Insights

It’s investor ESG assessment season. We support many of our clients to maximise their ESG assessment scores. While each assessment differs slightly, there are five key actions you can take to boost your rating. 1. Get your policies documented First, check what you have in place against our Policy Checklist . Draft new policies as needed. Alternatively, create a standalone ‘Summary of ESG Policies’ document. This will summarise your existing policies and help close any gaps. 2

Creating an effective Environment Policy is essential for any business aiming to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability. This document not only outlines your environmental practices but also serves as a tool for communication with stakeholders. Key ingredients for an effective Environment Policy Name your policy an Environment, Energy and Climate Change Policy Some investors inquire specifically about a Climate Change Policy or an Energy Policy. However, these are pri

We’ve talked before about the predictable stages of a company’s ESG journey (see our previous blog ) and how each stage underpins the next but how do you go about approaching this in the right way? How to develop an ESG strategy without diving in and creating a full ESG strategy?     The pressure to demonstrate ESG commitments is coming from investors, regulators, customers and often employees as well but rushing into developing an ESG strategy can lead to wasted time, ineff

We don’t take on all work. Part of the joy of working for a boutique consultancy is the ability to pick and choose the projects that we want to work on. After over six years of doing this we’ve come to closely understand which projects bring us the most joy and which add the most value to our clients. This is the sweet spot we focus on. If you meet one or more of the criteria below, that probably isn’t you. That doesn’t mean we don’t deviate from this from time-to-time but it

Investors and large business clients routinely ask their portfolio and supply chain partners to provide ESG metrics. They do this so that they can understand your business from a risk and opportunity perspective. They want to know where you might cause actual environmental or social harm (and thus potentially brand harm for them), and where you might be doing something positive that they can capitalise on. Whilst unfortunately there are no standard metrics that they ask for,

ESG (environment, social and governance) legislation is increasingly common these days but the burden of this is heavily weighted to the largest of companies. Micro and small companies are safe from any requirements but this changes as a UK company nears 250 employees or £36m turnover, when they need to prepare for five key pieces of ESG legislation. Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) In scope companies are individually, or part of a Group that has: 250+ employees, or £4

Policies are formal statements on how a company operates. They don’t reflect aspirations but the truth behind how you function on a day-to-day basis.  They are an extension of, and should reflect, your company values. For large companies, policies are crucial to ensure everyone works in the same way. For smaller companies, with a tighter culture, they may feel unnecessary, but having these policies in place can be a key differentiator in unlocking investment funding. At Rawst

For small and growth companies starting out on their environment, social and governance (ESG) journey it can be hard to know what to do, in what order, and what to delay until the company has grown more. We’re always working with private equity portfolio companies, and we know what they expect from their portfolio companies. We also know what ESG rating schemes (e.g. MSCI, Sustainalytics, ISS, etc.) evaluate company ESG performance on. Put these together, and if you want to a

Here we help you in understanding ESG and sustainability industry jargon. If you have a term or acronym you'd like explained, let us know at info@rawstoneconsulting.co.uk ESG rating schemes. ESG rating schemes are third party assessors of company environment, social and governance (ESG) approaches. Their assessments are used by investors to aid in their evaluation of potential investee companies. There are numerous ESG rating schemes, and different investors will use differe

The following is an article I was recently asked to write for the Chartered Governance Institute. You can read the original version here . The ESG reporting context is a complex space that’s no longer only relevant to the largest companies. Here are six things every company needs to know: ESG is CR is CSR is sustainability. Environment, social and governance (‘ESG’) is a company’s approach to managing sustainability, i.e. the broader and longer-term impacts of your business.

Quick wins to ensure a respectable starting ESG rating scheme score upon IPO.

A lot of time and effort can go into responding to ESG rating schemes. How do you know which one(s) to focus your efforts on?

Gain entry to the FTSE4Good as a way to cement your company's sustainability credentials and attract investors. This blog shows you how.