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NAT.A02.ED Accountability for Sustainable Strategy Evidence
Does the company provide evidence that its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company's most material sustainability topics?
18113508
Researched

About the data

This metric was designed by The World Benchmarking Alliance, more information can be found here. Sources and Alignments for each indicator can be found here as well as the scoring guidelines here

The World Benchmarking Alliance's Nature Benchmark measures and ranks the world's most influential companies on their efforts to protect our environment and its biodiversity.

This metric relates to the Indicator: The company has a governance system that includes highest level responsibility and accountability for its sustainability objectives and targets. Senior executive members have incentives to reward the effective delivery of relevant company strategies and initiatives.

Rationale: Linking sustainable development objectives and targets to roles and remuneration is important to ensure the accountability of the company in relation to its contribution to sustainable development objectives and targets. Ensuring capability within decision-making bodies further indicates a company's commitment to transitioning to a sustainable future.

WBA analysed all publicly available group-level disclosure in English on the applicable group website, which was predominantly annual reports and sustainability reports. Draft assessments were then sent to each company inviting them to provide feedback. This feedback could include additional publicly available group disclosure published. These were then reviewed and finalised. Final assessments were then shared with each company before being published online.

For this metric The expertise of the highest governance body must cover both nature and social aspects. The expertise must explicitly mention one of the following: academic or professional training, former experiences in specialized organizations, or proven technical knowledge. The conditions for this element can also be met in instances where companies describe that the highest governance body has direct access to expertise, such as a specialised committee composed of external experts for which a board member is the chairperson. In these cases it must be specified what the scope of the committee is and how often it meets.

Keywords: Competency matrix, board expertise, board biography

Value Type
Category
Options
Yes
No
Not Applicable
Research Policy
Designer Assessed
Report Type
Aggregate Data Report