Compliance With Sustainability Reporting: Lessons Learned

Compliance with US and EU reporting requirements was discussed at length at a recent WSJ Pro Business Sustainability Forum. High level executives of many major US companies, consultants, and academics offered their various opinions on the challenges of ESG reporting and how best to navigate a dynamic landscape.

Our Sugaright Sustainability Team had the opportunity to engage and learn at this premier event.

What is driving this initiative?

New compliance requirements from the EU, CA and proposed US reporting rules are here or coming soon.

These requirements appear to impact mostly large, publicly traded companies, but due to our interconnected food industry, and Scope 3 GHG emissions reporting, smaller suppliers become part of the larger story.

How can “reporting” be a tool to create long-term benefits for the food industry and the global community? Does it really matter?

The WSJ speakers did not avoid the sticky topic of how the term “ESG” has become politicized and many recommended changing the “language”.

They encouraged the attendees to wed climate change with the more familiar practice of risk management.

One speaker spoke about how regulation has always been a tool for well managed transformation and innovation. Regulations keep us all moving in the same direction, they keep everyone playing by the same rules, and they often work to identify problems that need solutions.

In conclusion, systematic risk requires a systematic response. And the attendees were reminded that the ultimate goal of these initiatives is not to transform reporting, but to improve impacts and reduce risk.

At Sugaright, we couldn’t agree more. And it was inspiring to share successes and challenges with other companies to learn and to collaborate, and to share our story of innovation.

Though we are good stewards of weekly energy and water, by “changing the way the industry thinks about sugar” we have changed the “system” to be more sustainable in every way.

Sustainability is a journey and Sugaright remains committed to engaging with reporting platforms to reduce risk and optimize impact for the food industry and all of its stakeholders.