Sustainability Roundtable Inc

The Sustainable Business & Enterprise Roundtable (SBER) is a strategic advisory and support service for sustainability leadership and decarbonization assistance. The SBER helps management teams set goals, drive progress, and report results as they lead their organizations towards sustainability leadership and decarbonization globally.

Our SBER business service identifies opportunities for efficient improvement and visionary leadership. SBER’s services include an annual, confidential Member Advisory Plan (MAP) outlining impactful corporate sustainability action items related to SR Inc’s annual research charter that each Member-Client company modifies, approves, and implements each year with the help of SR Inc. The SR Inc SBER team includes account-dedicated Senior Experts and Analysts, who collaborate to perform against each Member-Client’s SBER MAP in a manner similar to a conventional scope of work. This enables SR Inc to remain exclusively focused on delivering the assistance each Member-Client needs to move to take on a leadership role in the corporate sustainability landscape.

SR Inc’s account dedicated expert teams help companies develop and drive world-class sustainability strategies quarter over quarter and year over year.   SR Inc’s comprehensive and industry leading strategic advisory services are complimented by direct assistance in all facets of corporate sustainability including:

ESG Vision Statement: Vision statements serve an integral purpose, both internally and externally. Well-constructed vision statements provide a guidepost for an internal sustainability team, helping to concentrate action and decision-making around established priorities. Communicating a clear vision engages stakeholders and potential clients alike in your journey toward sustainable value creation. SR Inc supports Member-Clients in creating internal and external vision statements aligned with your company’s purpose and ESG strategy.

ESG Committee: A necessary prerequisite for meaningful sustainability programming is meaningful buy-in from the C-suite and Board. SR Inc equips Member-Clients with best practice guidance and ongoing support on developing and advancing an ESG Committee or other governance mechanism reporting to the Board to drive material sustainability and decarbonization initiatives throughout the company’s value chain.

Sustainability Staffing & Budgeting: Sustainability functions can look very different across corporations, depending on the company size, budget, and desired scope of initiatives. SR Inc helps to develop and advance a tailored staffing structure and budgeting model for internal ESG Governance.

Sustainability Policies: Building upon your company’s vision statement, a comprehensive plan for corporation-wide sustainability is the best way to organize tangible action. SR Inc helps Member-Clients develop a primary sustainability policy – while integrating existing policies – formulated upon a materiality assessment and tied to each operational function to monitor compliance.

Materiality Assessment: Materiality assessments are the foundation of a company’s ESG strategy, identifying which ESG-related topics (i.e. Climate Risk & Resilience, Community Engagement & Development, Human Rights) are most relevant. SR Inc often serves as the project manager for the development of our Member-Clients’ ESG Materiality Assessments aligned with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), indicating the degree to which ESG items are important to a company’s key stakeholders and where the company can make the most impact on society. Additionally, SR Inc continues to monitor developments in double materiality as CSRD comes into effect.

Environmental Goals: Once material topics have been established, SR Inc provides case-based advisory tools to advise & chart pathways on environmental goals & targets for material aspects — including energy, emissions, supply chain, waste, and water. SR Inc’s guidance and tools align with best practice and relevant industry standards, including the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi), while drawing on the sustainability performance of industry-specific peers.

Corporate Leadership Benchmarking: Recognizing the importance of identifying key, industry-specific corporate sustainability leaders, SR Inc provides a comprehensive assessment & analysis of your company’s sustainability and decarbonization performance by comparing it to global sustainability leaders and industry peers, enabling your company to make informed decisions, set ambitious goals, and drive towards leadership.

Multi-year Implementation Roadmap: Sustainable progress is both incremental and time-sensitive. With this in mind, SR Inc often develops a tailored multi-year roadmap for Member-Clients, detailing stepwise guidance towards decarbonization & global corporate sustainability leadership.

Performance Dashboard: Establishing a comprehensive understanding of sustainability performance requires an effective system for metrics tracking. SR Inc supports Member-Clients in developing a performance dashboard, tracking selected key metrics in driving towards goals relating to energy, emissions, supply chain, waste, water, and beyond.

Stakeholder Engagement Plan: Stakeholder engagement is necessary to ground a corporation’s action plan in the overall sustainability goals of its community, as well as to align with suppliers, consumers, and investors in striving for shared purpose. SR Inc often works to establish and implement a stakeholder engagement plan, including timing and resources for outreach, to ramp up meaningful stakeholder inclusion.

GHG Footprinting: GHG footprinting is the starting point for setting corporate climate goals. SR Inc can assist in data collection for GHG emissions across all scopes (1, 2, & 3), as well as baselining and footprinting needs.

