Many people ask me what changes to expect over the next few years in corporate disclosure of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics. In the past, corporate ESG disclosures have been scattered, inconsistent, and confusing. Please don’t blame company sustainability managers for these problems! The first generation of sustainability metrics has been driven by self-reported data plus hundreds of surveys and ratings from Wall Street ESG research firms, not-for-profit advocacy groups, government agencies, and academic researchers.

Although reporting takes time and costs money, and many of the available metrics have been hard to use, sustainability data has been producing net value. Now, a second generation of more rigorously defined metrics is being developed by both government-related and non-governmental organizations. Implementing these new standards will require company sustainability managers to learn new tools and methods of data analysis.

Read the full article by Bahar Gidwani