ESG Program Development and Management

Developing an ESG Program is a long-term commitment to showing that your company cares – about the environment, about society, and about the governance required to ensure sustainable operations.  We offer holistic ESG advisory services to guide development of your internal program or address specific evaluations. We work with your staff to collect, analyze, manage, compare, and report on your data year after year. We can track regulations and identify areas to target improvement of your sustainability goals. Our advisory services can be tailored to your specific needs and topics that are material to your business.  You can evaluate TIG’s own ESG program here, and contact us today to learn how we can assist you!

Materiality Assessments

What are the specific environmental, social and governance topics that are most important to your company and your stakeholders? It’s important to take a deep dive into your business through the lens of impact to identify all topics that are material to your business. Identifying all possible topics allows you to present quantifiable data, set future goals, and evaluate your opportunities to effect positive change. We can guide you through this process from start to finish, identifying topics, conducting stakeholder outreach, designing surveys, and collecting insights to tell your ESG story in the most meaningful way.

Data Collection, Management and Visualization

Collecting and analyzing your data is an annual exercise, as is comparing your data from one year to another.  We offer holistic data management and governance services to ensure your data is secure and accessible year after year.  We also provide sophisticated visualization formats that distill your data into easily digestible graphics that allow at-a-glance interpretations of the information you want to present.

GHG Emissions Evaluations

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are divided into three scopes of descending responsibility, where Scope 1 refers to emissions directly from the source of owned or controlled assets, Scope 2 includes indirect emissions from purchased electricity, and Scope 3 covers all other indirect emissions from upstream and downstream activities. We’ve evaluated a variety of methods derived from the EPA, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, Anthesis Group, the International Energy Agency, the World Resources institute, the US Energy Information Administration, the Journal of Industrial Ecology, and we can work with your staff and your vendors to collect the necessary data and then calculate your Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.

ESG Reporting

New regulations may require ESG-related disclosures for certain companies soon. Even if you don’t have to disclose, ESG reporting is good business – a solid report showcases your company in the best light to impress stakeholders and clients, increases transparency and trust to elevate your brand, highlights how your company can be differentiated positively from your competitors, attracts and retains new talent, and increases employee engagement and improves morale by solidifying a purpose-driven culture. Reporting on your ESG metrics is a significant undertaking that requires conducting investigations and assessments, collecting, analyzing, managing, and comparing your data, reporting on the most salient topics year after year, and committing to improvement and fulfill your sustainability goals. Leverage our services to ensure your report is tailored to your business needs while highlighting your company’s commitment to consistent reporting.

Due Diligence and Benchmarking

When considering mergers and acquisitions, or entering into partnerships, it is paramount to ensure that other organizations uphold the same level of commitment to ESG as your own. We can evaluate any organization on the specific environmental, social and governance topics that are most important to your company and your stakeholders, including current and historical operations as well as their supply chain and key partners.

Gathered intelligence can help inform decision making and provide a baseline for integration to your ESG program. Our due diligence investigations provide your company with the intelligence it needs to make sound decisions when engaging in mergers and acquisitions or considering partnerships. Clients also leverage our ESG Due Diligence services for benchmarking their own programs and measuring performance against goals.

Vendor Assessment and Investigation

Supplier Responsibility requires businesses to ensure that all its vendors, suppliers and partners engage in responsible practices. Each poses risk to organizations that can affect more than an ESG score – issues and events can impact company reputation, market share and financial valuation. Managed properly, businesses can turn such potential liabilities into an advantage over their competition.

The Intelligence Group helps clients realize such opportunity, via:

• Supply Chain Risk Assessment for initial baselining, ongoing monitoring, or ESG benchmarking

• Focused VSP (vendors/suppliers/partners) investigation and Vendor Integrity Programs

• Evaluation of supply chain risks for due diligence conducted on behalf of investors, purchasers, and third parties

• Implementation of corrective actions and program support (i.e., KPI measurement, carbon emissions, etc.)

Materials and Sourcing Evaluation

The sourcing of raw materials and ingredients can pose risks to product manufacturers, and increased ESG emphasis on supply chains has resulted in tremendous focus on these issues. Manufacturers often need to understand and verify raw material attributes key to their products, such as geographic origin, composition, certifications, QA/QC claims, or the absence of residual contaminants. The risk of sourcing from protected or prohibited areas, or inadvertently making false claims about your product, can result in compliance issues, product liability, and reputational damage. The Intelligence Group helps clients understand and verify these attributes through techniques including:

• Supplier assessments and investigation

• Geographic origin investigations via advanced isotopic analytics

• Analysis of composition and monitoring for residual contaminants

• Implementation of authentication and certification systems

Risk ID and Issue Monitoring

Business risks are inherent in ongoing, legacy operations as well as new product development and introduction. Evolving regulations at federal, state, and local levels, layered with market trends driven by consumer preference and ESG influences, create a shifting paradigm. Businesses that anticipate, monitor, and prepare can leverage such changes to their advantage. The Intelligence Group helps businesses anticipate these potential impacts, analyze risks, and monitor for change over the long term. 

We assist clients with:

• Live intelligence to monitor regulatory and marketplace issues

• Client-facing dashboards to navigate and manage jurisdictional regulations and requirements

• Monitoring industry-specific issues, such as emerging contaminants, geographic prohibitions, etc.

Consumer Product Use and Waste Management

Extended Producer Responsibility, which shifts responsibility to manufacturers for post-consumer management of its products and packaging is a significant agent of change in this new era of ESG and Stewardship. Consumer use and recyclability of products and packaging are now major strategic issues for manufacturers, and influence consumer preference, product sales, and market share. The Intelligence Group designs and implements solutions that allow clients to evaluate and monitor product impacts and use, as well as post-use disposition of products, packaging, and related waste streams. 

Clients in industries such as agrichemicals, electronics, food, and durable goods rely on us for assistance with:

• Evaluation, monitoring and investigation of product use relative to manufacturer’s specifications

• Carry-through or legacy impacts of product use on environmental receptors and other third parties

• Product liability and toxic tort investigation

• Waste management investigations and vendor audits/assessments

Incident Response and Investigation

Regardless of how proactively you manage risk, you need to be prepared to respond. How a business responds to an issue can be critical from a regulatory, reputational and governance perspective. Successful outcomes result from thorough investigation of incident causation, and implementation of corrective actions to prevent recurrence. The Intelligence Group has extensive hands-on experience responding to and investigating incidents of all types, and helps businesses implement the appropriate controls and monitoring solutions to minimize the threat of recurrence. 

Our clients partner with us manage risk and respond to issues, including:

• Compliance excursions, accidents, and releases

• Product tampering and supply chain contamination issues

• Fraud, theft, IT breaches and IP loss

• Product liability claims