Project: White Paper–ESG Strategies and Reporting Standards (2022)

The Client: PwC Australia

The Brief:

Write a report/white paper on the quality of reporting on ESG (environment, social and governance) matters across Australia’s leading share market index (the ASX 200). The report should position PwC as an authority on ESG strategies and disclosure standards and attract press citations to raise the firm’s profile.

The Process/Strategy:

A group discussion of PwC’s analysis of the ASX200’s ESG reporting–what particular story did the data tell; what story did we want to use the data to tell; striking insights etc.

A second group discussion to draw out the ESG reporting themes and challenges facing ASX200 companies.

An initial outline based on these two discussions, followed by three full drafts within a managed review process.

The Output:

ESG is the 3 letter acronym that no one knew much about a few years ago. Fast forward to now, and it’s become an increasingly busy, confusing and challenging space. Initiatives across the globe, where mandatory ESG regulatory requirements continue to gather speed, see organisations driving large-scale change anchored to ESG. But how well are Australia’s ASX200 meeting expectations on key issues such as climate change, scope 3 and diversity? Now in its 3rd year, download PWC’s annual deep-dive into ESG Reporting in Australia to understand how the ASX200 are living up to (or not!) expectations in this space.

Read the white paper on PwC’s website (or click here for a pdf version).