The Definitive Guide to ESG reporting [For OneStream]
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2022
This guide will cover all the important questions around ESG reporting. If you want to improve your ESG score and guarantee the success of ESG initiatives, this guide is for you.
ESG reporting explained and why it’s important
ESG reporting is now firmly set on the CFO agenda and compliance is moving from voluntary to mandatory. The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), established at the environment conference COP 26 , is developing a global baseline of sustainability disclosures and these will become part of the IFRS framework. A tremendous promise to fulfill.
In general ESG Compliance is set around voluntary best practices and mandated requirements whereas Sustainability reports contain information about the environmental, social and governance (ESG) impacts of a specific company.
ESG Reporting enables organizations to be more open about the risks and opportunities it faces. It is becoming an important tool for stakeholders to determine whether a company is conducting responsible business practices in the long run.
The ESG reporting framework consists of three pillars:
Environmental Pillar
Social Pillar
Governance
How to obtain substantial investments with ESG reporting
Organizations with a good ESG Score typically have higher ratings in terms of reputation and carry less risk thus attracting more substantial investments. Mastering ESG reporting allows you to communicate ESG information that combined show the true value of your company to (external) stakeholders while also improving the overall management of ESG initiatives.
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Attract investors
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Streamline operations
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Mitigate risk
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Comply with regulations
How to improve the management of ESG initiatives
Why use ESG Reporting Software?
ESG reporting is challenging. From collecting data out of many sources to analysis and reporting to clear communication to stakeholders. There is typically a lot of manual work involved. Many organizations still manage ESG reporting via Excel or multiple tools but both of these approaches create a data collection, consolidation, and reporting process that’s separate from financial reporting.
Modern ESG tools will allow you to automate and streamline the ESG reporting process alongside your financial Metrics and process them as financial data. Aligning ESG reporting with the financial reporting, Consolidation and FP&A processes eliminates duplication, increases accuracy, ensures compliance and improves the overall success of ESG initiatives.
The key areas an ESG reporting tool will support:
Financial data quality
Load and validate massive numbers of financial and non-financial data such as GHG emissions, energy usage with validations and drill-down/back capabilities to source data providing ultimate auditability. Connect to any ESG Data source as needed such as ERP, CRM, Human Resource systems, and Datawarehouse Solutions.
Workflow capabilities provide the ability to certify and sign off of data within a user defined environment, bringing governance and control without sacrificing the user experience. You also have the ability to manage monthly, quarterly and yearly tasks together and present alongside the finance function.
Financial Consolidation
A unified consolidation engine aggregates your ESG data submissions quickly and provides a company-wide result. You can use the existing entity hierarchy from your financial close or extend this further. The system will also allow you to directly use and validate data against audited results from your financial application when calculating KPI’s and metrics.
This eliminates the need for manual reconciliation between systems. Combining this with financial KPI’s provides you with the insight to analyze.
Bespoke dashboard visualizations and reporting capabilities provide a deep analysis of ESG data and present with a common approach to your financial reporting packs. Produce & distribute MS PowerPoint packs, MS word docs and PDF’s.
Plan and forecast on ESG initiatives and track Actuals vs. Targets using multiple scenario capabilities. Provide variance analysis & aggregated commentary on forecasted conversion factors and perform what-if scenario modeling to understand the impact of changes. Analyze the metrics within these scenarios against budgeted & forecasted financial results to unify expectations.
ESG Frequently Asked Questions
How to increase your ESG rating with OneStream
ESG Reporting is complex and challenging because of the many moving pieces. From data collection, planning and consolidation and reporting to stakeholders.
With a modern ESG tool you can streamline the whole process, improve your ESG score and manage initiatives with confidence with the ultimate goal of attracting investments and communicating the true value of your company.
Deliver rapid insights to your stakeholders and ensure the success of ESG initiatives
OneStream Software provides an intelligent finance platform that will take your ESG solution far beyond simple reporting. It will streamline your ESG Reporting process whilst also unifying with the Office of Finance. By integrating ESG Reporting into your OneStream platform you gain control and have the ability to set your own compliance timeline for reporting requirements as they evolve globally.
OneStream enables you to fully align ESG & Sustainability reporting with the monthly financial close, consolidation, internal management and external legal reporting processes. Integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Office, automating the creation of complex documents such as board packs, presentations and regulatory filings.
AMCO Solutions can help you to leverage OneStream Software to comply with your ESG reporting requirements and bring improved control and ownership to the process to fulfill the ESG promise.
The high level steps of mastering ESG reporting with OneStream
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Integrate Data
Automate and streamline ESG data collection, validation, calculation and analysis to ensure consistency and accuracy in reporting. OneStream can connect to any source of data as well as load and validate large volumes of financial and non-financial data, such as conversion factors and ESG metrics, seamlessly. The extensive auditability of OneStream includes drill down functionality at any level of the metadata hierarchy bringing transparency to your ESG process.
Create Workflows
OneStream has extensive workflow capabilities providing the ability to certify and sign off of data within a user defined environment, bringing governance and control without sacrificing the user experience. You also have the ability to manage monthly, quarterly and yearly tasks together and present alongside the finance function.
Plan
Plan and forecast on ESG initiatives and track Actuals vs. Targets using OneStream’s multiple scenario capabilities. Provide variance analysis & aggregated commentary on forecasted conversion factors and perform what-if scenario modeling to understand the impact of changes. Analyze the metrics within these scenarios against budgeted & forecasted financial results to unify expectations. The right design to integrate with existing OneStream capabilities, like People and CAPEX Planning.
Consolidate
Leverage the OneStream’ consolidation engine to aggregate your ESG data submissions quickly and provide a company-wide result. You can use the existing entity hierarchy from your financial close or extend this further and OneStream will also allow you to directly use and validate data against audited results from your financial application when calculating KPI’s and metrics.
This eliminates the need for manual reconciliation between systems. Combining this with financial KPI’s provides you with the insight to analyze.
Report & Analyze
Bespoke dashboard visualizations and reporting capabilities provide a deep analysis of ESG data and present with a common approach to your financial reporting packs. Produce & distribute MS PowerPoint packs, MS word docs and PDF’s as well as utilizing the OneStream add-in to build ad-hoc reports within excel.
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Looking for a detailed roadmap to ESG compliance? Schedule a meeting with our ESG specialist today.
The benefits of using OneStream
ESG capabilities integrated with your financial consolidation, planning & budgeting
Set your own compliance timeline and follow up via extended monitoring capability
Leverage the consolidation engine and entity hierarchy from your financial close
Drillable data at all levels within the group structure
Bespoke and adjustable reports
Common metadata approach ensuring consistency with finance
No extra license needed for users that already have OneStream access
Extensive audit trail
Use of OneStream add-in to analyze data on the fly
Automate validation eliminating the need for manual reconciliation between systems
Multiple scenarios can be applied to enable comparison/variance analysis with emissions factors
Flexibility to make changes or additions to your requirements
Exclusive In-Person event
How can Finance help drive the ESG agenda in your organization?
OneStream and AMCO invite you to another exclusive in-person ESG event! Following a successful fully-booked event in Copenhagen last year, a repeat event will now happen in Stockholm.
When: March 30, 2023, Thursday | 13:00 to 18:30 (CET)
Where: 7A Posthuset, Stockholm, Sweden.
Join us as we uncover how finance can help drive the ESG agenda in your organization.
