ESG governance

Boards have responsibilities to steer their organization toward sustainability and ensure the ESG information under their oversight is appropriate, reliable and compliant.

While plenty of guidance and information exists, standards and regulations addressing specific areas of responsibility and reporting continue to evolve. Governance covers a wide variety of issues including risk management and internal controls, data harvesting and data breaches, executive remuneration, board diversity and competences as well as shareholder rights.

• How are you ensuring that your governance structure and roles are clearly defined to deliver on your long-term ESG ambitions?
• How is your ESG governance integrated into decision-making to support your business strategy?
• How are you improving the quality and transparency of your reporting to reflect your governance standards? How are you proactively ensuring continuous compliance with evolving ESG regulations?
• How does your governance contribute to reinforcing a strong brand position among key stakeholders, including suppliers, clients, financial markets, and employees?
• Do all employees understand their accountabilities to the organization’s ESG commitments? Is robust governance embedded within your organizational culture?

• Setting the foundation for ESG governance: Assessing the organization’s governance response and provide entity level guidance regarding ESG matters including: ESG Strategy, Board composition, committee structure, policy management, Internal Audit role, Executive compensation, ESG integration with Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), data security, etc.
• Determining internal controls for ESG reporting: Assessing management’s ESG governance and its ability to evidence reliability and repeatability of data and information being reported based on mature processes and effective internal controls.
• Operationalizing ESG through internal audit: Identification of compliance or consulting internal audits to review the organization’s operationalizing of ESG, including sustainable supply chain, food safety, HR and culture reviews, ESG regulatory compliance, etc.
• Comprehensive risk management: Determining where ESG fits within an organization’s ERM program, and how is it integrated and managed with other corporate risks.
• Validating ESG data: Enhancing the validation process for management's ESG calculations to build greater trust and confidence in your reporting. Note: This does not replace any required 3rd party assurance that may have independence requirements.

KPMG understands that a focus on governance can underpin the success of the broader ESG strategy by ensuring that both the people and policies are fit for purpose. Our cross-functional team or accounting, business consulting, legal, technology and data professionals can help you ensure greater accountability, more effective decision making, and stronger compliance throughout your entire organization.