Our Vision

A guided approach to creating shared value and partnerships to create impact toward the sustainable development goals.

The problem

 

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance is rapidly becoming a necessary focus for organisations internationally, of all sizes. Increased awareness of the reputational and financial risks associated with negative environmental and social impact has meant increased responsibility and pressure on organisations to develop strategies, as well as strengthen their reporting and governance systems. Beyond this, there is ever-growing evidence that companies with good ESG performance improve their financial bottom line in the current social climate, and that socially or environmentally purposed agencies optimise their impact when improving ESG performance.

However, there is a disconnect of knowledge between those tasked with developing and implementing ESG strategies and an understanding of how to create true impact through environmental, social and governance strategies. This means that many organisational ESG strategies can be perceived as a marketing exercise, rather than creating genuine value for their stakeholders… or the environment. Considering the increasing number of directives, standards and regulations concerned with ESG and sustainability performance, this could mean failing to meet ESG obligations sufficiently, which — in turn — could lead to a host of various legal, financial, reputational, social and sustainability risks.

 

An opportunity for genuine impact

 

Going beyond simple compliance, we see the huge unrealised potential for organisations to leverage their social, environmental and governance imperatives in a truly transformative manner that creates opportunities, for instance, by:

  • Maintaining and strengthening the brand and its reputation where customers will pay more for socially or environmentally sustainable products and services.

  • Attracting and retaining talent through consistent messaging that is aligned with company action, and by keeping the workforce engaged.

  • Better management of risks as the application of a robust framework leads to proactive management of risks.

  • Accurate valuations through better measuring of performance and consistent collection of data.

  • Increased efficiency through more strategic use of resources, optimisation of supply chain enabled by better data, and improved worker performance due to increased commitment and satisfaction.

  • Create new opportunities for partnerships and innovation as the NGO and public sector are actively shifting towards identifying long-term private sector partnerships with companies that are aligned to the sustainable development goals in order to optimise impact, and companies are looking to partner strategically with NGO and public sector agencies that can help them improve their ESG performance, for example, through social programming to combat child labour or other rights violations in the supply chain.

  • Increased sustainability through stronger stakeholder engagement and a net positive impact on wider society and the environment.

Many organisations do not have a dedicated ESG team at an operational level. Even though some do, those positioned in these roles may not have the background required, or the mandate from leadership, to develop strategies towards creating positive impact, rather than monitoring risks or collecting reporting data.

 

For ESG to provide genuine impact, we have developed a five step process which is based on our experience in the sector. We can help organisations follow the complete process or help with the specific activities of each step.

 

  • By their nature, environmental, social and governance performance are extremely complex topics which can take years to understand and even longer to master. As a first step to assist organisations, we offer a standalone resource package that can help ESG implementers and key stakeholders get to grips with the topic, appropriate frameworks and critical issues. This can be run as a coaching program with ESG focal points, or as a training toolbox.

  • ESG strategies need to embrace the complexity of their organisations and distil the most meaningful action. From leadership buy-in to supply chains, the cross-cutting nature of ESG means the process should start by engaging experts and key stakeholders to capture the complexity of real-world choices, dependencies, and tradeoffs in visual system maps that show how the parts fit together. Our system innovation experts help organisations do this in an efficient way, bringing with them years of experience in making sense of complex ecosystems and identifying the key gaps and priority areas to leverage change.

  • There are a range of ESG frameworks that can be chosen to apply ESG principles to your operations — there may be regulatory requirements also, depending on the sector. We help you identify the best fit for your existing systems and impact goals.

  • With an understanding of your organisation's existing ESG systems and reach, and with an appropriate framework selected, the next step is to put in place the right reporting systems and audit methods to collect baseline data, on which your ESG progress can be tracked. Outsight’s reporting expertise can help set up these systems easily and efficiently.

  • The final and most important stage of the process is to create an impact-focused ESG strategy and roadmap. This should be built on the foundational work of the previous steps and is the point at which theory is put into practice. Strategies will vary in size depending on the goals and objectives of each organisation. They can (and should) include the following:

    Engagement with your stakeholders: Engage stakeholders with discussions and analysis of complex challenges that build on visual maps to co-create desired future states and a shared roadmap to get there. Co-creation enables solutions to be adapted to their specific context but also ensures legitimacy and relevance of strategies so that performance may be meaningfully improved through an efficient process. If stakeholders feel they share ownership of a plan of action, implementation becomes much easier.

    Identify the right support: Depending on the organisation, Outsight can identify specialist agencies that can help them implement their ESG strategies. There is a range of outsourcing options to support the ESG implementers i.e. human rights in the supply chain, environmental impact, and good governance experts. Partnerships with organisations working in these spaces are essential to moving beyond just the box-ticking exercise that ESG can fall into.

    Strategy formation: Once the right stakeholder and support have been identified, Outsight helps harmonise this with the chosen regulatory and reporting frameworks to create a strategy that can be put into practice.

    Building staff capacity: Outsight can provide supporting instruction on the basics of ESG thinking and support the development of staff to engage on the topic through the use of self-assessment tools and change initiatives. Utilising this approach will enable better top-to-bottom engagement in the topic.

    Communications: It’s important to encourage sustained use of system descriptions and visuals in communications, using these tools to help expand the conversation. Interactive tools, courses, and communications materials can be built for the organisation’s customers and partners, and provide an aligned strategy for understanding and addressing the effects of complex challenges. Many companies and NGOs are striving toward sustainability, beyond simply mitigating ESG risks. Considering these organisations are the pioneers, it can be useful to put pressure on the national Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC), trade associations, relevant Ministries or task-force groups surrounding operations, to recognise good practices and raise standards for other organisations. Outsight can support by mapping the system, communications and strategies for this advocacy as well.