Is the role of the corporate chief sustainability officer at a crossroads?

According to the renowned Business for Social Responsibility’s latest report, it is. The report is based on detailed interviews with chief sustainability officers in 31 companies worldwide and represents 30 years of combined experience in responsible business from the report's authors.

To discuss the future of companies’ Chief Sustainability Officer, Richard Howitt welcomes Laura Gitman, one of the report’s co-authors and Chief Impact Officer at Business for Social Responsibility. BSR is the world's oldest sustainability consultancy, and is currently working with a network of 300 businesses.

In today’s Frankly Speaking episode, you will hear more about:

• How has the profession evolved in the last 15 years

• The turbulences that companies and Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) have been facing

• If CSOs are really burnt-out?

• The potential of CSOs to drive the business beyond compliance

• The future of sustainability leadership within companies

... and more!

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How can and should you address entity-specific reporting?

What does a company do when something it thinks is important for its sustainability doesn't fit into a standardised reporting framework in the language of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)?

Today in Frankly Speaking, Richard Howitt is joined by Piotr Biernacki who has been involved in the ESRS right from the beginning in 2020, first as a member of the Project Task Force and now as a member of EFRAG’s Technical Expert Group. Piotr is also ESG Reporting Fellow at Materiality, working with listed companies on sustainability reporting in Poland.

You’ll hear more about:

• What are entity-specific disclosures and why extra information may be necessary for some companies

• Piotr's advice when conducting ones materiality assessment and how to know that an issue is to be reported as an entity-specific information

• How there's still room for companies to tell their sustainability stories in their reports without compromising quality data

• How challenges companies face now regarding the ESRS will diminish over time

• The state of sustainability reporting and sustainability performance of companies in Poland

... and more!

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Will there be a just transition?

How far does the climate crisis affect workers and businesses and what needs to be done about it?

Today in Frankly Speaking, Richard Howitt welcomes Jason Judd, executive director of Cornell's Global Labor Institute.

They recently produced a set of 25 social indicators which it believes are measurable and impactful, and which can give certainty to social issues and corporate sustainability reporting. The Institute has also produced research on the impact of extreme weather events on the apparel or fashion industry to understand the real scale of change which is confronting us.

You’ll hear more about:

• What are the impacts of extreme heat or flooding on workers in the apparel sector
• What does it mean in practice and what are the needed investments in climate adaption
• The path for due diligence in the US and in the rest of the world
• How to measure supply chain due diligence and labour metrics
• What would happen for sustainability if Kamala Harris wins?

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