(D06) Moving from Effort to Effect: Perspectives from the front lines on ESG reporting and strategy implementation beyond checking the box

There have been increasingly urgent critiques of the incrementalist measurements characterizing sustainability reporting to date. These critiques have spilled over to the ‘S’ of ESG, with reporting agencies now evaluating or requiring specific, impact-driven metrics specific to social impact. The recent release of the updated Sustainable Development Performance Indicators (SDPI) by the UNRISD, which provides indicators for assessing organizational performance in the context of sustainability thresholds, has been called ‘a major inflection point’ and has potential implications for reporting on the human, social aspects.
Given the spotlight on ESG, there is now growing concern around effort versus effect – or “checking the box” versus substantive impact measured through key performance indicators and metrics. Join our panel of experts to discuss key topics such as: What does measuring effect vs effort mean for reporting agencies, clients, and stakeholders? What is a context indicator, and how is it linked to measuring impact? How can organizations align internal impacts such as health and performance with community impact through measurement and metrics? The panel includes speakers from: JLL: a global real estate organization on creating sustainability strategies for commercial real estate owners and occupiers, Moodys: a global reporting agency on impacts of thresholds and contexts for current reporting standards, SEAM: a non-profit on the challenges of designing a social equity measurement framework to capture impact to stakeholders and progress towards societal thresholds, and International WELL Building Institute (IWBI): a global health and well-being organization on how their new framework for measuring health and well-being for human and social capital can align different reporting streams. The panel will include practical tools and strategies to enable organizations to distinguish their reporting activities from effort vs effect, setting them up to meet upcoming challenges in stricter metrics and reporting for ESG.