Filling In Forms for Positive Impact

My first job after my undergraduate degree was at an environmental policy think tank, where I was introduced to something that seemed very dull: disclosure frameworks and standards. When a company says for example that they are “sustainable”, “aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals”, or “net zero”, their claims need to be backed up with evidence, which usually comes in the form of filling in a ton of documents. While the accounting element of this process doesn’t appeal to me personally, I came to appreciate how important disclosure is: companies need to be held accountable on their “transition journeys” towards greater sustainability, to make sure they are not just all talk. If there is no accountability, no one knows if the money is going to positive sustainable outcomes.

In the ecosystem of disclosures, there are the companies under scrutiny, and on the other end there is a big network of stakeholders, such as government agencies, standard-setting organizations, auditors, investors, and shareholders. I want to find out what role standard-setting organizations play in this ecosystem, and so I am very grateful about the opportunity to consult for one of them. Through preliminary research, I realize that most of their work is not on developing a standard or on applying it, but on engaging with companies to encourage uptake. I find this interesting: how do you convince a profit-minded company to look away from profit towards different sources of value? In sustainability investing, while profitability remains the bottom-line, understandings of value need to be broadened towards the impact on natural environments and the sensitivity to societal and governance issues.

In an ideal world, every company would be looking at a broader criteria of “success” or “value”, but in the interim, my thinking is that companies need to be convinced that their operations will be affected by these issues: for example, through modelling scenarios of future climate or environmental risk, or public pressure of divestment from companies with poor practices. In my mind, the first step to convince companies to use a sustainability standard is to find out what they are already doing and what narrative would be compelling to them.

Part of my project is to weed through ESG reports and earning calls to extract information about what companies and investors are saying about ESG. I am excited to go behind the forms to find out what a company’s pledges are and how they talk about achieving them. No matter how esoteric or confusing these forms may seem, we must never forget that these standards exist to increase transparency, enhance accountability, and from there bring positive sustainability impact. I am looking forward to using this project to find opportunities for sustainability disclosure to be more accessible, accepted, and impactful. And on a personal level, perhaps I think filling in forms are boring (albeit important), but getting people to fill in the forms could be work that interests me.