It was very enlightening to collaborate with Ludo VAN DER HEYDEN on our working paper: The Need for Impact Transparency and Standardization in Sustainability Measurement

The ESG framework has become a cornerstone of modern investment. Despite its widespread adoption, the current application of ESG often fails to provide meaningful clarity or effective sustainability guidance. Our paper critiques ESG’s conflation of governance (G) with environmental (E) and social (S) impacts, which undermines its utility as a tool for measuring corporate sustainability. We propose an alternative approach that separates governance from impact metrics, advocating measurements in three critical areas: greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, living wages, and biodiversity. These metrics offer a more accurate reflection of a company’s environmental and social impact. By adopting this impact-based approach, companies, stakeholders, and investors will have clearer, more reliable data to assess progress, enabling more informed decision-making in the transition to a sustainable economy.

This book presents discussions with corporate practitioners on several topics around sustainability.

Between May 2019 and November 2022, the author engaged in dialogues with Senior Executives representing major multinational corporations, overseeing their corporate sustainability endeavours. The thematic spectrum of these conversations encompassed diverse topics such as The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Water‐stressed regions, Ocean Plastic, Chemical Recycling, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Tourism, and the Just Transition, among others, with each episode concentrating on a singular subject.

In this book supporting illustrations and graphs together with background references enrich the insights the conversations convey. The reader will learn about the sustainability challenges companies are facing and how they approach them. The book gives examples of sustainable solutions and international collaborations around greenhouse gas reduction, circular economy, restorative tourism as well as reducing plastic pollution and other global sustainability challenges.