Materiality and Strategy
Four Ways to Leverage Corporate Social Investment for Positive Change
June 23, 2026 · By Ralph Hamann and Jess Schulschenk
In this blog, we explore the role of corporate social investment (CSI) – financial contributions by companies to social causes, such as education, health, and enterprise development. CSI has a long tradition in South Africa and based on our collaboration with South African companies, we offer some reflections on how companies can best leverage their social investments that offer lessons for companies around the world.
Addressing Sustainability-related Risks in Your ERM Process
May 6, 2026 · By Stephanie Bertels and Rachel Dekker
Many organisations are considering how to incorporate sustainability risks in their enterprise risk management (ERM) process to gain a more comprehensive view of their risk landscape. The question is how best to do so. In this blog, we explore how companies are approaching this task, identify key limitations of typical systems and processes, and ask whether businesses should be expanding their conversation about risk beyond risk appetite and risk tolerance to also consider risk imposition – the acceptable levels of risk that your business creates for others through its actions.
How to Strengthen the Quality of Your Non-financial (ESG) Data
February 13, 2026 · By Brandon Toews and Stephanie Bertels
In this blog, we explore the growing need to strengthen non-financial (ESG) data and the steps your company can take to improve data quality and governance.
Getting Started on Rights and Wellbeing at Work
January 20, 2026 · By Mahroo Shahbaz and Stephanie Bertels
Workers are entitled to human and group rights while they are at work and companies must ensure they uphold and respect these rights. This includes taking action on respecting human dignity and integrity; ensuring safe and healthy working conditions; providing fair compensation; strengthening company-worker relations; building respectful, equitable, and inclusive workplaces; engaging in workforce planning and employee development; and supporting worker wellbeing. In this blog, we share insights from our Getting Started Guides on Rights and Wellbeing at Work.
Materiality Assessments: Getting Value from the Process
November 3, 2025 · By Stephanie Bertels
Materiality assessments are increasingly expensive undertakings. In this blog post, we examine current practice and make suggestions for how to ensure your company gets value out of the process.
What Is Business Sustainability?
August 26, 2025 · By Stephanie Bertels
In this blog, we explain the concept of business sustainability, how it relates to other terms like ESG and regeneration, and why it makes business sense to take credible action on sustainability.
Getting Started on Tackling Modern Slavery and Protecting Human Dignity and Integrity
July 22, 2025 · By Mahroo Shahbaz and Stephanie Bertels
Human rights are inherent rights that we all have, simply because we exist as human beings. Company policies, practices, due diligence, culture, and decision-making must collectively ensure that workers’ human rights and dignity are respected. In this blog, we share insights from our Human Dignity and Integrity (Tackling Modern Slavery): A Getting Started Guide on how to respect the human rights and dignity of workers in your operations, supply chains, and business relationships.
What Is Precarious Work? (And how can businesses play a role in preventing it?)
June 23, 2025 · By Mahroo Shahbaz and Stephanie Bertels
Unpredictable hours, eroded worker protections, low wages, no benefits – work has become more precarious for many. Workers around the world are increasingly reliant on informal, casual, or temporary work arrangements – from piecework jobs to the gig economy – to make ends meet. This rise is precarious work jeopardizes decent work. In this blog, we discuss the rising prevalence of precarious work and explore the role of companies in tackling (and preventing) vulnerable work arrangements.
Getting Started on Company-Worker Relations
May 27, 2025 · By Mahroo Shahbaz and Stephanie Bertels
Maintaining good company-worker relations provides clear business benefits. Strong relationships, open communication, fostering psychological safety, effective grievance mechanisms, and workers’ ability to engage in their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining underpin the realisation of many other fundamental principles and rights at work. In this blog, we share insights from our guide on company-worker relations.
Getting Started on Climate and Energy
April 8, 2025 · By Mahroo Shahbaz and Stephanie Bertels
As the impacts of climate change worsen, the resilience of our environmental, social, and economic systems will be further threatened. It is crucial that organisations understand these risks; invest in adaptation; and take urgent and credible action to decarbonise and find way to remove carbon from the atmosphere to limit the damages of global heating. In this blog, we share insights from our series of guidebooks on climate and energy to build momentum for action in your company on climate risk preparedness, climate adaptation, and climate mitigation.
Getting Started on Water
March 4, 2025 · By Mahroo Shahbaz and Stephanie Bertels
Water is vital to life, and water resources are finite and increasingly in crisis. The intertwined challenges of water scarcity, declining water quality, and losses of crucial water-related ecosystems are placing businesses and communities at risk. Many companies realise that they need a water stewardship or management strategy, but lack clarity on the work needed to develop and achieve their goals. In this blog, we share insights from our series of guidebooks on water to build momentum for action in your company on water stewardship, water quantity, and water quality.
