Making the planet your stakeholder for a sustainable future

ESG has quickly become a pertinent topic, especially with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) coming into play.

This and the many issues around society, climate change and cooperation set the stage for the ESG Autumn Summit, which took place in the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel on Thursday, November 9.

The entire day saw a heavily engaged audience make the most of the occasion, with many questions asked of the various practitioners and experts speaking on the day.

Shay Cloherty, managing director of iQuest Ltd, welcomed everyone to the summit, as did the summit chair Joe Lynam, broadcaster and business editor for Newstalk.

Lynam set the scene by highlighting the many recent events caused by climate change, including major flooding, heatwaves, and wildfires, saying, “ESG policies couldn’t be more relevant today.”

The opening keynote focused on the climate and everything emergency and had John Gibbons, climate change journalist and commentator, delivering a sober talk. He clarified what was at stake and how important it was for the world to act now.

“These are special and consequential times that we live in,” he said. “The targets and goals are complex, but a simple way of thinking about them is pain theory: how much pain do you want? The way to think about this is that three paths lie ahead: mitigation, adaptation, or suffering.”

Continuing this was Derarca Dennis, partner at EY, who looked at the preparation needed for the future of mandatory ESG disclosures. Discussing the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, she said the good news is that this topic is being looked at worldwide.

“What’s different about the CSRD in Europe is the stakeholder is the whole community, not just your investors, and that’s very different,” she said. “That creates different dynamics and exposure for your company.”

Next was a practitioner’s perspective on sustainability strategy development and reporting, delivered by Geoff Dooley, head of sustainability services at Antaris Consulting. For example, he brought up AstraZeneca’s approach as a good benchmark for sustainability reporting and stated that organisations need to make the business case for sustainability; otherwise, it won’t stick.

“What AstraZeneca did is not just provide guidelines but minimum requirements,” he explained. “If you want to be one of their suppliers, you must have an emissions trajectory that aligns with the 1.5°C Paris Climate Accord commitment.

“Sustainability is being positioned as a licence to operate, so we have to make the compelling business case.”

After the first of many Q&As with speakers, the focus went on to the role of double materiality – referring to how information disclosed by a company can be material, both in how it impacts the company’s financial value as well as its impact on the world – and how it ties into sustainability reporting.

Dee Moran, FCA, professional accountancy lead at Chartered Accountants Ireland, and Mike O’Halloran, FCA, technical manager of advocacy and voice department for Chartered Accountants Ireland, took the stage to discuss this topic.

When asked about the 1,100 data points and 85 disclosure requirements the CSRD covers, Moran said that not all data points will apply to every industry and won’t all have to be covered.

“Data points on climate will be important for all. For some, certain social ones will be more important for particular sectors,” she said.

While CSRD came up numerous times throughout the day, Maureen O’Donnell, BWR Mark (Business Working Responsibly) manager for Business in the Community, gave an overview of it and CSDDD and how the latter is going to make businesses change through actions and consequences for not following it.

Before the coffee break, Enda Gunnell, chief executive of Pinergy, spoke about strategies for improved sustainability reporting, the large role microgeneration can play, and how much solar has taken hold on the island.

“Microgeneration is here to stay,” he said. “We’ve made huge progress in allowing and facilitating solar PV generation. Before, I would have said Ireland is a wind country, but that’s changing. We’re still at the point where 1 per cent can generate their own power, but that is growing weekly.”

Engaged streams

For the late morning, the summit broke up into three sessions. Stream one focused on ESG data challenges and was chaired by Brian O’Kennedy, chief executive of Clearstream Solutions.

Stream two looked at setting up an effective sustainability reporting programme, chaired by Joe Lynam.

The final stream discussed the path to sustainability for SMEs and was chaired by Sarah Blake, sustainability consultant for Earthology.

Afterwards, all three gave a round-up of their respective streams.

Stream one began with a look at the ESG data journey and the most challenging issues. This featured Aebhín Cawley, chief executive and founder of Scott Cawley; Brian Kennedy, CFA, senior global equity portfolio manager at Mediolanum International Funds Ltd(MIFL); and Dave O’Shaughnessy, partner at EY.

Next up was a panel on collecting high-quality Scope 3 data and embedding circularity in supply chains, bringing together Geoff Dooley, head of sustainability services at Antaris Consulting; Ken Mulkerrins, group head of innovation & sustainability for Kilsaran Group; Les O’Reilly, managed services country lead for HP Ireland; and Marion Briggs, vice-president of Alliance to Zero.

Summing it up, O’Kennedy commended both panels for being intriguing and highlighted a central point where nature was described as the silent stakeholder on these issues.

The second stream started with Maria Diffley, co-founder and director of SustainIQ, discussing six steps to identify and plug gaps in a company’s ESG reporting.

Following this was a panel discussion on providing practical advice on producing sustainability reports that stakeholders can trust. This brought together Dr Maria Kirrane, head of sustainability & climate action at University College Cork; Emer Keaveny, partner at EY; John Curran, managing director of Blue Planet Consulting; and Nicola Woods, chief technology officer of An Post.

Curran mentioned the strong audience participation in each panel, highlighting the importance of identifying stakeholders and demonstrating how you’ve rigorously gone through your ESG process.

The third and final stream on sustainability for SMEs began by discussing how collaboration between large enterprises and SMEs is a win-win for the planet.

Liz Waters, chief executive of Watershed Group; Paul Monaghan, group head of sustainability at Mannok; and Paul Murphy, climate action solutions lead at Climeaction, took part in this discussion.

That stream finished up by providing concrete measures to help SMEs on their sustainable transition, on which Alexa Toomey, head of sustainability, renewable energy and agtech at Enterprise Ireland; Darragh Blake, banking and finance partner at Eversheds Sutherland LLP (Ireland); Denise Bell, director of Bell Lane Coffee Ltd; and Philip Connor, head of energy services at Pinergy, gave their thoughts.

Blake mentioned how the themes of collaboration and data were primary considerations throughout each panel and how framing problems as opportunities is a good takeaway.

Change is always possible

With Lynam welcoming everyone back after lunch and the three stream moderators giving their takes, it was back to the final run of panels.

The first panel looked at future-proofing your business with B Corp certification, which began with a presentation from James McManus, director of B Lab Ireland. He was later joined in a panel discussion with Louise O’Connor, CSR strategist for Strong Roots, and Mary Gray, marketing director of Urban Volt.

Addressing concerns about revenue growth, McManus mentioned that those B Corp companies that looked after their stakeholders, which included employees, the community and more, saw an average revenue growth rate of 22 per cent.

The final panel of the day looked at communicating and engaging with stakeholders and included Jonathan Carr, client director of Havas Genus; Lorraine Fitzgerald, head of sustainability at Glenveagh Properties PLC; Margot Slattery, global head of diversity, inclusion and belonging at ISS World Services; and Sylvia Coldrick, chief risk officer for Liberty Insurance.

Slattery mentioned how, in ESG, the social and governance parts tend to be overshadowed by the environmental issues, saying that to her, the social element is the impact on the business, the community and the ecosystem. Likewise, Carr mentioned that how you engage with those stakeholders is crucial and makes a huge difference in the long run.

When asked for their closing remarks, the message was that it’s never too late to change, and to see this as an opportunity to innovate and do things differently. That approach will have to carry businesses forward worldwide if the globe is to meet its climate responsibilities.