Housing Associations are paving the way for other sectors with their ESG efforts, but the task of ESG shouldn’t just fall on one ESG manager. ESG needs to be integrated into everyone’s day-to-day task management and governance processes. Here are our helpful tips on how this can be achieved simply and seamlessly.

How To Incorporate ESG Into Your Governance Processes:

1) Set Your ESG Metrics:

The first step is to consider which metrics are of high-priority to your Housing Association. The Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing (SRS) outlines the environmental, social and governance issues for the housing sector, allowing you to hone in your attention on those metrics. 

There are also alternatives such as the TCFD, GRI or Ritterwald Label to help you access ESG funding. Whatever you choose, it is likely that part of your ESG governance will require you to publish ESG reports.

2) Set Out An ESG Plan:

The main requirement in any successful project is a plan. Outline what you want to achieve; most providers will detail the steps you should follow to achieve an ESG rating, label or standard. It is also important to consider what asset management you will need to prepare for this project.

Once you know how you want to proceed, the next stage is assigning roles. 

3) Assign Tasks:

If you want ESG to become a core value for all your colleagues, then they need to be involved! From your Board of Directors to your supply chains, everyone should know the long term financial performance risks and opportunities that are associated with ESG investing. 

To improve your ESG performance, then you should assign targets and metrics to the appropriate people. Ensure that everyone is aware of the long-term goals, and is reporting on their own efforts to achieve said targets. 

With Convene ESG, you can also assign sections of the ESG report to different people. This makes producing an ESG report a collaborative effort, thus entrenching those core ESG values further into your day-to-day governance practices. 

4) Publish Regular Reports:

Reporting internally and externally on your progress is essential in maintaining good governance practices. You want to see check up on potential areas of concern quickly, and being able to track your targets is key.

Convene ESG enables you to see if you are on track for both your long and short term goals, and publish reports with just the click of a button. Being able to report regularly to your Board of Directors on ESG matters 

5) Benchmark Against Your Peers:

There are two main reasons as to why benchmarking against your peers is essential to good ESG governance. Firstly, it ensures that it is something you are constantly improving. You can see their best practices and match them. It ensures collaboration across the sector, improving living and working standards for all. 

Secondly, it propels the Housing Industry forward. If targets are reached, they can be improved! Sustainability is important long-term for your tenants and the planet as a whole. But ESG is more than just the environment, focusing on the S and G can better society and improve your employee’s morale too!

Convene ESG’s built-in benchmarking capabilities can streamline this process for you, as we automatically collect data for all Housing Association’s published SRS reports. So, you can see how your organisation compares against your local area, competitor or the national standard in any and all metrics. 

How Can Convene ESG Help You?

Convene, working with our vast number of Housing Industry clients, have developed a new software tool, Convene ESG to help you produce the best ESG and SRS reports possible. By simplifying and automating much of the process, you can be sure that your ESG report building runs smoothly, so you can focus on developing your sustainable strategies. 

With Convene ESG, you can develop a collaborative workflow, assigning certain sections of the ESG or SRS report to the required people. Once all the sections are filled in, Convene ESG will produce a formatted Word Document or spreadsheet ready for you to publish! 

Convene ESG also has a built-in comparison feature, which allows you to compare against competitors' formatting of their publicly accessible reports, and their results! This will help the whole of the housing sector develop the best reports possible!

As a software provider already trusted by 100s of housing organisations, including Orbit Housing, you can trust us to provide you with dedicated service.

If you’d like to learn more, you can read about our early adopters here, or contact us for a free demo. Also keep an eye on our LinkedIn as we will be scheduling more free webinars soon!