The implementation of sustainability by organisations is often likened to a journey. This analogy is apt for many reasons, chief among them being the deliberate phasing of implementation based on priority and material areas that impact value creation over time.
Therefore, compliance should go beyond box-ticking and focus on delivering tangible value for the organisation. Making the shift beyond compliance requires the organisation to deliver a highly effective sustainability compliance programme. Some of the areas organisations should consider to achieve high, effective sustainability compliance are as follows.
An sustainability compliance should go beyond laws and regulations. It should be aligned with the organisation’s strategic objectives and priorities. Organisations should tailor their sustainability compliance to their business case for sustainability and how compliance delivers sustainable business growth for the organisation.
Organisations should leverage technology to achieve highly effective sustainability compliance. Having a technology-enabled compliance programme ensures the organisation can build efficiencies and design processes that enable a business-as-usual environment that embeds sustainability compliance.
Technology is important in the sustainability compliance agenda, spanning baselining, data management, processes, policies, and reporting.
Another aspect to consider is ensuring that sustainability compliance enhances the customer experience and fosters proactive stakeholder engagement.
Some organisations have data gaps for their sustainability compliance that need to be sourced from customers or partners across their value chain.
While organisations would need to engage their customer and partners to address these data gaps, an opportunity to enhance the customer experience and deepen relationships with partners and stakeholders.
Therefore, sustainability compliance aimed at solving data gaps are an opportunity to enhance customer experience and stakeholder engagement. Sustainability compliance needs to be predictive, preventative, proactive and detective.
The ability to move from a detective-only approach to an approach that provides organisations with insights and enables better decision-making beyond regulatory compliance. For example, sustainability risk management needs to evolve from risk monitoring and reporting to a predictive approach that supports better decision-making and anticipates risks.
Finally, organisations must invest in developing their human capital. Having the right talent equation to drive sustainability compliance is crucial to achieving an effective outcome for an organisation.
Akinyemi Awodumila is a Partner at PwC Kenya. He is an author who writes and speaks widely on corporate reporting topics
