What is ESG reporting? Your steps to success.
ESG reporting is important for businesses, but with so much uncertainty around legislation and requirements, it’s not surprising that some organizations remain in the dark. For smaller companies in particular, the term “ESG” may not yet mean much. But, with investors and customers alike paying close attention to the ESG efforts of businesses, there’s a lot at stake. It’s time for any company involved in the mobility ecosystem to learn more about ESG reporting.
Defining ESG
ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance.
- Environment includes everything connected with an organization’s environmental impact, including transport, energy usage, and carbon emissions.
- Social refers to an organization’s wider societal impact, incorporating factors such as employee well-being, company culture, and community involvement.
- Governance refers to how the business operates, including policies, reporting, transparency, and accountability.
In the same way that financial KPIs might be used to measure a company’s performance, ESG looks at how a company performs in terms of environmental and social matters.
What are the ESG reporting requirements?
ESG legislation is complex. For one, it depends which country you are in. It also depends on company size and industry. The EU is currently leading the way globally when it comes to ESG legislation, with both the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), among others. However, this doesn’t mean that ESG isn’t important in other parts of the world.
ESG-related obligations are steadily increasing across the globe. The UK has already passed ESG laws and there is a great deal of ESG-related action in the US, both at national and state level. See our new ESG eGuide for more information on global ESG legislation.
Why are ESG laws in place?
ESG legislation is there to impose standards or liability on ESG issues. For one, the laws aim to make businesses accountable for their activities and to manage their impact on the planet. They also provide investors and stakeholders with access to ESG information to help them evaluate investment risks from a sustainability perspective.
Ultimately, ESG legislation will help to create a culture of transparency that empowers organizations and individuals to “do the right thing” for the future of our planet.
What information does ESG reporting require?
Specific regulations include different criteria, but as a general rule, your company might need to disclose the following:
- Emissions data
- Risk management
- Reduction targets
- Climate risks and opportunities
- Contributions to global sustainability goals
- Negative impacts on sustainability – and how you will manage them
- Ongoing environmental performance
This is an incredibly simplified list of requirements that are likely to be common to all companies. See specific legislation for detailed requirements.
Mobility companies need to act now
Today, investors are demanding more from companies. Customers, too, are looking to buy from socially- and environmentally-conscious organizations. With the bar higher than ever, and greenwashing still a hot topic, it’s important to demonstrate that you can “walk the walk” when it comes to climate action.
For companies involved in mobility, introducing – or enhancing – a driver safety and sustainability program is the ideal first step towards ESG reporting. By measuring and benchmarking your current activities, and identifying the drivers impacting the environment the most, you can take targeted action to reduce impact and support accurate ESG reporting.
There are many benefits to ESG reporting
Obviously, for some companies, ESG reporting is not optional; it’s mandatory. However, even for smaller companies – or any company not yet required to report – it can deliver many benefits.
These include:
- Safety and sustainability efforts
- Employee well-being
- Employee performance
- Customer satisfaction
- Investor satisfaction
- Compliance
- Brand awareness
- Company profile
- Financial performance
- Competitive advantage
It’s easy to get started with ESG reporting
At Greater Than, we’re proud to empower our customers with crash probability and climate impact insights that support and strengthen ESG commitments. And, with accurate data about drivers’ impact on the planet, it’s easy to meet many of the current, and coming, reporting requirements.
All that’s needed to get started is GPS data, which can be shared with us via a simple API connection. Once a company connects to our platform, our AI processes and analyzes every trip against billions of previous real-world trips. This identifies patterns in driving behavior and provides insight into climate impact. The analyzed data can be pushed to a company’s existing fleet management system, a driver app, SDK or visualized via one of Greater Than’s add-on solutions.
Do you need more answers to “What is ESG reporting?” Are you ready to learn more about ESG legislation and how your company can reap the benefits of ESG reporting? Contact Greater Than or book a meeting to get started.
