More than ever, consumers, employees, and investors are making decisions based on trust. They want to buy from, work for, and invest in businesses that demonstrate positive impact on people and the planet, in ways that everyone can understand and verify. To help organizations with clear target setting, automated ESG reporting, and transparent benchmarking, we are delighted to launch the OneTrust ESG & Sustainability Cloud today. With fully integrated Planetly by OneTrust technology, the OneTrust ESG & Sustainability Cloud enables businesses to build and execute their ESG and sustainability strategy with a flexible cloud-based platform. Empower your organization to automate reporting, drive change, demonstrate impact, and foster trust with key stakeholders through enhanced transparency.

Sustainability is now at the top of the corporate agenda

Organizations across every industry have faced enormous pressure in the last few years. Everything from the COVID-19 pandemic to social unrest to the climate crisis have had major business impacts. In many cases, business leaders have had to completely transform their organization to address these challenges, and this has profoundly affected the corporate agenda. The most recent IBM survey of 3,000 CEOs worldwide found that sustainability is now one of the top five important issues for CEOs, compared to being in last place in 2015. It’s no longer enough to focus inwardly on revenue and costs alone, and smart business leaders know that. In fact, eight out of ten CEOs said sustainability investments will drive better business results in the next five years. But it also means going beyond commitments to “walking the talk” because investors, employees, partners, and other stakeholders are demanding it. Nearly three quarters (72%) of CEOs reported growing demand for greater transparency around sustainability from the board, followed by demand from investors (57%), partners (49%), and regulators (49%).

How can the OneTrust ESG & Sustainability Cloud help?

The OneTrust ESG & Sustainability Cloud can help you get ahead of the curve to meet and exceed stakeholder expectations. It empowers your organization with a holistic, fully integrated platform to drive change, demonstrate impact, and build trust. Key functionalities include:

• Carbon Accounting: Calculate, understand, reduce, offset, and disclose your Scope 1 and 2 emissions, including energy consumption and mobile combustion. Build a carbon reduction plan that is in line with the latest climate science and avoid greenwashing with carbon offsets.
  
  
• ESG Program Management: Streamline ESG data collection and reporting with centralized management and action-oriented analysis. Centralize ESG data from across your organization and suppliers. Auto-populate ESG reporting frameworks and standards such as SASB, GRI, CDP, and more. Implement fully compliant ESG reporting, program management, and carbon accounting for your investment portfolio.
  
  
• Supplier Sustainability & Responsibility: Calculate and understand your Scope 3 emissions such as purchased goods and services, water and waste from your office buildings, and business travel. Build a more responsible supply chain and reduce reputational risk by assessing suppliers, tracking adherence to policies, and holding them accountable.
   
   

How The Economist Group is driving change

One example of an organization “walking the talk” is The Economist Group. Already at the leading edge of climate impact from its independent coverage of the issue, the Group wanted to weave sustainability into everything it does. This included committing to ambitious, science-based targets, as well as rigorous, transparent management and disclosure of carbon emissions. To get there, The Economist Group needed to recalculate its global carbon footprint and commit to set a science-based target in alignment with the Science-Based Target initiative (SBTi). With Planetly by OneTrust (now part of the OneTrust ESG & Sustainability Cloud), The Economist Group was able to recalculate its carbon footprint for all emissions (Scope 1-3) to serve as the SBTi base year, implement a reporting and monitoring process, and identify effective reduction measures. This included, for example, investment into renewable energy and carbon removal technologies, along with a stricter travel policy. The Group is aiming to cut carbon emissions by at least 25% by 2025. This reduction target is more ambitious than reductions required under the Paris Agreement, and the Group will track and manage progress toward it via custom dashboards for supply chain analytics, target setting, and additional KPIs.

“Planetly by OneTrust provides us with actionable insights drawn from our emissions data – allowing us to focus on strategic initiatives and climate action.”

– Emily Jackson-Kessler, SVP Sustainability, The Economist Group
 

The Trust Intelligence Platform: The big picture

We understand that building trust means addressing every issue across the E, S, and G areas for the full picture in one place. That’s why the OneTrust ESG & Sustainability Cloud is launching as part of the Trust Intelligence Platform, with four industry-leading clouds:

• The OneTrust Privacy & Data Governance Cloud helps companies adopt best-in-class privacy practices, so individuals trust them with their data, allowing them to deliver more valuable experiences and create business value through trust.
  
  
• The OneTrust GRC & Security Assurance Cloud helps companies and supply chains stay resilient in the face of continuous cyberthreats, global crises, and natural disasters—so organizations can operate with confidence.
  
  
• The OneTrust Ethics & Compliance Cloud fosters and promotes an open and safe environment for employees, maximizing insights into the health of a company’s culture, so leaders can act decisively upon areas of risk.
  
  
• The OneTrust ESG & Sustainability Cloud offers organizations the ability to define core environmental and sustainability metrics, track progress towards those goals, and foster trust with key stakeholders through enhanced transparency.

The Trust Intelligence Platform brings visibility, action, and accountability to each of the teams that manage trust within your organization. By coordinating trust activity across teams instead of managing it within siloes, you will be better equipped to “walk the talk” with all your stakeholders – investors, customers, partners, employees, regulators, and boards.

Learn more about The Trust Intelligence Platform from OneTrust.