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Solar Panels in Mountains

Case Studies: Sustainability Statement

Communicating a clear commitment to sustainability

A small, US-based manufacturing company that was founded on the principles of environmental and social responsibility, needed to effectively communicate its commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance to customers, employees, and prospective investors. The team performed a structured process of discovery, materiality assessment, and developed an ESG statement that reflected the current ESG performance of the company, while mapping out a vision forward.  

Industry

Scope

Timeline

Manufacturing

 Sustainability / Governance / Materiality Assessment

Two months 

Impact

The development of an ESG statement, which is the first critical step to a net positive business.

Client

The client was a small, US-based manufacturing company that served customers in the B2B and B2C sectors.

Business Need

The client wanted to expand its customer base to include companies committed to sustainability or sustainable procurement policies, as well as gain new sustainability-minded investors.

Challenges

Several challenges made communicating the company's commitment to sustainability difficult:

 

  • Absence of a formal vision: A shared vision and articulation of its purpose-driven foundation did not exist. To better portray its culture and principles to customers and prospective investors, the client needed to develop a formal vision that aligned with its core values and business model, as well as a sustainability statement that would resonate with stakeholders.

 

  • Deficient sustainability-focused messaging: Although sustainability was integrated into corporate culture and employees were values-aligned, the client did not incorporate this commitment into its branding or external messaging, resulting in no one outside the organization being aware of it.

 

  • Lack of peers: As a small company with a unique product and value proposition, the client did not have a clear group of competitors, making benchmarking their existing sustainability efforts challenging.

Solution

The team utilized a three-phase process to harness the client's core values and vision, which included a discovery, materiality assessment, and an ESG statement. 

 

  • The Discovery: The team gathered information and garnered input related to core business objectives, company mission and vision, competition, and strategic plan. This provided the context to formulate a near-term plan of execution, while keeping the longer-term goals of the company in mind.  

 

  • The Materiality Assessment: This began with an intentional stakeholder mapping process that identified and ranked stakeholder groups. Once stakeholders were identified, a set of survey tools were created to capture input and feedback on various components of the company’s ESG performance.  

 

  • The ESG Statement: This was drafted to reflect: 1) the company’s ethos and clear commitment to ESG; 2) a shared language that was understood and valued across stakeholders; and 3) commitments the company made to continuous ESG improvement. 

Outcomes

  • As a result of the team's assessments and advisory services, the client was left well positioned to: 

 

  • Expand its customer base: Targeting new customers with commitments to sustainability, sustainable procurement policies, and/or commit a percentage of their annual spending to vendors with strong ESG.

 

  • Raise capital: Approaching sustainability- and ESG-minded investors. 

 

  • Create a scalable company culture: Fully reflecting the company's values and commitment to sustainability.

 

  • Leverage a new tagline: Strong messaging emerged as a result of refining its ESG vision and language. 

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