Environmental, social and governance (ESG) services

Aligning value with values

It’s not an exaggeration to say ESG is driving a complete reframe of how we conceptualize value. When we step away from the premise that success is based largely on financial measures, everything is upended.

ESG is a new way to think. Financial value and ethical values are now coming together in unprecedented ways—success is no longer simply about financials, disclosures, climate change or diversity. It’s about aligning and embedding all of these principles, and more, into your strategy, capital allocation and operations to know you’re prepared for the world of tomorrow.

ESG will drive the next wave of transformation

We’re in the throes of major global shifts, including technological disruption, climate change, fractured geopolitics, social tension and the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While we’ve already seen some of the polarized effects of these shifts, ESG will only amplify the differences between organizations ready to move into the future and those holding on to the past.

There’s never been a more important time to build trust to connect your organization, your people, your customers, your stakeholders and the world. But to sustain outcomes and continue making a difference, organizations will need to make sure they’re aligning value with values.

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Define your ESG ambition

Our vision is to empower leaders and organizations to define their ESG story and stay true to it. We bring together a passionate community of solvers from strategy, tax, deals, legal, people, assurance, reporting, data and tech to help you incorporate ESG principles into everything you do.

Whatever the starting point is for your ESG journey, it will result in changes to all the dimensions of your business, including overall strategy, transformation and reporting for transparency.

How do you get there from here? Is now the right time to invest? You need a coherent approach, and that’s where we come in.

How we can help

To create impact through ESG, you’ll need to build a clear, practical plan that will appeal to both your stakeholders and your shareholders. People and technology will need to work together so you can see more and act faster to make ESG-driven changes to your operations, value chain and entire organization. Those organizations that are able to perform in terms of ESG are already outpacing underperformers when it comes to customer retention, cost of capital and overall market reputation.

Integrating corporate and ESG strategies
Responsible investment and financing
Net-zero/climate strategy
ESG and tax strategy

Integrating corporate and ESG strategies

Organizations that are outperforming their peers use rigour and evidence to identify the greatest risks and opportunities in both enterprise value and ESG performance. This allows them to provide confidence to investors, customers, employees, boards and regulators on their impact and show how their strategy supports sustained outcomes and long-term value for all stakeholders. We help organizations understand and prioritize the activities that will have the biggest ESG and enterprise impact using measures of materiality and ROI, and we help them develop a realistic roadmap to achieve those outcomes.

Responsible investment and financing

As investors, lenders and corporates look to incorporate ESG factors in all their investment decisions, organizations need to assess how to deploy capital sustainably and support the transition of already-owned assets. We help organizations address ESG factors along the deal continuum, starting with deal strategy to define a coherent vision by establishing a carbon baseline and decarbonization plan; deal execution pre- and post-investment to assess risks, opportunities and impacts; value creation portfolio optimization by creating roadmaps and tracking progress; and transaction readiness for IPO or divestiture by defining financial and non-financial metrics.

Net-zero/climate strategy

Organizations face a challenging set of demands from their stakeholders to show tangible progress towards net zero. They also face threats in the transition to a low-carbon economy and from the physical impacts of climate change. A climate strategy can help organizations quantify their emissions, understand the risks and opportunities from climate change and build a roadmap to resilience within a changing global economy. Tools like our PwC Climate Excellence and Physical Climate Analytics help analyze how financial performance could be impacted under various climate scenarios and show organizations how to strategically position themselves within a low-carbon economy value chain.

ESG and tax strategy

The requirements and expectations around both the fair share of tax and transparency are an integral part of the ESG discussion. But navigating new and proposed tax rules to the best advantage can be complex. The solution is in building a global tax strategy and internal tax governance structure that reflect new and anticipated legislative and policy developments and then aligning them with the company’s overall ESG journey and code of conduct.

The world is ready for you to make a difference. Future success will be determined by how well your business prepares for and adapts to the realities of a highly dynamic world. Transformation will be key: operational, cultural and financial changes will be crucial to deliver long-term value. Make the right changes at the right time to empower your organization to continuously innovate internally and lead change externally.

Net-zero pathways capital projects
Sustainable supply chain
Workforce strategies

Net-zero pathways capital projects

The transition to a climate-resilient, low-carbon global economy rests on significant investment in new capital projects and extensive retrofitting of existing infrastructure. Bringing these projects to reality requires a principles-driven methodology focused on the tactical and strategic imperatives of each unique project. Those organizations that grasp such a methodology will find themselves at the vanguard of what in many cases will be a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

Sustainable supply chain

Organizations need to be accountable for impact along their supply chain: scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 emissions are the result of activities from assets not owned or controlled by the reporting organization, but that the organization indirectly impacts in its value chain. Embarking on a sustainable supply chain journey starts with identifying who the subcontractors may be behind the direct first-tier suppliers and understanding more broadly their business (e.g. ownership, governance structure) and operational practices (e.g. environmental footprint, labour policy).

