Set your targets and avoid greenwashing accusations
IR Magazine caught up with Tish Crawford-Jones, IR director at Q4, to discuss why companies sometimes struggle to deliver a compelling story and what they can do to improve during the IR Magazine ESG Integration Forum – Europe 2022.
How can companies correctly set their ESG targets and how to avoid greenwashing accusations?
‘Don’t get too carried away with what the market is doing,’ she told IR TV [link]. ‘There is so much out there that you need to report on these days; don’t get too carried away with what your peers are doing as well.
‘Although it is very good to be able to do a peer analysis, every company is slightly different. So, it’s really important to be able to understand what is material to you to your company and then to work from that framework.’
While understanding the company’s long-term objectives and building an ESG strategy in line with those objectives is crucial, ensuring the target audience engages with the company’s narrative is even more important.
For Crawford-Jones, companies need to bear in mind that there are two different ‘pools of stakeholders’.
‘You’ve got your internal stakeholders and therefore, having ESG as part of your business strategy is going to be the most important thing. And then you have your external stakeholder base, which is fundamentally the investors. So how are you going to make sure you are communicating that [ESG strategy] correctly?’
To find out more about the ESG Integration Forum – Europe and watch the replay, click here.
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