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Advisory

It's often said that ESG is a journey. While it may sound cliché, it is true. ESG success is not about a final outcome, and ESG initiatives do not occur in a vacuum. Instead, initiatives and insights build upon one another to generate ongoing progress.

Informed by decades of experience, our ESG experts work with clients to help them identify new opportunities to fuel that progress, advance their ESG journey confidently and generate business value.

We work with them to develop robust ESG strategies that align with their core business priorities and that help build momentum year over year. These strategies empower our clients to create business value by effectively seizing opportunities and mitigating risks. What does this look like in practice? It’s the employee engagement program that boosts productivity and the emissions-reduction initiative that also cuts costs. Most importantly, it’s an avenue for progress rather than a destination — a way for companies to continuously learn, evolve and improve.

Building a well-informed, strategic roadmap

Having a solid ESG strategy is the key to driving change and making impact. Our advisory services support clients in developing and strengthening their strategies through in-depth research and sector-specific analysis.

  • ESG research and peer benchmarking allows companies to make better decisions by offering insight into their unique operating context and landscape. Our thorough research helps to identify areas of opportunity and risk for your company and considers the external ratings, rankings and regulatory requirements unique to your industry.
  • Materiality assessments empower organizations to focus their efforts by identifying the ESG topics that matter to their business and stakeholders most. When properly applied, they inform strategy, bring meaning and clarity to the reporting process and allow clients to better engage with their stakeholders. We design a customized process that incorporates best practices, including principles of double materiality. Download our white paper to learn more about our double materiality approach.
  • ESG strategy development helps organizations realize greater value by aligning ESG initiatives to their business objectives and unique operating context. We’ll work with clients to establish meaningful focus areas, aligned programming, strategic goals and metrics to track progress.

Transforming strategy into impact

Once a client’s ESG strategy and focus areas are in place, it’s time to execute that strategy across the organization. Yet, for many clients, this is a step when challenges can arise, due to limited time and resources. To support our clients’ ambitious goals, we offer services to help them get programs off the ground.

  • Program implementation and partner identification helps organizations set up their programs for success by aligning their strategy with programs, metrics and partners. We work with clients to identify and vet potential partners and implement their programs to advance ESG success.
  • Employee training helps accelerate progress by providing critical skills and knowledge on ESG topics. We work with clients to develop and deliver customized, actionable resources and tools to develop employees’ understanding and expertise and contribute to ESG progress.

Meeting investor and regulatory expectations

As clients navigate the ever-shifting landscape of ESG frameworks and disclosures, we offer support as a seasoned and knowledgeable guide. We advise what to disclose, how to present the information and what’s around the corner in the regulatory pipeline. Through this process, we help identify which frameworks, ratings and rankings make sense to a business and then coordinate the response.

  • Regulatory filings, including the annual 10-K and Proxy, now incorporate ESG discussions and data. We work with financial reporting teams to draft appropriate content and compile data.
  • Third-party ESG ratings are important, complex and time-consuming. We work with investor relations and ESG teams to discern which surveys are a priority and then coordinate the response in a spirit of continuous annual improvement.
  • Frameworks and standards provide a common reference point for external stakeholders to assess ESG performance. CRI’s ESG analysts provide expert guidance on the nuances and intentions of GRI, SASB, TCFD, the emerging ISSB and others, as well as identifying gaps and preparing responses.

The goal of our advisory services is to yield results and progress that can enhance value through targeted stakeholder communications. Learn more about our reporting services.