ESG Report

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What is an ESG Report?

An ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Report or Sustainability Report is a report published by a company or organization about environmental, social and governance impacts made by said Organization, directly or indirectly.

By sharing these reports, Organizations can be more transparent about the risks and opportunities they face. It is, essentially, a public communication tool to aid in convincing sceptical observers that the company’s actions and their sincerity.

Environmental, Social and Governance information includes a broad range of issues, for example: greenhouse gas emissions, energy, water and waste management/recycling, biodiversity (environmental), health and safety, diversity and inclusion, human rights, data security, selling practices, product safety (social) and business ethics and culture (governance).

Sustainability reporting is an ideal and effective means of enabling Organizations to share a single source answer about a wide variety of questions that stakeholders may raise.


When is an ESG Report Published?

There is no established regulation about the timeline of the ESG Report publication. Typically, most Organizations publish their ESG Reports around the same time as their Annual Reports.

Organizations may also choose to publish their ESG Reports or specific ESG related analyses before major projects are kicked off so as to pre-emptively highlight mitigation steps about potential risks and damages the new project may cause.

How to prepare an ESG Report?

There have been 2 main formats for ESG Reporting, based on:

  1. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)

  2. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)


In March 2022, the IFRSF and the GRI announced a collaboration agreement under which their respective standard-setting boards, the ISSB and the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), will seek to coordinate their work programmes and standard-setting activities to enhance interoperability between reporting on enterprise value to meet the needs of capital markets and reporting on impacts to stakeholders more broadly.

On 31 March 2022, the ISSB published exposure drafts (EDs) proposing its first two standards:

  • IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability related Financial Information

  • IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures


Worldwide adoption of the ISSB standards is needed to achieve true harmonization, to replace the alphabet soup of voluntary standards and frameworks.

The standards could be developed as building blocks: global standards could provide a globally consistent baseline of information reported to capital markets that can be supplemented with additional requirements to reflect jurisdictional public policy priorities.


More about GRI

Global Reporting Initiative


  • International organization for independent standards

  • It issues GRI standards for companies to report non-financial information.

  • These standards help businesses identify impacts on climate change, the environment, human rights, and corporate governance.

  • The most widely-used standards among global corporations

  • Standards are non-mandatory and non-binding; however, the proposed Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the forthcoming mandatory European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) are based on the GRI structure

  • ESRS is a set of standards (analogous to IFRS) companies must comply with when reporting sustainability information.

  • Via high quality reporting (GRI), organizations are able to better understand, communicate, and manage their contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG).

  • There are 3 types of standards to be reported:

    • Universal - Disclosure is mandatory

    • Sector - Industry specific disclosure

    • Topic - Project specific disclosure


  • A major highlight of the GRI Reporting format is that the published report has to highlight what is not being reported by the Organization in that report.


More about IFRS ESG Reporting

The IFRS Foundation Trustees published a consultation paper in September 2020 to determine:

  • whether there is a need for global sustainability standards;

  • whether the IFRS Foundation should play a role in developing such standards;

  • and what the scope of that role could be.

Feedback to the consultation confirmed an urgent need for global sustainability reporting standards and support for the Foundation to play a role in their development.


The IFRS is a framework for reporting environmental and social related information with a focus on business model, policies, diligence, outcome, principal risks and mitigation, relevant non-financial key performance indicators.

It includes:

  • Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) & International Reporting (IR):

Quantifying and reporting outward ESG impact and risks of an Organization's performance across 77 Industrial standards


  • Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD):

11 recommended disclosures divided into 4 pillars:

    • Governance

    • Strategy

    • Risk Management

    • Metrics & Targets


  • Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB):

International consortium of Business and environmental NGOs, hosted by CDP; guided by 7 key priniciples about Environmental and Social information reporting.

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