ESG governance: questions boards should ask to lead the sustainability transition

Companies’ stakeholders from investors to citizens increasingly demand better sustainability performance and disclosures from businesses. Policymakers and regulators are also introducing new legislation on companies’ sustainability obligations and value chains.

Company boards need to prepare for their enhanced sustainability obligations. This document, issued by Accountancy Europe, ecoDa and ECIIA, aims to help boards with embedding sustainability – and specifically environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors – into company strategy and business models, and to ensure that proper governance supports this. It is based on exchanges with specialists from the 3 organisations and interviews.

This document is innovative in that it proposes a whole set of questions that structure the thinking of board members around sustainability and turns it from a buzzword to a concrete reality. It sets out practical questions to consider in their efforts on ESG, sustainability transition planning, delivery on sustainability objectives and limiting greenwashing risks.

ESG governance: questions boards should ask to lead the sustainability transition– publication and summary.