GIST Impact CEO Pavan Sukhdev and Edelman Smithfield Head of ESG Advisory Lane Jost discussed the topic of “Local Compliance, Global Success: Upgrading Sustainability Strategies with the CSRD“.

The wide-ranging discussion delivered crucial insights across key topics, including:

The rise of the impact economy

• The growing government and stakeholder pressure to measure ‘inside-out’ risks (impact materiality), not just ‘outside-in’ (financial materiality).
• The CSRD as the needed ‘execution framework’ for the long-lived idea of double materiality.
• The importance of impact materiality across other frameworks such as the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

The alignment between corporate and financial services stakeholders

• Impact economics as emblematic of the evolution of information economics for investors, as evidenced by the wide adoption of sustainability data in portfolio construction and management.
• The strategic importance of the CSRD for issuers both public and private, and the operational changes required for implementation.
• The transition from “impact investing” to “investment impact” by mainstream financial institutions that seek to assess the value of their externalities and future-proof their long-term investments.

The practicalities of undertaking the CSRD

• The importance of a data-driven approach to combat claims of greenwashing.
• The importance of engaging with diverse stakeholders to assess the business context, set internal direction, begin robust dialogue with the board and produce compliant reports.
• The shared goals of audit-ready reporting and powerful storytelling to internal and external stakeholders.