ESG – the acronym refers to Environmental, Social and Governance and specifically a set of evolving criteria that can be referenced to, when assessing a company’s performance and effort.
ESG standards and focus have come to the fore in last few years, to guide consumers of products and services, as well as potential investors, in the affairs of an organisation, before important commercial decisions are taken.
Areas of consideration for purposes of ESG:
- Companies performing well on ESG matters tend to be more responsible, know their hazards and risks, and manage their risk to mitigate them. Thus, lessening associated exposure and subsequent loss/impact.
- Over a prolonged period of time compliant companies outperform others, as an result of entrenched systems, resulting in sustainable HSE practices backed by validated data. The amount of ‘blood’ in a product and environmental impact is significantly decreased.
- The reputation of a company is further enhanced, as it is perceived to be responsible, care for the environment, mindful when it comes to interested/ affected parties and adhere to best ESG practices.
- National, local and by-laws set standards for minimum compliance and ESG principles ensure maximising efforts to comply and report thereon.
For this reason, NOSA Auditing and Inspection Services have developed a self-evaluation list of selected requirements to assist our CMB253 NOSA Integrated Five Star (Platinum) clients on this journey. Clients will receive the list when an audit is scheduled for perusal and preparation.
It is linked with specific NOSA elements and where elements are silent on specific ESG requirements we have added them to the list. It is non-compulsory and will not affect/influence the current Star Grading outcome.
Auditors will merely confirm provided data during the normal audit as provided by auditees and indicate it as part of the executive summary for management purposes.
Kindly contact Johan Rheeder – NAIS Audit Technical Manager at johan.rheeder@safetycloud.co.za or on 083 324 0598 if in need of any clarification.
