Mentesana and Sara McKinstry for those drafting their first ESG report:

Communicate your ESG story transparently.

We recommend short sentences and an active voice. While you will need to use certain ESG-related terminology around topics like climate or cybersecurity—partly to help artificial intelligence (AI) bots employed by ESG rating agencies find information needed to rate your company—try stay away from too much jargon.

Remember: an ESG report is not a marketing piece. It is meant to be a transparent document that investors and other stakeholders can use to understand your ESG context, priorities and progress. Discuss not only your ESG achievements but also your challenges. If your company is not as far along in its ESG journey as your stakeholders might expect, discuss what is in place to support progress going forward, like oversight of ESG risks and plans to set goals and targets or improve discloser quality. The more concrete and less vague you can be, the better: aspirational claims without evidence your company can meet them might come across as “greenwashing.” We suggest sharing things that will be implemented over the next 1-2 years.