Govern

Developing Position Statements on Sustainability Issues

There is growing pressure among companies to link social and environmental limits to corporate strategy and goal-setting. However, the result is often a lengthy document that fails to make strategic connections between specific issues and their implications on business decision-making. We developed this guidebook to help you articulate a concise and transparent board level position on key environmental, social, and governance issues. Drawing upon in-depth analyses of over 4,000 board position statements; over 200 interviews with CEOs, directors, and board chairs; and concepts outlined in our series on the Road to Context, this guidebook provides a checklist for crafting a contextual board position statement and includes examples from a range of industries and global settings.

Emerging Trends and Best Practice in Climate Position Statements

Climate change is happening, and the impacts are intensifying. Companies are expected to take a position on climate change and outline an appropriate response. The Embedding Project’s climate position guide helps companies to articulate a concise and transparent board level position on climate change. Drawing on in-depth analyses of over 2,600 climate position statements, this guidebook provides a checklist for crafting a climate position statement with concrete examples from a range of industries and global settings. 

Taking a Credible Position on Nature

There is growing pressure on companies to publicly acknowledge the unprecedented nature loss we face, and what they plan to do to address it. To help them do so, we reviewed over 1,000 statements on nature loss, biodiversity, and ecosystem stewardship from a wide range of geographies and industries, and identified examples of how companies are explaining the issue of nature loss, linking the issue of nature loss to their strategy, and clarifying their commitments to protect and restore nature. We hope this guide is helpful to you in articulating your own credible position statement on protecting and restoring nature.

Position Database

Is your company interested in taking a public position on an ESG issue?

To help companies develop strong, clear positions, we will maintain a public database containing leading positions articulated by large companies globally. 

Our governance guide outlines how companies should articulate their positions, and we have applied this criteria to the positions featured in this database.

ISO 37000:2021 Governance of organizations - Guidance

This resource provides guidance on good, purpose-driven governance of organisations. It provides principles and key aspects of practices to support governing persons and groups on how to meet their responsibilities so that the organisations they govern can fulfil their purpose.

Climate Change Briefing: Questions for Directors to Ask

This brief is a good primer on climate change for directors. It offers 20 questions they can ask management about how they are adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change. Part of Chartered Accountants of Canada’s 20 Questions Series, it includes specific questions related to risk, strategy, financial performance, external reporting systems, and controls and governance.

How to Set Up Effective Climate Governance on Corporate Boards: Guiding principles and questions

Boards need to be equipped with the right tools to make the best possible decisions for the long-term resilience of their organisations and to provide effective governance around climate risks and opportunities. In response, this paper from the World Economic Forum and PwC proposes tools that support boards to navigate climate risks and opportunities. The principles herein are designed to increase directors’ climate awareness, embed climate issues into board structures and processes, and improve identification and navigation of climate-related risks and opportunities for business. This work contributes to the WEF’s Compact for responsive and responsible leadership, and provides a compass for enabling effective climate governance.

WBCSD's ESG Self-Assessment

This exploratory self-assessment was created to evaluate the integration of key sustainability competencies within board-level decision-making. The multiple-choice questionnaire assesses ESG considerations across five core pillars: purpose & business model; risk management; engagement with management; engagement with stakeholders; and non-financial reporting. Towards building a baseline, this tool may be of help to corporate directors, executives, corporate secretaries, risk committees, and other governance and sustainability professionals tasked with assessing the board’s effectiveness of ESG oversight.

Boards Are Obstructing ESG — at Their Own Peril

Research shows that many boards have little ESG-related expertise, and many do not recognize the importance of tracking and integrating sustainability issues into business planning. This article from Tensie Whelan explains how boards can get up to speed through careful recruitment, learning about and understanding material ESG issues, and requiring executives to align KPIs with key sustainability reporting standards.

Boards: Stepping Up as Stewards of Sustainability

This report by Egon Zehnder and The Sustainability Board Report highlights a gap between board members’ increasing awareness of ESG as a strategic imperative and the lack of action being taken at the board level. The report suggests this is due to board members feeling ill-equipped to take concerted action on ESG-related issues and activities. In response, the report outlines core steps you can take to develop relevant board competencies and provides a framework for assessing individuals’ potential contribution to board stewardship. This guidance will be most useful to board members and HR professionals.

Primer on Climate Change: Directors’ Duties and Disclosure Obligations

This primer from the Climate Governance Initiative can help directors and other senior executives understand the material financial and systemic risks that climate change presents to corporations and their investors. It begins by providing an overview of the evidence of these financial risks, and then examines the obligations these risks create in respect to both the duties of directors and disclosure across different jurisdictions. It also considers the increasing attention to biodiversity risk and its potential to affect directors’ duties.

