We recently held a webinar with Financial Training Consultant, Mike Sarwar, who spoke all about ESG reporting and how this impacts an organisation.

Event panellists

Jeremy Smith - Head of Banking and Finance, Kaplan

Jeremy started city-based training back in 1998. He has since built a strong reputation in the industry as an exceptional trainer, course designer and manager of clients, staff and products. You can read more about Jeremy on our Insights blog.

Mike Sarwar - Financial Training Consultant

Mike specialises in delivering highly interactive training that challenges established thought-processes and behaviours in financial reporting and business matters. His expertise encompasses two main areas: building management, commercial, and financial skills, as well as providing technical financial reporting and audit training.

Mike taught a wide range of subjects across ACA, ACCA, and CIMA professional exams for 15 years before transitioning to professional training for public and private sector clients. His dual role involved developing and delivering technical financial reporting courses and enhancing the business performance of sponsoring entities through commercial and financial training for non-accountants.

Key topics discussed

ESG course and in-house training

Starting the session, Jeremy touches upon the Sustainable Investing Certificate and the distance learning product that’s available at Kaplan. He explains the benefits of this certification and how it’s a great qualification to get you started in ESG.

He continues by highlighting the in-house training that’s available for business. This is where we create specific, bespoke courses based on requirements for the client. These can be held online or in-person.

What is ESG?

Mike Sarwar takes control of the discussion, starting with an explanation of what ESG is. The open conversation between Mike, Jeremy and the guests dives further into what ESG means for an organisation and how it should be approached.

Mike explains that ESG should be considered as a cultural shift in reporting, and not just a ‘check-list approach’ for a business. He raises questions about what ESG means in a day-to-day environment within an organisation, and the importance of being responsible and thoughtful while working to create a sustainable organisation.

ESG drivers and sources of law

Mike talks about the international effort and the enormous landscape that is ESG, and how it can become easy to feel inundated with information and confusion as to what drives ESG.

He suggests to ask yourself, “what are we trying to do with ESG?” He explains that the key driver is that we want businesses that exist today to continue to exist in years to come. This essentially means that they need to be sustainable in all areas aside from environmentally, such as through their products and services, reputation and workforce.

ESG as part of an organisation’s core strategy

Again, Mike talks about how organisations can work to be sustainable. He explains that ESG should be integrated within a business’ strategy, rather than an add-on. He discusses how we need to rethink and re-evaluate how a business operates, and how ESG can’t be disjointed with a business’ strategy or it won’t work.

ESG potential pitfalls

This is where the seven sins of ESG come in. Mike views this as the ‘red flags’ within the organisations rather than the topic of ESG itself. He emphasises that ESG needs to be integrated into the day-to-day reporting of a business, as without this it won’t work like it needs to.

He dives deeper into this by focusing on ways in which an organisation can integrate ESG into the business strategy by drawing upon points that showcase the common misconceptions among companies when dealing with the management of ESG issues.

These points include:

• Excessive focus on ratings - A company that focuses exclusively on improving ratings is at risk of allocating more resources to checking boxes rather than developing a strong strategy.
• Treating ESG as only a communications effort - Communications can’t substitute for a robust management system.
• Lack of board and management oversight - The ESG management strategy should be a core part of the business’ values. This includes the involvement of the board and senior management.
• Disconnect from business strategy - ESG fails to serve its purpose when it doesn’t work with the company’s strategic objectives.
• Compliance-oriented approach - Focusing only on compliance with rules and regulations can make ESG management appear as reactive rather than the will to go above and beyond minimum requirements.
• Inconsistencies across the firm - The lack of a company-wide strategy can leave significant gaps in the business’ ESG management programmes.

Ready to learn more?

At Kaplan, we offer in-house bespoke training for clients, and the Sustainable Investing Certificate which is available to purchase online.

But if you’re still not sure whether this is the best course for you, discover our free 7-day trial of the Sustainable Investing Certificate.