ESG Manager

The ESG Manager has become a crucial professional figure with specific responsibilities and duties within a company. In this module, you will learn what their role is, which areas they need to handle, and which soft skills are most in demand.

1.1 The Role and Responsibilities of the ESG Manager in the Company
The ESG Manager is a professional figure increasingly in demand by companies across all industrial sectors. Not everyone can be a Sustainability Manager, nor can the position be delegated to other corporate functions. A specific identification of roles and responsibilities is needed to better define, implement, and monitor a sustainability strategy within the company.

1.2 Sustainability Strategies and Change Management
Sustainability has become a fundamental driver of development for any industrial sector and is integrated into sector strategies or individual activities. However, change management is needed, a shift in vision on the part of management in order to concretely integrate sustainability into the workplace.

1.3 The Sustainability Rating and Its Role in the Market
Financial rating agencies usually use a set of criteria to evaluate a company's sustainability, such as carbon emissions management, diversity and inclusion policies, or the presence of strong governance.​ This section addresses the topic of sustainability ratings in financial markets.

1.4 The Social Pillar: Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion
Social aspects within a company can be introduced by following ISO 26000, the international standard that has provided guidelines since 2010 on how every organization can improve its social responsibility and contribute to sustainable environmental, social, and economic development.​

The ESG Manager must have a certain set of skills to operate in the professional world with this title. The main topics and subjects that a sustainability professional needs to know are addressed here.

2.1 The SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) UN Agenda 2030
The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Goals (SDGs) are a fundamental tool for measuring, monitoring, and implementing sustainability within corporate strategies.

2.2 EU Taxonomy
The Taxonomy allows all market players (companies, investors, financiers, and customers) to have a unified definition of sustainable activity that can be used in their decision-making processes.​ A unified classification helps to better direct capital flows toward sustainable choices.

2.3 Sustainability and Disclosure: Sustainability Report and Non-Financial Statement
The sustainability report is a corporate reporting tool that assesses the economic, social, and environmental impact of an organization. It provides a detailed overview of corporate performance in terms of sustainability, including aspects such as resource use, impact on climate change, stakeholder relationship management, and the integration of ethical principles. The sustainability report helps companies monitor and transparently communicate their progress toward responsible and sustainable management.

2.4 The GRI 2021 Standards
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting has received considerable attention in recent years, which in turn has contributed to a “boom” of standards, goals, and regulations on sustainability reporting. The main reporting tools are presented.

2.5 EU Directive, the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)
CSR is a form of voluntary responsibility that companies intend to assume toward their main social interlocutors (stakeholders).​ The CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), on the other hand, aims to make non-financial disclosures by European companies clearer, more complete, and more comparable, in line with financial accounting and reporting.

The ESG Manager must know how to use certain tools in order to carry out their role in the company. The main tools and instruments useful to an ESG Manager in their daily work are addressed here.

3.1 SDG Compass, What It Is, What It's For, and How It Works
The SDG Compass is a tool that explains how the SDGs affect a company's activities, also offering instruments and insights on how to place sustainability at the core of their strategy, establishing mechanisms to measure and manage their contribution.

3.2 The Impact Report
A Benefit Corporation has in its statute a sincere will to act responsibly and over the long term in terms of sustainability, generating positive impact in the territory and on the stakeholders it deals with. To demonstrate the real impact these companies have, an impact report must be drawn up annually. ​

3.3 Circularity's Sustainability Assessment
The Sustainability Assessment is a tool for evaluating corporate Sustainability as a snapshot of current performance against each Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). With this tool, you obtain your level of understanding and real integration of sustainability within your company, and an improvement plan is suggested to achieve the set objectives.

3.4 SDGs Action Manager Tool and B Impact Assessment
The most widely used external standard for impact assessment of Benefit Corporations is the B Impact Assessment by B-Lab, an international non-profit organization founded in 2006 that promotes the social impact economy.

3.5 Supply Chain: Certifications and Guidelines
When a company makes the strategic choice to carry out an ESG assessment, partial or complete, of the supply chain, it must define how to perform it.​ It can choose a Partial approach (assessment of a single criterion chosen by the company) or a Complete one (overall assessment of ESG topics).