G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance 2023

This set of principles from the OECD is a good starting point for understanding international public sector expectations for what constitutes good corporate governance. It explains setting the legal foundations of an effective corporate governance framework; treating different shareholders equitably; managing investor engagement; disclosing material matters; defining the board’s responsibilities; and ensuring investor decisions contribute to business sustainability and resilience.

Although it is designed for policy-makers, it may also be helpful to legal and finance teams seeking to benchmark and understand government expectations.

Supporting Sustainability Steering Committees

Whether you call these sustainability steering committees, integration teams, leadership councils, or something else, having an internal, cross-functional group to support your company’s sustainability journey can be invaluable. In this blog, we share best practices and lessons learned for establishing and revitalising steering committees to ensure they are a well-functioning support for the business.

Transformational Governance Corporate Toolkit

This toolkit can help you to advance the maturity of your governance practices by taking a principles-based approach - one that enshrines accountability, ethics, inclusivity, and transparency as drivers of responsible conduct. It includes a governance self-assessment tool that allows you to assess your company's baseline on the spectrum of transformational governance, both with regard to their own operations as well as in relation to your partners, suppliers, downstream activities, and other external stakeholders. It also features a series of business briefs, which explore topics such as responsible governmental engagement and the role that boards and executive leaders can play in embedding transformational governance practices;

Designing Sustainability Governance: Board structures and practices for better ESG performance

This report by INSEAD can help you to understand how your board can be structured to better support sustainability. It highlights common board structures and provides a practical pathway for achieving an ideal model - one where sustainability competence and oversight are fully integrated. It also features intermediary options that can be used as stepping-stones towards embedding sustainability, and illustrates six complementary practices to enhance your governance model, such as regular updates from ESG managers and input from external specialists. This resource will be most useful to board directors, executives, and sustainability teams.

Chapter Zero

This platform was created to help non-executive directors (NEDs) ensure their companies are prepared for climate disruption and to translate net zero ambitions into measurable action. It hosts a community of NEDs and offers a free membership for NEDs looking to access events and to connect with peers and subject matter experts. It also features a knowledge hub that can help NEDs understand what credible action looks like and how to achieve it; how to implement a business transition to net zero; how to integrate climate strategy; and more.

Focus 15 Sustainability Committees: Structure and Practices

This comprehensive guide from the International Finance Corporation was created to help boards lead the oversight of their organisation's environmental and social footprint through a board-level sustainability committee. It explains the significance of sustainability for companies; the types of sustainability committees and their duties; knowledge, skills, and experience required for members; the governance process for integrating sustainability considerations with a company; sustainability committee practics and procedures; and much more. This paper will especially benefit directors and senior managers.

Future of Boards: From Box-Ticking to Sustainable Value Creation

This short report from CISL and DLA Piper highlights emerging good practices and challenges in accessing and using sustainability data for strategic decision-making to drive long-term success. The insights have also been translated into 20 key questions that can help boards to direct their companies, shape supportive government legislation, and influence markets towards a more sustainable future. This resource will be especially beneficial to board directors, senior leaders, and sustainability professionals.

Environmental and social risks and opportunities: Questions directors should ask

This short guide from CPA Canada can help boards understand their role in overseeing social and environmental risks to their organisation. It highlights a range of useful (and timeless) questions related to business model, strategy, and capital investment risks and opportunities; operational, reputational, regulatory, and legal risks and opportunities; financial impacts; the value of stakeholder relationships and engagement; internal monitoring and external reporting; and governance and oversight. It also features additional information and commentary related to these topic areas.

Climate Change and Climate Risk Oversight

Climate change is a planetary emergency that presents severe risks to businesses, society, and the global economy. No business, regardless of the sector, is immune – and businesses around the world have a key role to play to help avoid the worst impacts. This guide will help you understand the science behind climate change, why climate change matters to your business, and what actions your business can take to accelerate the transition to a net-zero, climate-resilient future.

Fiduciary Duty in the 21st Century

This report offers insight into the debate around whether or not fiduciary duty is a legitimate barrier to investors integrating sustainability into their investment processes. It was produced by Principles for Responsible Investing in collaboration with UNEP and the UN Global Compact. The report is based on interviews with over fifty investors, policy makers, lawyers, and regulators.

Guide for General Counsel on Corporate Sustainability

This guide was created as a response to a growing desire to engage lawyers more fully as sustainability champions. Developed as a joint effort between the United Nations Global Compact, Linklaters LLP, and UC Berkeley School of Law, it will help your legal professionals to better understand and integrate the core elements of sustainability, including business integrity; ESG and fiduciary duties; human rights and supply chain risk management; the role of grievance mechanisms; and ways in which businesses can respond to crisis situations.