There is increased pressure on organisations to feature
environmental, social and governance aspects ("ESG") in
their strategies and objectives, to manage ESG-related risks and to
report ESG matters in a transparent manner. Although regulation is
still evolving and not all companies are directly impacted by ESG
obligatory disclosure rules, there is a general expectation for
companies to commit themselves to the relevant ESG efforts. Rightly
so, companies want to be ahead of the curve on ESG, particularly
from a governance perspective and how they are responding to ESG
aspects. Failure to do so may pose reputational, financial,
regulatory and other risks.
Whilst there is no doubt that it is time for companies to invest
in their ESG strategies, it is equally important that such
strategies are executed in a structured manner. Firstly, companies
need to carry out an ESG gap analysis to obtain an understanding of
existing efforts that fall under the ESG framework. This
