Embed sustainability with an ESG scorecard 

As environmental, social and governance (ESG) sustainability evolves from a nice-to-have to a critical component of your business, remember that what gets measured gets done. An ESG scorecard can embed sustainability metrics throughout your organization, translating strategic objectives into individual responsibilities. 

This is critical because sustainability is everyone’s business in the business — but few organizations cascade this responsibility beyond executive leadership. We believe that only when companies are sustainable at the core will they be equipped to achieve the goals stakeholders expect. This means embedding ESG into the scorecard and engaging people at every level.

Increasingly, sustainability is driving customer purchases, employees are seeking organizations with strong ESG goals, regulators are requiring greater public transparency, and investors and proxy advisors are pushing companies to do more.

Going above and beyond on sustainability pleases stakeholders, and it’s the right thing to do for our planet and people. What’s more, it can increase sales, lower costs, and improve employee attraction and retention — a critical advantage during talent shortages.

Despite the benefits of embracing ESG, the consensus is that organizations aren’t making positive change fast enough. Today, just 25% of executives say their companies have made inroads on ESG/sustainability initiatives.* Most organizations are doing only what’s mandatory, ensuring they’re complying with ESG regulations, but a small yet growing group of companies wants to make a greater impact instead of simply completing requisite compensation transparency exercises, they actively work to achieve internal pay equity and improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and measures.

It can be a struggle to create the right sustainability objectives and incentives. Although more than 80% of organizations say they’re focused on improving DEI, a critical part of social sustainability, only half have set formal, quantitative DEI goals and targets. And though the social facet of ESG is gaining on the previously predominant environmental focus, only about one-third of C-suite executives have targets on their personal scorecards related to good work standards (37%) and DEI (36%).

* Mercer’s Global Talent Trends 2022.

For organizations at any stage of ESG engagement, a scorecard can deliver results, guiding leaders to make more conscious sustainability-driven decisions about stakeholder engagement, focus areas, structure and governance, resource management, and metrics and funding. Focusing on these transformational components can help embed sustainability into leadership, people practices and operations.

A scorecard can also unwind traditional incentives driven by profitability and individual performance, creating budgets based on a broader range of factors, including the organization’s ability to achieve its ESG goals. To that end, ESG targets have also begun moving down the executive ladder, affecting managers and employees who are typically untouched by these objectives. 

For organizations focused on a circular economy — one that reduces the use of materials, designs products to use fewer resources, and recycles used products to manufacture new materials and products — performance and compensation outcomes might be tied to ESG metrics for various employee groups.

• Leaders can start by creating and communicating the strategy and rationale: A circular economy is an important part of ESG for the environment but also for the organization as it brings cost savings, pleases customers and attracts talent.
• The execution of the strategy extends to product managers, who are tasked with creating products designed for recycling and highly aligned with circular economy objectives.
• The sales of sustainable products can be incentivized by attractive compensation schemes to constantly increase the share of such products in the company’s revenue. 
• Service employees also have a role to play as they connect with customers to retrieve and recycle used products.