Your environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy might just pave the way to growth for your business.
ESG initiatives are increasingly important for businesses in terms of client values and acting ethically. However, tracking and reporting on ESG objectives may also be the key to achieving efficiency and optimised business performance – crucial drivers of growth.
Setting the right goals
ESG is a wide-ranging term which covers many activities, from supporting a charity to taking your office paperless.
It is important that you set goals which make a material difference, but which are also attainable within your business strategy and budget.
Before setting ESG goals, identify areas of your business where efficiencies could be introduced or improved and try to align your objectives with these areas.
For example, if you want to go paperless, consider investing in a document management portal to more efficiently and securely share information.
Tracking key metrics
To accurately introduce ESG initiatives into your reporting, you need to collate and analyse the right data.
For inclusion in your regular financial reporting, this means data relating to cost, efficiency-related savings and the real impact of your initiatives.
Adopting new technologies may allow you to automate the collection and processing of this data into a report on your ESG affairs, further reducing costs which can be reinvested in growth.
Reporting your findings
Integrating ESG metrics and progress into your financial reporting is both an efficient way of seeing how you are performing and measuring the impact of these initiatives on your overall efficiency, productivity and profitability.
This will show you:
- The cost of your ESG initiatives and any return on investment (ROI)
- Areas where ESG has made your business more efficient
- Areas where your processes could be improved and made more ESG-friendly
- Regulatory compliance and areas for improvement
- Projects for ROI on long-term risk management
With further analysis, you can also highlight any positive trends in brand reputation and talent retention that has resulted from engaging with ESG – creating additional space to invest in growth.
This is where we come in, helping you to identify key metrics and keeping track of them alongside your day-to-day finances.
For example, we can help you streamline the time spent on administrative tasks within your business and guide you on implementing a document management system – one designed to introduce efficiencies and save you time and money.
Your accountant is ideally placed to support you with ESG reporting, with access to and insight into your business operations, financial situation and long-term goals. If ESG is a priority for you, make sure to get us involved.
Need to discuss your business growth with the experts? Contact our team today.