Workforce strategies

Between the rise of automation and the impacts of COVID-19 on tech-enabled and agile environments, companies keep coming up short: many of their people don’t have the skills they need. To act quickly, organizations should identify the skills gaps and mismatches, where to start and what to prioritize. That will allow them to build strategic plans, using culture as the bedrock of their upskilling efforts and key behavioural economics principles to deliver the right learning experience.

Get the trusted information you need to make sound decisions. Use proven tactics and smarter technologies to identify, measure and hold your business accountable to ESG requirements. Take a proactive approach to proving your commitment, to employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers and other stakeholders, using the right data, metrics and disclosures. Future reporting won’t just be about financials—it will also be about measures like people insights, intellectual capital, and social and environmental impacts.

Assurance of reporting
Tax compliance and assessment
Climate risk scenario modelling
ESG reporting strategy and implementation

Assurance of reporting

Stakeholders across the business spectrum see ESG reporting and metrics as important indicators of an organization’s overall health and impact. Through our Assurance services, we strengthen the trust and transparency of ESG reporting and deliver confidence to stakeholders that information is robust.

Tax compliance and assessment

As the market moves towards ESG reporting becoming mandatory, increased attention will be paid to tax behaviour and reporting as part of these overall metrics. Our Tax team helps organizations understand the current tax transparency and tax reporting landscape and anticipate future changes on an industry-specific basis. We help organizations identify gaps between their current reporting and the tax reporting standards to improve tax reporting practices and strategies, review existing processes and risk management procedures to assess effectiveness and develop a strong tax control framework and adjust to changing requirements.

Climate risk scenario modelling

The impact of climate change on a given industry, business or economy is uncertain, and it can vary significantly depending on whether—or how quickly—the world decarbonizes. That’s why leading institutions such as the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) recommend organizations leverage climate risk scenario modelling to stress test their businesses or investments. Enabled by tools such as PwC’s Climate Excellence and PwC’s Physical Climate Analytics, climate risk scenario modelling is a fundamental building block in developing and implementing an effective climate strategy.

ESG reporting strategy and implementation

Many companies have developed ad hoc sustainability reports that are disconnected from their other external reporting, but as regulatory requirements evolve, companies will need to improve their stakeholder messaging so it’s fully integrated. To achieve this will require, among other things: a clearly defined ESG strategy, a governance and reporting framework, a risk and opportunities analysis, a materiality assessment, a KPI evaluation and new technologies or software to capture, process and report data.

Setting you up to excel means making sure you can access the right data through ESG tools and technology that make it easier and more efficient for everyone to focus on targets that will drive value and results—in your ESG journey and in your operations. It means turning your data and external information into valuable insights across your entire value chain. Empower your organization to make better decisions and deliver superior financial returns to investors, as well as build value for customers, employees, suppliers and society.

ESG Pulse
ESG reporting and analytics solutions
Employee Footprint Calculator

ESG Pulse

Canadian organizations need to improve their ESG reporting process to be able to tell their full ESG story to the capital market with confidence. ESG Pulse is a PwC-developed online tool that offers hundreds of metrics based on the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s (SASB’s) and the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) standards. This interactive and diagnostic survey tool helps organizations assess maturity, reduce potential risks, recalibrate efforts using deeper insights and benchmark against peers.

ESG reporting and analytics solutions

Organizations need to have a strong story about their ESG activities, but that story needs to be supported by robust reporting based on trusted data. Companies have a variety of choices about how to meet their ESG reporting needs using technology. Enterprise software providers like Microsoft, Salesforce and SAP are providing ESG reporting modules or platforms, and there are also several niche ESG reporting solutions available. We help organizations navigate the tool options, understand the ESG data needed and implement those tools so they can tell their story in an efficient and repeatable way.

Employee Footprint Calculator

Environmental Footprint Insights enables both management and employees to plan and execute projects more sustainably by forecasting and tracking the carbon footprint caused by their mobility. The software solution is just a starting point to an organization’s transformation journey. To empower employees, organizations must take a closer look at the business (reviewing processes and policies), technology (providing user-friendly and relevant tools) and experience perspectives (changing behaviour of employees and leadership).

“ESG represents real opportunities and risks for all organizations, regardless of corporate structure, sector, customer base or what your balance sheet looks like. Whether you're focused on risk, value or wealth preservation or a growth lens - how well you integrate sustainabilty and ESG is going to determine your future.”

—Shelley Gilberg, National ESG Platform Leader, PwC Canada

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