Getting Started on Protecting Nature
February 6, 2025 · By Mahroo Shahbaz and Stephanie Bertels
The wellbeing of society and business is dependent on nature. Many companies realise that they need a strategy to protect and restore nature, regenerate land and soil, and/or ensure animal welfare, but lack clarity on the work needed to develop and achieve their goals. In this blog, we share insights from our series of guidebooks on protecting nature to bridge this gap and build momentum for action in your company.
Getting Started on Waste and Circularity
November 25, 2024 · By Stephanie Bertels & Mahroo Shahbaz
Our linear economy is not sustainable. Many companies realise that they need a strategy to handle waste, but lack clarity on the work needed to develop and achieve their goals. In this blog, we share insights from our series of guidebooks on waste and circularity to bridge this gap and build momentum for action in your company.
Effective sustainability data displays and dashboards: Advice from a data visualization expert
October 30, 2024 · By Embedding Project
As the volume of sustainability data keeps growing, effective data visualization is crucial to supporting credible decision-making. We spoke with data visualization expert George Gorczynski, founder and Principal Consultant at Vizable Insights, to learn more about how to develop effective sustainability data displays and dashboards.
Propel Your Sustainability Strategy with Process-based Targets
July 11, 2024 · By Stephanie Bertels & Mahroo Shahbaz
While companies may understand the long-term goals and high-level ambitions they need to set, they can be reluctant to commit because they don’t have enough clarity on the work and resources that are needed to get there. In this blog, we share insights from our research into process-based interim targets, and how they can help you to bridge the gap, build momentum, and maintain accountability.
Are Corporate Position Statements on Sustainability Worth the Time and Effort?
November 21, 2023 · By Stephanie Bertels and Rachel Dekker
Wondering if taking a corporate position on key sustainability issues is worth your organisation's time and effort? This blog post discusses how position statements can be an important avenue for productive debate, work to clarify expectations, and provide accountability for your sustainability commitments.
Double Materiality Assessments: Criteria for a More Robust Process that Supports Strategy and Disclosure
May 30, 2023 · By Stephanie Bertels and Rachel Dekker
Thinking about how to undertake a double materiality assessment? In this blog post, we share what we consider to be fundamental criteria for a better approach.
Materiality Assessments: Why It’s Time for a New Approach
February 3, 2023 · By Stephanie Bertels and Rachel Dekker
Done well, corporate sustainability materiality assessments should improve the quality and relevance of your disclosures and ideally, clarify where your company needs to take action and inform your core business strategy. Unfortunately, most materiality assessments don’t live up to that promise. In this blog post, we reflect on how we got here and why the materiality assessment process is in desperate need of an overhaul.
Push It to the Limit: Scenario Planning That Takes Sustainability Seriously
November 22, 2022 · By Embedding Project
Scenario planning can be an effective strategic process for understanding risks and opportunities, but what about your company’s impacts on society and the environment? In this blog, we provide five recommendations to help create scenarios in which your company supports sustainable futures by operating within the limits of key systems.
Scenario Planning Made Simple: An 8-Step Method
October 4, 2022 · By Embedding Project
Scenario planning is an effective strategic tool for decision-makers, but it can be challenging to know where to begin. In this blog, we break down Dr. Nardia Haigh’s scenario planning framework into eight straight-forward steps.
How to Conduct Effective Scenario Planning: An Interview with Dr. Nardia Haigh
September 16, 2022 · By Embedding Project with Dr. Nardia Haigh
Scenario planning is a tool for companies to prepare for the unpredictable impacts of sustainability issues. In this blog, we interview Dr. Nardia Haigh to learn more about how to conduct effective scenario planning.
Getting Started on Your ESG Journey in 7 Steps
July 15, 2021 · By Stephanie Bertels and Rachel Dekker
In the rapidly evolving ESG space, many companies aren’t sure where to start. While each company’s sustainability journey will look a bit different, depending on its industry, location(s), value chain, and investors, customers, or partners, there are some common steps that can help any company confidently start down the sustainability path.
5 Steps to a Corporate Strategy That Delivers on Sustainability
May 18, 2021 · By Brandon Toews
To achieve the societal transformation we need, companies must do their part to embed sustainability into their core strategy. And that means focusing on more than shareholder value or even stakeholder value… It means focusing on systems value. We've created a straight-forward five-step process to help companies develop a truly embedded strategy.
