ESG Strategy

Supporting clients to develop strategies that accelerate pathways to sustainable performance.

Services Case Studies Insights Team Contact Us

In an era where companies are increasingly assessed not only by their financial performance but also by their commitment to sustainability, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategies have become paramount. An effective ESG strategy is more than a compliance checkbox; it is a roadmap for creating lasting value, mitigating risks, and positively impacting the world. At Anthesis, we specialise in guiding organisations towards the development and implementation of robust ESG strategies using a proven approach for prioritising issues, identifying risks and highlighting opportunities.

Anthesis works across sectors and can help businesses, investors, and financial institutions to formulate and execute ESG strategies that align with business objectives and societal expectations. Our strategic approach, backed by extensive industry knowledge, ensures that ESG initiatives not only comply with standards but also contribute to long-term resilience and positive change.

ESG strategy services

Developing a tailored ESG strategy begins by assessing your current ESG performance, maturity, and approach, as well as prioritising your most relevant ESG-related impacts, risks, and opportunities. This foundational understanding allows for the creation of an ESG strategy that aligns with your business strategy and goals and outlines actionable roadmaps that will improve your ESG performance over time. This process also identifies current and future ESG-related risks, ensures compliance with mandatory reporting requirements, and fosters a more resilient and responsible organisation.

Our approach to ESG strategy

Assess ESG performance & maturity: Anthesis will conduct both a current state assessment and a landscape scan to understand how your current levels of ESG performance address your stakeholders’ expectations, respond to societal and regulatory trends, and promote competitive performance. We will also analyse your ESG maturity and assess your organisation’s level of sustainability integration. The output of this phase is a clear view of your current sustainability performance and where there is room for improvement.

Define an ESG strategy: After understanding your current sustainability performance, we’ll prioritise through stakeholder engagement the ESG topics most relevant to your business performance and most valued by your stakeholders. Next, we will develop a unique strategy framework for your organisation that aligns with your overarching business objectives, focuses organisational efforts, mitigates risks, and unlocks long-term value for your organisation.

Conducting a materiality assessment is another pathway to defining a credible ESG strategy. If desired, Anthesis can adapt this stage to incorporate your existing materiality assessment results or can parallel-path a materiality assessment (including a CSRD-aligned double materiality assessment) as part of an ESG strategy engagement.

Develop actions & implementation roadmaps: Informed by your primary drivers for ESG action and performance, and your priority ESG topics, Anthesis will propose a long-list of actions to improve ESG performance over the short and medium term. Through stakeholder engagement and feedback, Anthesis will adapt these actions to suit the resourcing constraints and ambitions of your organisation. The output of this phase is a series of realistic and achievable ESG action roadmaps with clear goals and measurable targets that align with your ESG Strategy and position you to improve your ESG performance.

Define a structure for ESG governance: Prior to articulating ESG actions that address priority topics, Anthesis will partner with your team to craft a structure for ESG governance. This process will assign owners and contributors to each ESG strategy framework pillar, accountable executives for overall ESG performance, and a recommended cadence for meeting and disclosure.

Track & report progress: To enable continuous improvement beyond strategy development, Anthesis can continue as your trusted implementation partner and fractional sustainability professional. We can provide ongoing support, progress tracking, and strategy updates to meet continually changing ESG reporting landscapes and emerging challenges and opportunities.

I have worked with Anthesis for many years. They have a depth of ESG understanding and expertise, allowing real analysis and advice on the emerging issues that are becoming increasingly material to our clients. What sets them apart is their willingness and ability to apply this, together with technology solutions, to enhance the quality and speed of their reporting.

Paul Davies, Latham and Watkins, ESG

We wanted the ESG screen as we were keen to understand the definition of ESG and to see the criteria you would be using. We were also interested to see how others would view us through this lens. The Anthesis screen provided us a with a “mirror”. The value to Neste was that it confirmed we are on a right track to addressing ESG issues. It also helped us to identify some potential improvement opportunities, several of which we are working on, and others that warrant further evaluation.rn

Neste, ESG screen

Case studies

case study

Delivering Materiality and Sustainability Reporting for Guess

Objective Transition towards integrated financial and non-financial reporting. Services Double materiality assessment, refreshed sustainability strategy and full sustainability reporting. Impact Guess understood the significance of material topics and used it to inform its strategic planning process.