Align with Global Standard Setters: There are a number of organizations that set standards for climate goals and disclosures. SR Inc integrates these requirements into best practice Member Briefing and Advisory deliverables, covering Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the CDP, the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and many more.

Update Internal Metrics: SR Inc can provide assistance with developing or updating internal metrics for ESG high-performance as corporations work towards their larger goals. This service focuses especially on decarbonization across Scopes 1, 2 & 3 globally.

Sustainability Software Solutions: There are a number of software options to support ESG efforts, and SR Inc provides recommendations for ESG data collection, reporting, and surveying software solutions based on performed cost and function benchmarking assessments.

Renewable Energy Strategy & Procurement: SBER Member-Clients are entitled to renewable energy transaction and procurement assistance through SR Inc’s Net Zero Consortium for Buyers (NZCB), a confidential buyers’ community and a leading transaction platform committed to creating corporate buyer favorable renewable energy transactions that enable participating enterprises to chart a cost-effective path to Net Zero Emissions globally.

Scope 1, 2, & 3 Solutions: As best practices for achieving emissions reductions across Scope 1, 2 & 3 continue to evolve, SR Inc provides up-to-date, case-based tools which support achieving a credible Net Zero Emissions path for each scope, including:

An assessment of current and planned solutions that will impact Scope 1, 2, & 3 footprints and quantifications of impact and timing

An overview of potential solutions across Scopes 1, 2, & 3:

◦ Scope 1: Emphasis on energy efficiency and technologies to avoid burning fossil fuels (e.g., electrification)

◦ Scope 2: Review all options globally and provide procurement support

◦ Scope 3: Emphasis on supplier/customer baselining, supplier engagement program, supplier and/ or customer aggregated procurements and new renewable energy REC deployment to suppliers through appropriate attestation process. Also includes efforts to reduce employee commuting, work from home, business travel, and waste emissions

Industry Reporting Frameworks & Standards: Transparency on emissions reductions and other corporate sustainability initiatives demonstrates climate leadership and builds trust with stakeholders. SR Inc creates best practice guidance for corporations developing an ESG reporting strategy and provides direct implementation support on reporting to industry standards and frameworks, such as CDP, CSRD, EcoVadis, GRESB, GRI, IFRS S1 & S2, SASB, and TCFD.

CDP Climate Assistance: CDP reporting is a strong focus of SBER services. SR Inc can provide direct assistance with CDP Climate reporting, with the express intention of increasing scores year over year. Assistance can include helping collect data and calculating Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions, drafting & revising qualitative responses, and providing best practice guidance on third party assurance.

Mandatory Reporting: Provide best practice guidance, including recommended action plans on how to best prepare and comply with the U.S. SEC Climate Disclosure Rule, the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 (ISSB), and California’s climate reporting disclosure rules.

Sustainably Healthy Workplaces Results Report: SR Inc can formulate a Sustainably Healthy Workplaces (SHW) Report to reflect and share about your company’s environmental workplace success, progress, and case studies. SR Inc has advised on integrating SHW strategies into governance, enterprise-wide strategy, cost-benefit analyses, tools & assessments, and results tracking & reporting.

Members Benefit From:

SBER Diagnostic: SR Inc leverages a proprietary diagnostic tool to interview executives to confidentially ascertain current and desired future state in the move to greater sustainability.

SBER Assessment: Based on the SBER Diagnostic, SR Inc provides a confidential SBER benchmarking Assessment which benchmarks each company against other SBER Member-Clients, cohorts, industry leaders.

Member Advisory Plan (MAP): Based on SR Inc’s Diagnostic and Assessment and centered on our annual research charter, SR Inc develops a customized Member Advisory Plan (MAP) that is modified and approved by the client focusing all SR Inc work on client needs in driving toward decarbonization and greater sustainability.

Expert Advisory Services: SR Inc provides direct, one-on-one assistance to implement the MAP items with each Member-Client.

Member-Client Digital Library: Member-Clients receive access to our cloud-based Digital Library comprised of hundreds of management best practice guidance publications & tools on a diverse range of topics, including sustainability, decarbonization, renewable energy, reporting frameworks, and others.

Quarterly Executive Symposia & Annual Summit: SR Inc hosts quarterly in-person and virtual symposia, as well as an annual Summit for Sustainable Business, to present and advance SR Inc’s best practice guidance & tools, network, and explore best practice examples from Member-Client executives.

Promotion & Networking: SR Inc Member-Clients enjoy the networking benefit of industry professionals who share both remarkable expertise and a passion for more sustainable business. SR Inc Member-Clients are also regularly promoted for their leadership through SR Inc’s public relations and event-related communications, including through the presentation of awards for Outstanding Corporate Leadership, Executive Leadership, & Corporate Transformation.