What are the costs and how can they be minimised? Are there any benefits to ESG Reporting?

The first thing that we’d say after many years of working with companies to improve their sustainability performance, is that the process often works out to be cost neutral, and can even be a benefit to your bottom line. We know that this might sound counterintuitive but it’s true.

The BIG question is how far will you take the process?

ESG as Only a Reporting Process

Many companies approach ESG reporting as another compliance issue and is seen largely as a cost and possibly as an opportunity to review their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities.

Uncover your Blind Spots

ESG reporting makes you look into things that you have probably been ignoring or have put in the too hard basket. It uncovers your organisational ‘blind spots’ and these are often areas of excessive or unnecessary costs. ESG reporting also helps you align your entire organisation more efficiently and encourages your work force and suppliers to more actively engage with what you do… in both cases, this often saves money and improves quality.

The intention of the CSRD and ESRS is to encourage behavioural change in the way organisations operate. The ideals of the Circular Economy underlie all of the reporting criteria and defined indicators – these ideals are proving to be good for business as they help you identify unnecessary costs and waste, as well as enhance value through broader engagement with your value chain, communities, customers and end-users.

ESG Report Pro is Designed to Save You Money

So, the potential fear of a big cost is the ESG reporting system itself, how to set it up? How to manage it? And how to report it? That’s what ESG Report Pro is designed to minimise – a system that will guide your company through the ESG reporting process and if you need someone to give your team advice, then there are affordable consultants as well.

Having been in this field for many years, the thing we’re most afraid of is that ESG reporting becomes the territory of the big, expensive accounting firms… so although ESG Report Pro can be used by large companies, it will be just as useful to SMEs. Actually, it needs to be, as we mentioned at the start, the emphasis on the whole up and down stream value chain in the ESRS means that someone will probably come knocking on your door even if you are a micro-enterprise.

In summary, and without your staff costs, ESG software will cost upwards of $12,000 in the first year and as much as $160,000. Routine updates and management will mean an ongoing costs are unlikely to be less than 50% of your first year cost.

ESG Report Pro has been designed and built by business owners, which is why we do not charge per site and per user. Also, we want to see you integrating ESG value creation throughout your business, so we believe that every staff member should be part of your ESG reporting process, thus saving dedicated staff.